Syllabus- Trinity

THS Syllabus

Trinity

1. Course Description

The Trinity refers to the revelation of God in three forms as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. It describes the faith in the one God, who brought the world into being through creation, has historically revealed himself in Jesus Christ and is present through the Holy Spirit. Although the Trinitarian confession is one of the indispensable foundations of the Christian faith, it has become incomprehensible to many Christians today.

In the early church, however, hardly any theological topic was as relevant and therefore as hotly contested as this one. The New Testament does indeed contain tripartite formulas that speak of Father, Son and Spirit. But there is no dogmatic explanation of their relationship to each other. For this reason, in the centuries that followed, the most diverse attempts at explanation arose, until the Council of Nicaea in 325 finally determined the formulation that is still valid today.

Many of the disputes of that time may seem to us today to be overly subtle and hair-splitting. Nevertheless, the Christian faith is directed towards the triune God, yesterday, today and forever. The Trinity is an important characteristic that distinguishes it strongly from, for example, the Islamic concept of God.

In addition to the special significance of the Trinitarian understanding of God, the course is also intended to teach the basics of related disciplines, especially Christology and Pneumatology. It thus serves as a general introduction to systematic theology.

2. Course Goals

The students should

– understand the significance of the Trinity for the Christian faith

• internalize the theological development from the New Testament to the great Councils
• get to know the connection between the doctrine of the Trinity, Christology and Pneumatology

3. Skills Acquired

The students should be able to

– to articulate fundamental positions of systematic theology

– to understand the historical genesis of church dogmas

• to reflect on their own understanding of trinitarian theology

4. Preparatory tasks for the students (20 hours)

Reading the compulsory literature

5. Content of the course (40 lessons)

To be determined

6. Compulsory reading 

   Numbered in the order they should be read.

   1 Wolfson, The Origin of the Trinitarian Formula (13 Pages)

   2.1 Prestige, The Holy Triad (20 Pages)

   2.2 Cornelius Plantinga Jr., Problem of the Trinity (16 Pages)

   3.1 Joseph Lienhard, Ousia and Hypostasis (21 Pages)

   3.2 Hanson, Semantic Confusion (25 Pages)

   4.1 Athanasius, Orations Against the Arians (67 Pages)

   4.2 Gregory of Nyssa, There Are Not Three Gods (13 Pages)

   5.1 Fred Sanders, Economic and Immanent Trinity (7 Pages)

   5.2 Augustine of Hippo, Trinity (53 Pages)

   6.1 Karl Barth, The Word of God and the Task of Theology (26 Pages)

   6.2 Karl Rahner, The Trinity (32 Pages)

   7. Holmes, Three Versus One (11 Pages)

   8.2 Prestige, The Word (44 Pages)

   8.1 Gregory of Nazianzus, Concerning the Son (16 Pages)

   8.3 Terry Cross, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit (37 Pages)

7. Further reading

Boff, Leonardo, Small Trinity Theory, Düsseldorf: Patmos, 2007.

Dünzl, Franz, Kleine Geschichte des trinitarischen Dogmas in der Alten Kirche, Freiburg: Herder, 2006.

Hemmerle, Klaus, Theses on a Trinitarian Ontology, Einsiedeln: Johannes-Verlag, 1976.

Moltmann, Jürgen, Trinity and Kingdom of God, Gütersloh: Kaiser, 1994.

Nitsche, Bernhard, God and freedom. Sketches on the Trinitarian doctrine of God, Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 2008

Rahner, Karl (Ed.): The one God and the triune God. The understanding of God among Christians, Jews and Muslims, Munich: Schnell and Steiner, 1983.

Rohls, Jan, God, Trinity and Spirit. Ideengeschichte des Christentums Vol. 3, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014.

Stubenrauch, Bertram, Dreifaltigkeit, Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag 2002.

Vorgrimler, Herbert, God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Münster: Aschendorff, 22003.

Weth, Rudolf (ed.), The Living God. On the tracks of newer trinitarian thinking, Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 2005.

8. Composition of the final grades

Reading (30%), Participation (30%), Final exam (40%)

9. Timetable