10. The Trinity and the Kingdom: The Doctrine of God
Jurgen Moltmann

An astute observer of the following list will notice that the readings are weighted toward trinitarian works. That is for two reasons: (1) The one true God is first and foremost--above all else that can be said--Triune. An ever-growing attempt to understand the cruciality of the Trinity is central to Christian faith and practice. (2) I taught a series on the Trinity in 2002 and began preparing for it months in advance, so the topic of the Trinity has loomed large in my mind since the end of 2001!

With that said, Moltmann's book is an absolute treat. He argues that we often deemphasize the threeness of God by overemphasizing the oneness of God. This is primarily a Western problem inherited from St. Augustine. Moltmann seeks to address this imbalance in his book. In the process, he sheds new insights on the nature of power demonstrated in the incarnation and God's free acceptance of suffering through the incarnation.

Since Jesus is the complete and final revelation of God, it is vital to view God chiefly in light of his revelation in Christ. Sadly, this does not often happen. For example, in regard to God's power: Does the revelation of Jesus inform your understanding of the nature of God's power? Or do the "powers" of this world? Moltmann argues that we must view God's sovereignty through the lens of Christ.

The sole omnipotence which God possesses is the almighty power of suffering love... What was Christ's essential power? It was love, which was perfected through voluntary suffering; it was love, which died in meekness and humility on the cross and so redeemed the world. This is the essence of the divine sovereignty. (p.31)

The incarnation also sheds new light on the debate relating to God's passibility or impassibility. Simply put, can God suffer or not? Moltmann answers in the affirmative, but only after he has clearly demonstrated that God's suffering is different from human suffering, in that God willingly chooses to suffer.

The logical limitation of this line of argument [that God either can or cannot suffer] is that it only perceives a single alternative: either essential incapacity for suffering, or a fateful subjection to suffering. But there is a third form of suffering: active suffering - the voluntary laying oneself open to another and allowing oneself to be intimately affected by him; that is to say, the suffering of passionate love. (p.23)

God chooses to suffer, because God is love! Love is willing to--indeed, chooses to--suffer on behalf of the beloved.

If God were incapable of suffering in every respect, then he would also be incapable of love. He would at most be capable of loving himself, but not of loving another as himself... but if he is capable of loving something else, then he lays himself open to the suffering which love for another brings him; and yet, by virtue of his love, he remains master of the pain that love causes him to suffer. (p. 23)

9. The Triune God of Christian Faith
Mary Ann Fatula

When people ask me to recommend a book on the Trinity, I can think of no clearer, better, concise, and accessible treatment than Mary Ann Fatula's fine book. She covers a lot of ground in such a short space (131 pages).

She begins by affirming that Christians do not necessarily reject the Trinity, but simply neglect it.

Why? "First and foremost, the very depths of the mystery itself incline us to silence" (p. 11). We are not comfortable with mystery, and thus tend to shy away from it, treating it as an embarassment, rather than as the crux of our faith!

Another reason we neglect the Trinity is because we view the doctrine as insignificant and impractical.

Yes, we do confess faith in a triune God; but to put the question bluntly, so what? Isn't the Trinity an unnecessary complication, an interesting but dispensable addendum to our faith, an abstract idea in technical books written for theological experts? What possible relevance can faith in a triune God have our real life?... Thus, sermons on more practical topics easily replace preaching about a Trinity viewed not as the living God but as an abstract theory beyond our understanding. (pp. 17, 21)

Two great quotes from the book highlight the "practical" (better put: experiential, receptive, or participatory) ramifications of trinitarian doctrine in regard to knowing God's love:

A unipersonal God needs us in order to love. But the God who is triune communion of love does not need us in order to have someone to love. And for this reason, we are, each of us, really, unconditionally and freely loved. This statement may surprise us, for we easily identify need with love; the need someone has to love… and to be needed... Yet love is ultimately a matter not of need but of free gift, or it is not fully love at all. (p. 24)

Parents who deeply love their children delight in caring for them, in being with an enjoying them. But this joy is only a pale shadow of the infinite gladness the triune God takes in us: we are the Trinity's bliss, and if we could realize how tenderly the triune God rejoices to be God for us, no trouble could finally destroy us. Children sleep in their parents' arms even while everything around them is in confusion in chaos. If they awaken they are soothed with the assuring words, "Everything is all right."… for we easily believe that God is all-wise and powerful and can do everything, but to believe that the triune God is all love and will do everything good for us, "there we fail." (p. 98)

8. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church
Vladimir Lossky

There is nothing that shakes up one's theology better than a good dose of Eastern Orthodox teaching. The mindset and emphases of the East shed new light and open up completely new paths. I find this stimulating to the highest degree.

The East refuses to separate theology from experience. We Westerners tend to treat God as an object to be analyzed with clinical detachment in order to keep from muddying up our views with too large a dose of our own experiences or inclinations. Eastern theologians refuse to separate what God has forever joined. We cannot know a personal God apart from personally participating in God. In other words, the only good theology is a mystical (experiential, participatory) theology--all else is abstract fluff. Mere theory with no heart or soul!

The Eastern tradition has never made a sharp distinction between mysticism and theology; between personal experience of the divine mysteries and the dogma affirmed by the Church... in all humility we must apply our spirit to the contemplation of divine things. To put it in another way, we must live the dogma expressing a revealed truth, which appears to us as an unfathomable mystery, in such a fashion that instead of assimilating the ministry to our mode of understanding, we should, on the contrary, look for a profound change, an inner transformation of spirit, enabling us to experience it mystically. Far from being mutually opposed, theology and mysticism support and complete each other. One is impossible without the other... There is, therefore, no Christian mysticism without theology; but, above all, there is no theology without mysticism... Unlike Gnosticism, in which knowledge for its own sake constitutes the aim of the Gnostic, Christian theology is always in the last resort and means: a unity of knowledge subserving an end which transcends all knowledge. This ultimate end is union with God or deification… Christianity is not a philosophical school for speculating about abstract concepts, but is essentially a communion with the living God. (pp. 8-9, 42)

The goal of Orthodox spirituality, the blessedness of the Kingdom of Heaven, is not the vision of [God's] essence, but, above all, a participation in the divine life of the Holy Trinity. (p.65)

Many topics are covered in this book, but always in clear relationship to the trinitarian revelation of God in Christ through the Spirit. This is a feast for those willing to see through different eyes. In my opinion, the Church will never be whole or healthy until she learns to breath with the two lungs of East and West.

By the way, a book deserving honorable mention, Eastern Orthdoxy Through Western Eyes by Donald Fairbairn is the best overall introduction to Eastern Orthodoxy I've yet read!

7. Wasting Time with God - Klaus Issler

The best book I read this year on authentic spirituality! One of the strengths of Issler's book is the concentrated content in each chapter; Issler often says more in one chapter than many book-long treatises. This is especially true in regard to his chapters on friendship and pride (where Issler even finds time to cover the dangers of pride and the resultant abuse of power in Christian leadership).

Issler grounds his entire spirituality in the Trinity. Since ultimate reality is personal and relational, Issler calls us to a personal and relational spirituality--with others and with God. Issler argues that one's relationship with God will never progress past the highest degree of intimacy that one knows with a fellow human being. Why? Because we learn about entering, maintaining, and growing in relationships with and through others. We can hardly expect to have an intimate, vulnerable, and loving relationship with God if we are unable to do the same with others.

Taking this one step farther, Issler argues that a true relationship with God will be modeled after our closest relationships here on earth. When we love someone, we enjoy just "hanging out"--spending time together in an unplanned and informal way. This "wasting time" with others is hardly a waste of time, but actually is at the heart of any loving relationship. Issler teaches that we must learn to "waste time" with God if we hope to have an increasingly intimate relationship with God.

Issler's book centers on relationships instead of rules and people instead of propositions. This book has much to commend it. For this reason, it is my favorite book on the topic of spirituality this year!

Mike Yaconelli's Messy Spirituality: God's Annoying Love for Imperfect People certainly deserves a strong honorary mention. I love this guy--his honesty, authenticity, and willingness to rock the boat. Rock on, Mike!

6. Invitation to Theology - Michael Jinkins

Jinkins' introduction to theology is a breath of fresh air. Many evangelical systematic theologies merely rehash the same old concepts in the same old forms of the past. Jinkins approaches theology in a different way--by making the revelation of God in Christ through the Spirit the centerpiece of his theology. In other words, he strives to frame all Christian truth in the Trinity. Unlike most other systematic works, Jinkins does not relegate the Trinity to a subpoint of Theology Proper. Instead, Jinkins begins his theological work with the doctrine of the Trinity and then begins to treat every aspect of Christian theology from this Trinitarian framework.

It is the life of the Triune God that is set up as the integrative motif for Jinkins theology--a life of loving personal relationships in union and communion. He writes,

[T]he theological theme of the course: the meaning and shape of our life together as a community of persons is grounded in the inner life of God, the Trinity, and has been revealed to us in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. (p. 19)

This theme protects Jinkins' theology from falling into unitarian pitfalls and individualistic traps, for the life of God is personal, relational, and lived in community. Therefore, "The life we share together as people of God is a reflection of the inner life of God, the Trinity" (p. 20).

Since God is personal and relational, the only way to know God is through personal participation in the life of God. Therefore, the theological task is not meant to be a clinical, detached, and objective analysis of God (as if this were ever possible in the first place!), but instead the task is to know God through passionate, affective, personal engagement.

Kierkegaard says the truth cannot be engaged in from a posture of disinterested neutrality... Truth can only be known through decisive involvement, through commitment, through a passionate and personal giving of ourselves to the truth that is real, objective and demanding. Truth demands that we surrender ourselves (our values, are self-understanding, our past and future, our concerns and our aspirations) not merely to a statement or philosophical position that we hold is true but to the God who is himself true. To put this in perhaps a more consciously biblical frame: the truth does set us free, but only in as much as we give ourselves to it. (p. 62)

Because Jinkins begins with the Trinity, he allows the revelation of God in Christ to be the chief lens through which he views God. This allows him to view God's power in an incarnational way:

The almightiness of God consists in the "superior self-possession of the love which surrenders itself." This conception of might and power runs counter to virtually every conventional human concept. We assume that we know what power looks like, don't we? Power, we think, bends others to its control; might manipulates, subdues, forces. That's power, isn't it!... The power of God revealed in Christ is the irresistible force of God's self-surrender, the strength, the almightiness, of God's self-emptying and other-centered love... Any view of the love of God that does not understand the fierce, burning power of that love, the positive force of that love against sin, evil and death has resigned itself to sentimentalism, because the wrath of God is nothing less than the burning passion of God turned against all those things which threaten to destroy God's good creation. (pp. 83-84)

This is the power that has overcome the world--not the violent power of omnipotent control, but the omnipotent power of passionate love--a power that looks like weakness to the world, best exemplifed in the cross of Christ: "In this act of utterly selfless love God has defeated evil with the power of love that evil does not know, cannot comprehend and has no power to overcome." (p. 85)

5. A Passion for Christ - Thomas F. Torrance

I discovered two authors this year that have completely challenged and enriched my views: Brian McLaren's writings on engaging with postmodernity (you'll see him later in my list!) and Thomas Torrance's writings on the centrality of trinitarian theology.

Torrance's trinitarian theology makes much of the centrality of the incarnation. Following in the footsteps of the great St. Athanasius, Torrance shows how Christ is not simply our substitute (vicarious atonement) but our perfect representative (vicarious humanity). In every way Christ fills our desperate need.

Christ takes what is ours and gives us what is his. In this "wonderful exchange", Christ assumes our place and gives us his place. He takes to himself our sin, our brokenness, our anxiety, our alienation from the Father, and our sentence of condemnation. In return, he gives to us his righteousness, his wholeness, his peace, his oneness with the Father and his declaration of eternal life. Our humanity is restored in the humanity of Christ. (p. 6)

This is possible because Christ is homoousios (of the same substance, essence) as the Father. Simply put, Christ Jesus fully reveals the Father because the Father and the Son fully share in the same divine nature. To lose this truth is to lose the saving power of the Gospel:

[W]ithout that mutual togetherness and oneness in being an act between the incarnate Son and the Father, the Gospel message would be empty of saving significance for humanity. Then the identity of Jesus Christ would have nothing to do with any self-giving or self-revealing on the part of the God the Father, there would be no Mediator between God and humanity, and so no substance to the Christian Gospel. (p. 11)

God's willingness to give everything for our sake reveals the depths of God's love for his creation. Torrance forces us to deal with this amazing reality with his shocking statement that the Father's giving of the Son reveals that "God loves us more than he loves himself":

Jesus is God's very own Son, his only begotten Son--one who came to us out of the Father's Life who belonged to his very Heart and innermost Self. And when the Father did not spare his own Son, but freely delivered him up for us all in atoning sacrifice, the Cross became a window into the innermost heart of God and the nature of his love. It tells us the God loves us more than he loves himself. (p. 14)

This idea is at odds with John Piper's popular thesis that God loves himself supremely and does all things for his own ends and exaltation. However, this view of love accords better with Paul's command that we "have this attitude which was also in Christ Jesus... who emptied himself... and humbled himself" (Phil. 2:5-6). For Paul, this is the chief pattern that calls us to "with humility of mind, let each of you regard one another as more important than himself; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others" (Phil. 2:3). Christ Jesus cannot be the model for this self-emptying, self-giving, and self-sacrificial love if he loved himself more than he loved others.

In short, Torrance's theology has reoriented my perspective to where it should have been in the first place--the centrality of the incarnation and its significance for humanity and its logical and necessary contribution to our understanding of God as Trinity. Torrance's constant theme of the centrality of the incarnation leading to a growing awareness of one's participation in the fullness of God--Father, Son, and Spirit--makes all of his works delightful and Christ-filled!

Two other Torrance books that deserve honorable mention: The Mediation of Christ (the best introduction to Torrance) and The Trinitarian Faith: The Evangelical Theology of the Ancient Catholic Church.

4. The Ancestral Sin - John Romanides

Does God kill? Is death God's vindictive judgment upon human sin? Or is death the devil's domain--something that God opposes?

The Eastern Gospel centered on the problem of death and the solution of life in the Christian Gospel is far more satisfying to me than the Western Gospel centered on the problem of guilt and the solution of forgiveness. Death, corruptibility, and sin are enemies of God and humans--not punitive instruments of God. God did not create death; we have brought death upon ourselves through our wicked actions. Death exists in the world as a kind of parasite apart from the will of God--it is something God opposes. This is the reason God warned of death in Genesis 2:16-17.

God's command did not bring death, but simply warned of the fatal consequence of death should humankind sin. "But when a law has commanded abstinence from something and someone has not obeyed, it is obviously not the law which causes punishment but the disobedience and transgression" (pp. 125-126). Death--the absence of life due to human sin, which is, in essence, a turning away from a right relationship with God--is not directly caused by God or God's law, but is a sad consequence of turning from God. When one turns away from the source of life, then there is nothing left but death. Iraneaus put it this way, "Separation from God is death, and separation from light is darkness... it is not that the light has inflicted upon them the penalty of blindness."

The devil is the first cause of death, by introducing sin in this world through Adam and Eve. Like our first parents, we continue to cooperate with the evil one and thus suffer death as well. The devil's deceptions and our own willingness to sin cause us to be "both the victim of the evil one's deception and the accomplice in sin" (p. 80). Because of this, human beings are in desperate need for redemption from the unholy trinity of the devil, sin, and death.

Thankfully (that's the understatement of the year!), God is too good to leave his creation to this miserable end. He loves his creation too much to allow sin, death, or the devil to have the final word. Furthermore, "If death had prevailed in the world and in man, it would have been a triumphant victory by Satan over God" (p. 87)

These ideas may seem foreign to us Westerners, for we have inherited Augustine's theory of original sin that emphasizes guilt and makes death out to be God's penal punishment on humanity. Redemption is therefore a matter of satisfying divine justice and changing the divine disposition toward man.

The East holds a different theory of "original sin." For the Orthodox, human nature has fallen ill and become subject to corruptibility through sinful disobedience, causing humankind to withdraw from the divine life of God. Redemption is therefore a matter of overthrowing the evil powers of sin, death, and the devil and granting humanity life in God once again.

As seen above, one's position on original sin drastically determines one's understanding of redemption and what it accomplishes. Or, in other words, one's view of the problem radically affects one's view of the needed solution!

Following Augustine's precedent, the West ceased to look upon Satan as God's true adversary who had the power of death and was indeed its cause. Augustine's cosmology did not allow for the existence of wills contrary to the divine will. Therefore, not only death but even man's fall into the hands of the devil is a punishment by God. (p. 23)

If Satan and death are nothing more than instruments of divine wrath, "their abolition cannot be the purpose of the divine epiphany but only its result" (p. 71). But death is the devil's weapon through sin--a weapon that God opposes and neutralizes and even makes the means of life through the death of Christ. This perspective of sin and redemption sheds new light on oft-overlooked or unexplained passages such as:

• "He Himself [Christ Jesus] likewise also partook of the same [flesh and blood], that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil." (Hebrews 2:14)
• "The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil." (1 John 3:8).

It is sin, death, and the devil that Christ conquered through his earthly ministry--healing the sick, casting out demons, and raising the dead. It is this that Christ conquered on the cross--fully bearing the consequences of fallen humanity, including sin, the devil, and death.

Augustine's theory of original sin was not without its detractors in his day. St. Vincent, John Cassius, and the great St. Chrysostom among others, opposed his theory, finding it imbalanced and convoluted. Many Christians do not realize that Augustine's theory is not the only theory of original sin, nor is it the original theory. For this reason, and many more, this book is worthy of careful reflection!

3. The Trinity and Subordinationism: The Doctrine of God and the Contemporary Gender Debate - Kevin Giles

Too many conservative Christians distort the doctrine of the Trinity using therapeutic categories invented in the 20th century (role, function, etc.) to perpetuate an antiquated (and oppressive) view of female subordination. But the orthodox position of the Christian Church is completely opposed to subordinationism in every form.

The first third of this book is devoted to proving that eternal subordinationism within the Trinity is not the received dogma of the Church (everyone agrees that the Son assumed a position of temporary subordination during his earthly ministry). The second section of the book demonstrates how many evangelicals present a distorted and unorthodox view of the Trinity in order to defend their views on proper male/female relationships. The last part of the book demonstrates how every Christian interpreter before the 18th century used Scripture to justify slavery, and the implications this has for the contemporary gender debate.

Why did all Christians before the 18th century use the Scriptures to justify slavery? Simple. Try finding any biblical passage that clearly and fully teaches that slavery is a moral evil and should be abolished! I can save you time--you won't find any. And yet we don't attempt to apply the clear commands of the Bible in regard to slavery to our contemporary culture. Could it possibly be the case that we are continuing to apply commands about female subordination in the same misguided way?

In a patriarchal culture where slave-holding and female subordination were simply the unquestioned norm, we can easily see why Scripture commands slaves to submit to their masters even if they were recipients of mistreatment and physical abuse. Would we command the same today? No! Why not? The Bible clearly teaches it! And there is no clear biblical command stating otherwise! And yet (thankfully) we don't attempt to enforce slavery commands in our contemporary culture.

For both sides in the contemporary gender debate, the trinitarian life of God is presented as the model for male/female relationships. To the "heirarchalists" or "complementarians" (as they like to be called, even though "egalitarians" are also "complementarians"), the pattern of Trinitarian life is one of the Son's eternal subordination to the Father. This view was rejected as heresy by the early church--it is not the orthodox teaching on the Trinity.

