Metaphysics and the Tri-Personal God

This is the first full-length study of the doctrine of the Trinity from the standpoint of analytic philosophical theology. William Hasker reviews the evidence concerning fourth-century pro-Nicene trinitarianism in the light of recent developments in the scholarship on this period, arguing for particular interpretations of crucial concepts. He then reviews and criticizes recent work on the issue of the divine three-in-oneness, including systematic theologians such as Barth, Rahner, Moltmann, and Zizioulas, and analytic philosophers of religion such as Leftow, van Inwagen, Craig, and Swinburne. In the final part of the book he develops a carefully articulated social doctrine of the Trinity which is coherent, intelligible, and faithful to scripture and tradition.

1 - Prelude: Where are the Foundations?
2 - The 'New' Fourth Century
3 - The Divine Three: What is a 'Person'?
4 - Gregory of Nyssa and the Divine Persons
5 - Augustine and the Divine Persons
6 - The Divine Oneness: What is a 'Nature'?
7 - Interlude: Simplicity and Identity
8 - The Pro-Nicenes and the Divine Nature
9 - The Fathers, the Trinity, and Scripture
10 - Postlude: Are the Foundations Stable?
11 - Surveying the Options
12 - Barth and Rahner: Persons as Modes of Being
13 - Moltmann and Zizioulas: Perichoresis and Communion
14 - Leftow: God Living Three Life-Streams
15 - Van Inwagen: The Trinity and Relative Identity
16 - B rower and Rea: Sameness in Number Without Identity
17 - Craig: A Soul with Multiple Sets of Faculties
18 - Swinburne: Created Divine Persons
19 - Yandell: The Trinity as a Complex Bearer of Properties
20 - What Have We Learned?
21 - Constructing the Doctrine of the Trinity
22 - Monotheism and Christology
23 - Each of the Persons is God
24 - The Divine Persons are Persons
25 - The Communion of the Persons
26 - The Relations of Origin
27 - The One Divine Nature
28 - Constitution and the Trinity
29 - The Grammar of the Trinity
30 - The Metaphysics of the Trinity

William Hasker (Ph.D., University of Edinburgh), is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Huntington University in Huntington, Indiana, where he taught from 1966 until 2000. His main interests in philosophy are philosophy of religion and philosophy of mind. He is the author of Metaphysics (1983), God, Time, and Knowledge (1989), The Emergent Self (1999), Providence, Evil, and the Openness of God (2004), and The Triumph of God Over Evil (2008), and is co-author or co-editor of several other volumes. He was the editor of Faith and Philosophy from 2000 until 2007.