"Thinking Out Loud about the Triune God: Problems and Prospects for a Trinitarian Social Ethic in a Procedural Republic"

Peter J. Casarella, DePaul University

Abstract

An excerpt from this chapter's first paragraph:

"Discourse about the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is central to Christian self-understanding. The question of whether such discourse should be proclaimed outside of the churches is a more vexing matter. The instinct to preserve trinitarian language within the abode of worship is not wrong-headed. Safeguarding Christian faith in this manner upholds the qualified sense in which God's revealed wisdom can properly be used to illuminate contemporary social ills. But the issue of drawing out social implications from Christian doctrine is not simply a matter of how to situate religious discourse in either the Church or contemporary society, for the question of a social trinity has accompanied the Church's proclamation of a trinitarian faith virtually from the outset."