The Hidden and Triune God

Luther rightly perceived that God is hidden in his presence. The challenge systematically is to integrate discourse about God's hiddenness with a serious trinitarianism. The attempts by Gregory Palamas and Karl Barth to do just this are judged inadequate. A constructive proposal begins by recognizing that God's hiddenness is an impenetrability of his moral agency in his history with us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, rather than a correlate of God's ontological uniqueness or our creaturely epistemic limitations. God's hiddenness must be thought of in terms of the sheer factuality of God the Father, which limits theodicy; the suffering of the Son, and thus the rejection of idolatry; and the freedom of the Spirit.     

In the Image of the Triune God

This programmatic article addresses the question of how the creation of human beings in the image of God can be made specifically trinitarian. It does this by considering the ways in which human life can image forth the particular personal characteristics of each of the divine persons, and by examining how that imaging forth is distorted by the reality of sin.     

Scripture as the Voice of God: The Continuing Importance of Autopistia

This article argues that the concept of autopistia offers a helpful perspective for theological reflection on the authority of Scripture in the present context. It explains the concept by eliminating some misunderstandings and offering a definition of the autopistia of Scripture from its theological sources. It faces the objections that the idea is inutile because it is too specifically Protestant and outdated because it rests on pre‐modern presuppositions. Finally it draws some implications of this perspective for the role of the church, for the communication of the authority of Scripture in the postmodern context, and for the proper place of the doctrine of Scripture in systematic theology.     

When God Smites: Talking with Students about the Violence of God in Scripture

This article emphasizes the need for religious educators to address the issue of divine violence in Scripture with students, and it offers various pedagogical strategies for doing so. The focus is on violent Old Testament texts, with special attention given to the issue of Canaanite genocide. A general framework for structuring class time around divine violence in Scripture is proposed which includes (1) encouraging students to encounter violent biblical texts firsthand, (2) helping them understand why people find these passages problematic, and (3) offering various options for dealing with the potential problems these passages raise. In the second half of the article, significant attention is devoted to a number of practical considerations that should be taken into account when talking about this sensitive issue in class. A brief word about assessment is offered at the end.     

The Identification of the Triune God: Robert W. Jenson's Approach to the Doctrine of the Trinity

Abstract : Robert W. Jenson's programmatic approach to the doctrine of the Trinity consists of his aim to identify the triune God in an anti‐religious and anti‐nihilistic way. Jenson has in a unique manner carried out this identification, i.e., ontologically, contextually, and narratively; and then defined the limits of his trinitarian doctrine in accordance with this approach. The fundamental prerequisite of Jenson's approach is his “negative” natural theology, including his existential analysis of living in time.