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The Triune Identity: God according to the Gospel
This book presents a bold venture in theology, combining a presentation, explanation, analysis, and reinterpretation of trinitarian language. Rejecting the assumption that traditional trinitarian discourse is useless in an age of cults and sects, Jenson points to a profound and provocative renewal of trinitarian piety and reflection understood as a remedy for spiritual desolation and powerlessness. Proceeding on the premise that any radical analysis of the formula "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" must work from biblical statements, Jenson investigates the significance of two biblical identifications of "God is whoever freed us from Egypt" and "God is whoever raised Jesus from the dead". In opposition to the notion that God is to be understood simply as timeless being, Jenson shows how the memory of God's acts and the presence of God in Christ leads to a hope for the future based on the promise of the spirit.
- GenresTheology
208 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1982
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72 people want to read
About the author
Robert W. Jenson
67 books40 followersRobert W. Jenson was a student of Barth's theology for many years, and his doctoral dissertation at the University of Heidelberg earned Barth’s approval as an interpretation of his writings. A native of Wisconsin, Dr. Jenson attended Luther College in Iowa and Luther Theological Seminary in Saint Paul, Minnesota, before studying at Heidelberg where he was awarded his Doctor of Theology, summa cum laude. After doing graduate work at the University of Basel he returned to the United States. He taught theology for many years at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg and St. Olaf College. Dr. Jenson also served as Senior Scholar for Research at the Center of Theological Inquiry, Princeton, NJ. He died in 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 24, 2013
All Barthians principally agree that God is no different than who He is in His revelation. However, different Barth camps operate this theological principle very differently.
The conservative camp opts for the top-down model. They would like to maintain a realm for the inner life of the Trinity unaffected by anything this worldly. Even though the Son's "this-worldly death", the Spirit's "this-worldly movement", and the Father's "this-worldly vindication of His servants" are all in accordance with His metaphysical and immanent characters/attributes, somehow God's identity is neither "exhausted" nor "determined" in His self-revealing acts. Otherwise, God's aseity would not hold. In other words, God could not fully free and autonomous if His identity is bound to actuality.
However, in the postmodern era, it proves to be more and more problematic to metaphysically posit a God whose identity is hidden and unknown. An unknown God weakens His identification with this world. And if God has alternatives, things are made hard to believe as why a world full of injustice and imperfection is the best He can do.
By positing such a God of alternative possibilities, conservative theology is put to task for an account to justify the actuality. Here we encounter "a mystery", since we have no access to alternative worlds. We are then only called to believe that this world full of injustice and imperfection is the best He can do, and that in His supreme and unfathomable wisdom He "wills" this world- a wisdom we barely understand.
Jenson is not happy with this idea. As a soluton, Robert W. Jenson takes a particular actualistic route that characterizes that panentheistic turn of postmodern theology. This makes him on the side of the progressive camp.
According to Jenson, the gospel "does not tell of a work done by a God antecedently and otherwise determined;, but itself determines who and what God is" (165).Specifically, he unpacks the mystery of God's wisdom by defining the crucifixion event as His decision for solidarity with sinners: God empties Himself, takes on human flesh, suffers, and dies a humiliating death.
The crucifixion story as told in the gospels, is just so the story of God's own life for our lives. There is no "meta-narrative" about God's life beyond this gospel story. The very act of crucifixion determines who this God is.
In this way, Jenson inherits much of later Barth's doctrines of Christology and reconciliation by radically "historicized" them. God is the Creator, Savior, and Judge, because and only because he creates, saves, and judges.
Yet for Jenson, the cross is not the locus of salvation. The resurrection is. The cross is salvific not because it atones for our sins by virtue of ransom. The cross is there not
for legal but moral and existential reasons as a dramatic self-denial. Bearing the rejection of both God and men, the cross saves only by virtue of its dramatic unity with the Resurrection.
The divine dialectic has been reflected that in this very event of complete self-nullification, death has been turned off and a new life of honor and fulfillment has been turned on.
The Risen Lord is taken into God's future, which serves as a promise that a life of futurity awaits us. By holding this the promising hope we are also brought into the horizon of the future, which Jenson reckons the actual locus of salvation.
In my view, Jenson has made a tremendous contribution in point the way forward for theology. Certainly he is not without shortcomings. Major themes subject to further debate include the nature of "history" that permits talking "historically" about God, and if panentheism could (and should) be avoided.
