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40 Questions
40 Questions About the Trinity
- GenresTheology
296 pages, Paperback
Published September 30, 2025
About the author
Matthew Y. Emerson
11 books22 followersMatthew Y. Emerson (PhD, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) is associate professor of religion at Oklahoma Baptist University. He is the author of The Story of Scripture: An Introduction to Biblical Theology, Between the Cross and the Throne: The Book of Revelation, and Christ and the New Creation: A Canonical Approach to the Theology of the New Testament.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 22, 2026
Overall: theologically solid systematic book that isn't great to read cover-to-cover, and sometimes feels a bit lacking in the answers.
The good:
- This would be a great book to assign certain questions to a class to have them read, or to have on your shelf to reference from time to time
- Theologically super solid. You can tell the authors are very careful
- Interesting information about the trinity
- The authors care about you as a reader growing in the knowledge of God, but more importantly about formation of your Christian life through this knowledge. Every chapter has reflections questions to immediately think about
The bad:
- EXTREMELY repetitive. I can't count how many times I heard the phrase "actions, adoration, attributes, and appellations" (or similar) throughout the book. (But maybe that's good because I remember it? You decide). Even the reflections questions were repeated across multiple chapters!
- Sometimes, in an effort to avoid saying any heresy (it seems), the authors don't even answer the question that the chapter is titled after. For instance, I don't feel they gave even an attempted answer to "How can God be three in persons", they more answered "Why do we say God is three in persons?" which I think is less interesting (and maybe was answered before, I can't recall right now).
- Nitpick, but there are typos and other mistakes (conversatio instead of conversation, a ".." at the end of a sentence, etc)
The good:
- This would be a great book to assign certain questions to a class to have them read, or to have on your shelf to reference from time to time
- Theologically super solid. You can tell the authors are very careful
- Interesting information about the trinity
- The authors care about you as a reader growing in the knowledge of God, but more importantly about formation of your Christian life through this knowledge. Every chapter has reflections questions to immediately think about
The bad:
- EXTREMELY repetitive. I can't count how many times I heard the phrase "actions, adoration, attributes, and appellations" (or similar) throughout the book. (But maybe that's good because I remember it? You decide). Even the reflections questions were repeated across multiple chapters!
- Sometimes, in an effort to avoid saying any heresy (it seems), the authors don't even answer the question that the chapter is titled after. For instance, I don't feel they gave even an attempted answer to "How can God be three in persons", they more answered "Why do we say God is three in persons?" which I think is less interesting (and maybe was answered before, I can't recall right now).
- Nitpick, but there are typos and other mistakes (conversatio instead of conversation, a ".." at the end of a sentence, etc)
May 18, 2026
So good; probably one of my new favorite books on the Trinity—I loved it!
Read
November 25, 2025Admittedly just read the historical overview for the most part, but helpful!
June 13, 2026
Emerson and Stamps introduce the doctrine of the Trinity, trace its roots in Scripture and development throughout church history (with a focus on the 2nd-4th centuries CE), and conclude with arguing for their understanding of the doctrine and its relation to other contemporary views of the Trinity.
Although the book is an introduction to the doctrine, readers must navigate a slew of technical terms like "essence", "appropriation", "perichoresis", and "eternal generation", examples of the "Trinitarian grammar" developed by the early church fathers to explain the biblical data. The question and answer format lends itself better to reading selectively, rather than cover to cover. However, readers will often find themselves flipping to other questions to define terms. And the authors repeat certain points ad nauseum, like how the eternal generation of the Son does not imply his submission to the Father, nor diminish his divine nature, nor imply his contingency.
For an introduction to and defense of classical Trinitarian theology, I would commend this book to pastors, students, and academically minded laypeople. For help explaining the Trinity and its implications to your friends or parishioners, prepare to simplify or look elsewhere.
Although the book is an introduction to the doctrine, readers must navigate a slew of technical terms like "essence", "appropriation", "perichoresis", and "eternal generation", examples of the "Trinitarian grammar" developed by the early church fathers to explain the biblical data. The question and answer format lends itself better to reading selectively, rather than cover to cover. However, readers will often find themselves flipping to other questions to define terms. And the authors repeat certain points ad nauseum, like how the eternal generation of the Son does not imply his submission to the Father, nor diminish his divine nature, nor imply his contingency.
For an introduction to and defense of classical Trinitarian theology, I would commend this book to pastors, students, and academically minded laypeople. For help explaining the Trinity and its implications to your friends or parishioners, prepare to simplify or look elsewhere.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews