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| For the Love of God | | Date Created: Dec 19, 2003, 10:15 PM |
| One would be hard pressed to find a modern theological book or journal article on trinitarian theology that does not at least mention, but probably begins with Rahner's now famous dictum: "the 'economic' Trinity is the 'immanent' Trinity and the 'immanent' Trinity is the 'economic' Trinity." This theological axiom, however, may be more opaque than is commonly thought. A benign reading will yield the enormously productive insight that all we know of the immanent or ontological Trinity must arise from our exposition of the works of the three Persons of the Godhead in the economy of creation and redemption as they are revealed in Scripture and that we dare not move beyond what God's activity in the economy warrants in our trinitarian theologizing. In so far as the dictum has fueled a renewed interest in investigating the biblical economy, it has served modern trinitarian theologians well in their critical reception of the church's past speculation on the "immanent" Trinity. Unfortunately, Rahner's principle allows for a much more dangerous reading: that the trinitarian being of God is exhaustively identified with (not only by) the historical economy of salvation, however narrowly or broadly this economy may be conceived. All such readings jeopardize the ontological independence of God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, who freely acts upon and in created history. Read more here. |
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