The conservative camp opts for the top-down model. They would like to maintain a realm for the inner life of the Trinity unaffected by anything this worldly. Even though the Son's "this-worldly death", the Spirit's "this-worldly movement", and the Father's "this-worldly vindication of His servants" are all in accordance with His metaphysical and immanent characters/attributes, somehow God's identity is neither "exhausted" nor "determined" in His self-revealing acts. Otherwise, God's aseity would not hold. In other words, God could not fully free and autonomous if His identity is bound to actuality.
However, in the postmodern era, it proves to be more and more problematic to metaphysically posit a God whose identity is hidden and unknown. An unknown God weakens His identification with this world. And if God has alternatives, things are made hard to believe as why a world full of injustice and imperfection is the best He can do.
By positing such a God of alternative possibilities, conservative theology is put to task for an account to justify the actuality. Here we encounter "a mystery", since we have no access to alternative worlds. We are then only called to believe that this world full of injustice and imperfection is the best He can do, and that in His supreme and unfathomable wisdom He "wills" this world- a wisdom we barely understand.
Jenson is not happy with this idea. As a soluton, Robert W. Jenson takes a particular actualistic route that characterizes that panentheistic turn of postmodern theology. This makes him on the side of the progressive camp.
According to Jenson, the gospel "does not tell of a work done by a God antecedently and otherwise determined;, but itself determines who and what God is" (165).Specifically, he unpacks the mystery of God's wisdom by defining the crucifixion event as His decision for solidarity with sinners: God empties Himself, takes on human flesh, suffers, and dies a humiliating death.
The crucifixion story as told in the gospels, is just so the story of God's own life for our lives. There is no "meta-narrative" about God's life beyond this gospel story. The very act of crucifixion determines who this God is.
In this way, Jenson inherits much of later Barth's doctrines of Christology and reconciliation by radically "historicized" them. God is the Creator, Savior, and Judge, because and only because he creates, saves, and judges.
Yet for Jenson, the cross is not the locus of salvation. The resurrection is. The cross is salvific not because it atones for our sins by virtue of ransom. The cross is there not
for legal but moral and existential reasons as a dramatic self-denial. Bearing the rejection of both God and men, the cross saves only by virtue of its dramatic unity with the Resurrection.
The divine dialectic has been reflected that in this very event of complete self-nullification, death has been turned off and a new life of honor and fulfillment has been turned on.
The Risen Lord is taken into God's future, which serves as a promise that a life of futurity awaits us. By holding this the promising hope we are also brought into the horizon of the future, which Jenson reckons the actual locus of salvation.
In my view, Jenson has made a tremendous contribution in point the way forward for theology. Certainly he is not without shortcomings. Major themes subject to further debate include the nature of "history" that permits talking "historically" about God, and if panentheism could (and should) be avoided.
January 30, 2009
Actually good.
March 19, 2020
Everything he touches turns to theological gold.
December 4, 2012
When I was reading this book, I heard a lot of adhoc and aluminum criticisms of Jensen... everything from him being a liberal process theologian, accusations of him flirting with modalism to being and out-rite apostate (neo-orthodox, and ALL the baggage that accompanies that).
That was not my takeaway from the book. Jensen is never easy reading, so I may be missing something... And yes, I do indeed struggle with his model of engaging theology in general and the Trinity in particular. I do not believe in progressive doctrinal development... Dogma is discovered and our understanding may mature and develop, yes, but his emphasis on reformation and the need for continuing the struggle in the development of such key doctrines of the Trinity is alarming at times and certainly distracting...
All that said, he has "evolved" and moved on, pas this work, bringing some corrections, revisions and modifications in later publications, like his set on Dogmatics...
What I got was edification (along with much stimulation). Again, not an easy read, but helpful and very much worthy of engaging and interacting with.
That was not my takeaway from the book. Jensen is never easy reading, so I may be missing something... And yes, I do indeed struggle with his model of engaging theology in general and the Trinity in particular. I do not believe in progressive doctrinal development... Dogma is discovered and our understanding may mature and develop, yes, but his emphasis on reformation and the need for continuing the struggle in the development of such key doctrines of the Trinity is alarming at times and certainly distracting...
All that said, he has "evolved" and moved on, pas this work, bringing some corrections, revisions and modifications in later publications, like his set on Dogmatics...
What I got was edification (along with much stimulation). Again, not an easy read, but helpful and very much worthy of engaging and interacting with.
March 14, 2012
Jenson takes his readers on a journey into the unfolding of the revelaton of the Triune God. This book will challenge you and if you press on it will set your heart to dancing as you glimps the wonder and beauty of the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews