The Trinity and Time

Arthur H. Williams

doi:10.1017/S0036930600044665

The Trinity and Time

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 February 2009

Arthur H. Williams

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Arthur H. Williams: Affiliation:
127 Navaho Trail, Wilmington, NC 28403, U.S.A.

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Précis: Here is a call for an investigation of the linguistic formulation of the term ‘Trinity’. Can it be that the phrase ‘kingdom of God/heaven’ is a functional equivalent in the New Testament of the later term ‘Trinity’? As a political term, kingdom (or monarchy) provides a framework for collegiality in the exercise of an undivided power. As a philosophical term, however, monarchy (or monotheism) entails subordinationism. Recent theological works recall that time is an essential category in theology. The description of time is compared to the description of light in physics, and the principle of complementarity is used to hold together spatialized time (Parmenides) and dynamized space (Heraclitus). The first use of the term ‘Trinity’ (by Theophilus of Antioch, ca. 170 C.E.) referred to the first three days of creation, which are called types of the Trinity. Thus, God was not described as beyond time and history, as Origen assumed, but rather we are summoned to a quest for the historical God, who takes our individual stories up into the total story of God and the world.

Type: Research Article
Information: Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 39 , Issue 1 , February 1986 , pp. 65 - 81

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0036930600044665 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1986

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References

^{page 66 note 1} Kettler, F. H., ‘Trinität’, in Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, 3rd ed. (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr, 1956).Google Scholar

^{page 66 note 2} Kretschmar, Georg, Sludien zur frühchristlichen Trinitätstheologie (Tübingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 1956), Vorwort, p. v.Google Scholar

^{page 66 note 3} Ritschl, Dietrich, ‘Trinität’, in Oekumene Lexikon, 1983Google Scholar; reprinted in his book, Zur Logik der Theologie (Muenchen: Chr. Kaiser, 1984), pp. 181–185.Google Scholar

^{page 67 note 4} Anderson, Bernard W., Understanding the Old Testament, 3rd ed. (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1975), p. 163.Google Scholar

^{page 68 note 5} Quasten, J., Patrology, Vol. II (Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1962), p. 286.Google Scholar

^{page 69 note 6} Tertullian, , ‘Against Praxeas’, in Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James (eds.), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1968), p. 599.Google Scholar

^{page 69 note 7} Ibid., n. 3: Unicum.

^{page 69 note 8} Ibid.

^{page 70 note 9} Ritschl, Dietrich, Memory and Hope (New York: Macmillan Co., 1967), p. 82, n. 15.Google ScholarLawson, John, The Biblical Theology of Saint Irenaeus (London: Epworth Press, 1948), p. 137, also follows Loofs.Google Scholar

^{page 70 note 10} Quasten, J., Patrology, Vol. I (Westminster, MD: Newman Press, 1962), p. 294.Google Scholar

^{page 70 note 11} Schmidt, K. L., ‘ in the Early Church’, in Kittel, G. (ed.), Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. I (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1964), p. 593.Google Scholar

^{page 71 note 12} Barth, Karl, Church Dogmatics II.I 31 (Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1957), p. 634.Google Scholar

^{page 71 note 13} Torrance, Thomas F., ‘Homoousion’, Ev Th Jan./Feb. 1983Google Scholar.

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^{page 71 note 16} Farley, Edward, Ecclesial Reflection (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1982), p. 239Google Scholar. His emphasis.

^{page 71 note 17} Ibid., pp. 243–248.

^{page 71 note 18} Ibid., pp. 248–249 passim.

^{page 72 note 19} Quasten, Patrology, I, p. 239.

^{page 72 note 20} Barr, James, Biblical Words for Time (London: SCM Press, 1962), pp. 149, 151–152Google Scholar. See also the review of this book by Dietrich Ritschl in Interpretation, Nr. 17, 1963, pp. 206–209. See also some of the literature to which Barr refers: Delling, Gerhard, ‘Καιρς’, in Kittel, G. (ed.), Theological Dictionary of the New Testament Vol. III (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1965), pp. 455–462Google Scholar; Delling, Gerhard, ‘χρονς’, in Friedrich, G. (ed.), Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Vol. IX (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1974), pp. 581–593Google Scholar; Cullmann, Oscar, Christ and Time, rev. ed. (London: SCM Press, 1962)Google Scholar.

^{page 73 note 21} Whitrow, G. J., The Natural Philosophy of Time, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980)Google Scholar, including the bibliographies at the end of each chapter. See also Gale, Richard M., The Language of Time (New York: Humanities Press, 1968)Google Scholar.

^{page 73 note 22} Capek, Milic, ‘Time’, in Wiener, Philip P. (ed.), Dictionary of the History of Ideas, Vol. IV (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1973), pp. 389–398Google Scholar.

^{page 74 note 23} Capek, loc. cir. p. 398.

^{page 74 note 24} Article in Time, November 28, 1983, p. 94.

^{page 76 note 25} See the review of Torrance, T. F., Theology in Reconciliation (London: Geoffrey Chapman, 1975)Google Scholar by Ritschl, Dietrich in The Ecumenical Review, Vol. XXVIII, No. 4, October, 1976Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 26} Whitrow, loc. cit., pp. 203–205.

^{page 76 note 27} de Beauregard, Olivier Costa, ‘Time in Relativity Theory: Arguments for a Philosophy of Being’, in Fraser, J. T. (ed.), The Voices of Time (New York: George Braziller, 1966), pp. 432–433Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 28} Moltmann, Jürgen, ‘Verschraenkte Zeiten der Geschichte’, Ev Th Mai-Jun 1984, pp. 213–227Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 29} Origen, , On First Principles 1.1.2 (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1966), p. 16Google Scholar.

^{page 76 note 30} Delling, loc. cit., Vol. IX, p. 583.

^{page 76 note 31} Origen, loc. cit., 1.4.4, p. 42.

^{page 77 note 32} Cullmann, loc. cit.

^{page 77 note 33} Ibid., p. 51.

^{page 77 note 34} Ibid., p. xxv.

^{page 78 note 35} Eliade, M., Patterns in Comparative Religion, translated by Sheed, Rosemary (New York: Meridian Books, 1963), p. 32Google Scholar.

^{page 78 note 36} Ibid., p. 424.

^{page 78 note 37} Guhrt, J., ‘Time’, in Brown, Colin (ed.), Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Vol. 3 (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1971), p. 827Google Scholar.

^{page 79 note 38} Roberts, Alexander and Donaldson, James (eds.), The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 2 (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1967), pp. 100–101Google Scholar.

^{page 80 note 39} Wild, John D., The Radical Empiricism of William James (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1969), p. 178Google Scholar.

^{page 81 note 40} Guhrt, loc. cit.

^{page 81 note 41} Whitrow, loc. cit., p. 370.

^{page 81 note 42} Torrance, Thomas F., Space, Time and Resurrection (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1976), p. 80Google Scholar.

^{page 81 note 43} Jüngel, Eberhard, God as the Mystery of the World, translated by Gruder, Darrell L. (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1983)Google Scholar.

^{page 81 note 44} Herzog, Frederick, ‘Praxis Passionis Divini’, Ev Th Nov./Dec. 1984, p. 570Google Scholar.

^{page 81 note 45} Ritschl, , Logik, pp. 303–305Google Scholar.

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