For the egalitarian, the pattern of Trinitarian life is much different. The life of the Trinity is the life of three Persons who are co-eternal, co-substantial, and co-equal. The love displayed is a love that is mutual, deferential, and harmonious. "In the Trinity we see the three differentiated divine persons honoring each other, loving each other, giving of themselves to the others and working together in perfect cooperation" (p. 91).

If male/female relationships are to be patterned after the triune life of God, then they should be mutual, deferential, and harmonious.

Conservative evangelicals who argue that the Son is eternally bound to obey the Father build on the premise that where two were more people live or work together one person must be in charge. This is how they envision marriage, especially among Christians. They seem to forget that where love prevails there can be a harmony of wills and a gladly accepted mutual subordination. They err in seeking to explain how the persons of the Trinity relate to one another by appealing to a common feature of falling human relationships (pp. 82-83).

We can argue all we want that female subordination is not demeaning to women, but this argument is found lacking. Whether we like it or not, subordination implies that one is inferior to another in some aspect, for obviously the inferior lacks something that the superior possesses.

Role subordination, we are told, does not imply inferiority. This is generally true, but once the note of permanency is introduced and competence is excluded, this is not true. If one party is forever excluded from certain responsibilities -- no matter what their competency may be -- simply on the basis of who they are, then this indicates they lack something that only their superior processes. In other words, they are inferior in some essential way. (p. 17)

In the end, neither the position of the so-called "complementarians" nor the position of "egalitarians" is the ancient position inherited from the Fathers. Every Church Father and every Christian writer until the 19th century wrote of the inferiority of women to men. They did not speak in the categories complementarians use; not one considers women to be "equal in being, but subordinate in role." This kind of language simply did not exist. Furthermore, no one taught it.

Therefore, both complementarians and egalitarians are presenting recent and contemporary views. The question is: Which view better accords with the nature of God and the nature of love as understood in light of the Trinitarian life?

This book is provocative, challenging, and, in my opinion, convincing. It is a must read for anyone involved in the controversial "gender-wars" among Christians. Furthermore, it is proof that no doctrine is safe--not even the Trinity--from being used for the sake of political maneuvering.

2. The Great Dance: The Christian Vision Revisited - C. Baxter Kruger

At the heart of reality is the shared life, love, joy, and communion of Father, Son, and Spirit. This "society of love" is our source, goal, and destiny. God created us in order to share in this Great Dance. What a glorious truth! And yet, sadly, it is so often neglected! This precious gem of a book is a great first step to reclaiming the full and glorious Gospel once again. It is concise, accessible--indeed, a feast for the soul!

For the last couple of years I have been fascinated by the concept of "perichoresis"--the mutual indwelling of Father, Son, and Spirit. I have read many academic writings on this topic. Kruger's book is the first book I've run across that speaks of these profound truths in an accessible way.

I no longer think of God as an isolated individual or solitary monad. I now think of God as a community of love, a fellowship of shared life and joy. Because of this, God's experience is ultimately one of giving, receiving, and sharing love--an experience of perfect intimacy in personal relationship. "God is love" is the central truth of all reality! And God has called us to share in the life, love, joy, and communion of Father, Son, and Spirit!

How can a mere human being share in such life, joy, love, and fellowship? The answer: One already does! Jesus, the God-man. This is the ultimate reason for the incarnation. God united himself forever with humanity in Christ, in order that humanity in Christ may be forever united with God. Check out my Christmas Message 2002 for more on this great theme!

The ascension means that now and forever the Son continues to live out his sonship as a human being... Seated now and forever at the right hand of the Father, inside the circle as a full participant in the dance, is the fully divine Son of God as man.(pp. 31-32)

Check out C. Baxter's website for his books and other material. Make sure to download the free book, Home while you are at it. It is gloriously liberating!

1. A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey - Brian McLaren

This book is the reason that I remain in Christian ministry. Without it, I would have given up. I completely related to the spiritual and intellectual struggles of the pastor in this book. I also am grateful for the answers offered here. This is a profound, life-changing, paradigm-shifting book. You simply must read it! Enough said.