Warfield Lectures, 2007: Update

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As faithful readers of DET are well aware, three of your dedicated theo-bloggers from Princeton Theological Seminary banded together to provide coverage of the 2007 Warfield Lectures, presented by Dr. Kathryn Tanner. An index with links to coverage of all the lectures is available in my 'Collaborative Projects' section, to which there is a link at the top of the right side-bar.

The purpose of this post is to announce that one of Dr. Tanner's Warfield Lectures has been published in the Princeton Seminary Bulletin. This lecture was #4, and - if one wanted to do some comparative analysis - you can access Chris' notes on its original presentation.

Dr. Tanner's published lecture is entitled, Kingdom Come: The Trinity an Politics.

Here are her two introductory paragraphs, which set the tone for the essay:
In contemporary theology, the Trinity is often enlisted to support particular kinds of human community - say, egalitarian, inclusive communities, in which differences are respected - or to counter modern individualism by greater respect for the way persons are shaped by community. What the Trinity is like is thought to establish how human societies should be organized; the Trinity is thought to be the best indicator of the proper relationship between individuals and their community; and so on. Jüergen Moltmann, John Zizioulas, Miroslav Volf, Leonardo Boff, and Catherine LaCungna are all important names in this regard.

Although theological judgments here seem quite simple - for example, if the persons of the Trinity are equal to one another, then human beings should be too - figuring out the sociopolitical lessons conveyed by the Trinity is fraught with complexities and perils. I systematically explore these complexities and perils here and conclude that it would be best to steer attention away from the Trinity when trying to determine the proper character of human relations in Christian terms. Christology, I suggest, is the better avenue to help Christians make sociopolitical judgments.

Comments

Joshua said…
thanks for passing this along. Already from the first paragraphs, I am sympathetic. I heard from Dr. Tanner that the whole set is being reworked for publication in a book in Cambridge's Current Issues in Theology Series.
November 26, 2007 1:43 PM
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