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The Doctrine of the Trinity: God's Being Is in Becoming
Hardcover, no dust jacket. Previous owner's name penned on ffep. Limited red pen underlining. Wear on all edges of text. Cover slightly worn on corners. Else good
- GenresTheology
110 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1965
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About the author
Eberhard Jüngel
79 books13 followersEberhard Jüngel is a German Lutheran theologian. He is also Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology and the Philosophy of Religion at the Faculty of Evangelical Theology of the University of Tübingen.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 4, 2023
This might be the most helpful piece of systematic theology that I’ve read in some time. It’s short, but that means every line packs a punch. A must read for those concerned with doctrines of revelation and God.
“God’s being hidden and God’s being revealed is, as relational being, a being in the power of becoming.”
“God’s being hidden and God’s being revealed is, as relational being, a being in the power of becoming.”
May 22, 2012
According to John Webster, Jungel has some major preoccupations other than the exposition of Barth's Trinitarian topics (such as preichoresis, appropriation as a hermeneutical process, and the inseparability of God's essence and work).
This is not about the concrete examination of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, either.
Indeed, Jungel's major concern is about the philosophical/ontological problem of Christian doctrine ( the Christian faith in its dogmatic particularity).
Jungel identifies the problem as resultant from questionable metaphysical presuppositions under which the Church used to speak about God.
Namely, can God be talked about objectively like we talk about a thing? As the late Barthian dogmatician Helmut Gollwitzer sees an over-emphasis on the non-objectifiable character of God prevalent within the Bultmmanian school of demythologizing (existentialism, idealism/anti-realism, and subjectivism) as dangerous, so Barth himself is adamant about the objectivity of God.
Joining their effort, Jungel also attempts a critical/post-critical realism in talking about "God in and for Himself".
Alternativey speaking, Barthian thinks "we must speak of God", whereas Bultmannian asks, "what dose it mean to speak of God?"
In Jungel's opinion, he finds Gollwitzer's is right. But Gollwitzer drives the notion of "God in and for Himself" too deep that it becomes an abstraction/metaphysical speculation. As a result, the radical historicity of God in identification with Jesus Christ is relegated to a mere function of God's will (rather than God's essential being).
Such as a concern leads Jungel to recast the all-important insight (along with later Barth) that God is the event of his radical historical presence in Jesus Christ. To spell this out requires mathematics of the triune God and a theological ontology of divine 'becoming' which is directed by that dogmatics. This is what Jungel in this book seeks to apply.
It involves the following steps/thematic expositions:
1) language: How can human language 'predicate' God?
Barth is unease with the idea that human language by itself is capable of speaking of God; it needs to be 'commandeered' by revelation, for language is an interpretation of Revelation, which is free, dynamic, and integral and cannot be 'captured' by language.
In other words, God is the speaker of revelation, human the interpreter.
2) revelation: God's-self interpretation
The event of divine communication- its inception, enactment, and its effectuation [in time]- is a free divine activity whereby God's whole being is united and made known.
3) The unity of God's being
The basic principle of God's self-correspondence means that the being of God is relationally structured in a set of order of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The doctrine of perichoresis allows us to understand the unity of God as an event of the mutual interpenetration of the divine three modes of being. And the doctrine of appropriation in enables theologically coherent talk about the three persons in majors roles such as the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Reconciler.
4) Christology
The union of divinity and humanity in Jesus Christ has an anthropological significance in that it brings our existence into a definite relation with God. Jungel thinks that for Barth, there is an analogical relation of theology and anthropology (whereas Bultmann dissolutes theology into anthropology).
5) The election
Jungel links the above points made with the doctrine of election, which should be drawn back to God's own being as His self-election, rather than being relegated to the human scope (as traditionally it was) of God's saving work of souls.
This means that God elects Himself in eternity to be the relation to us through Christ- who is the man Jesus, the Second Adam and the Head of human beings.
Webster's translation is superb and does not stop you from reading this book pages after pages.
Jungel is also an excellent writer. In Webster's words, his writing on Barth "is interpretation of the highest order", with "a keen eye for the details of Barth's thought, as well as a clear appreciation of its overall shape and the coherence, and an insistence on its thoroughly theological character, which means that he can make constructive use of Barth without simply pondering the Barth corpus for material to press into service in other causes."
This is not about the concrete examination of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, either.
Indeed, Jungel's major concern is about the philosophical/ontological problem of Christian doctrine ( the Christian faith in its dogmatic particularity).
Jungel identifies the problem as resultant from questionable metaphysical presuppositions under which the Church used to speak about God.
Namely, can God be talked about objectively like we talk about a thing? As the late Barthian dogmatician Helmut Gollwitzer sees an over-emphasis on the non-objectifiable character of God prevalent within the Bultmmanian school of demythologizing (existentialism, idealism/anti-realism, and subjectivism) as dangerous, so Barth himself is adamant about the objectivity of God.
Joining their effort, Jungel also attempts a critical/post-critical realism in talking about "God in and for Himself".
Alternativey speaking, Barthian thinks "we must speak of God", whereas Bultmannian asks, "what dose it mean to speak of God?"
In Jungel's opinion, he finds Gollwitzer's is right. But Gollwitzer drives the notion of "God in and for Himself" too deep that it becomes an abstraction/metaphysical speculation. As a result, the radical historicity of God in identification with Jesus Christ is relegated to a mere function of God's will (rather than God's essential being).
Such as a concern leads Jungel to recast the all-important insight (along with later Barth) that God is the event of his radical historical presence in Jesus Christ. To spell this out requires mathematics of the triune God and a theological ontology of divine 'becoming' which is directed by that dogmatics. This is what Jungel in this book seeks to apply.
It involves the following steps/thematic expositions:
1) language: How can human language 'predicate' God?
Barth is unease with the idea that human language by itself is capable of speaking of God; it needs to be 'commandeered' by revelation, for language is an interpretation of Revelation, which is free, dynamic, and integral and cannot be 'captured' by language.
In other words, God is the speaker of revelation, human the interpreter.
2) revelation: God's-self interpretation
The event of divine communication- its inception, enactment, and its effectuation [in time]- is a free divine activity whereby God's whole being is united and made known.
3) The unity of God's being
The basic principle of God's self-correspondence means that the being of God is relationally structured in a set of order of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The doctrine of perichoresis allows us to understand the unity of God as an event of the mutual interpenetration of the divine three modes of being. And the doctrine of appropriation in enables theologically coherent talk about the three persons in majors roles such as the Creator, the Redeemer, and the Reconciler.
4) Christology
The union of divinity and humanity in Jesus Christ has an anthropological significance in that it brings our existence into a definite relation with God. Jungel thinks that for Barth, there is an analogical relation of theology and anthropology (whereas Bultmann dissolutes theology into anthropology).
5) The election
Jungel links the above points made with the doctrine of election, which should be drawn back to God's own being as His self-election, rather than being relegated to the human scope (as traditionally it was) of God's saving work of souls.
This means that God elects Himself in eternity to be the relation to us through Christ- who is the man Jesus, the Second Adam and the Head of human beings.
Webster's translation is superb and does not stop you from reading this book pages after pages.
Jungel is also an excellent writer. In Webster's words, his writing on Barth "is interpretation of the highest order", with "a keen eye for the details of Barth's thought, as well as a clear appreciation of its overall shape and the coherence, and an insistence on its thoroughly theological character, which means that he can make constructive use of Barth without simply pondering the Barth corpus for material to press into service in other causes."
July 14, 2016
Difficult to read, but worth it.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews