Hasker on the Divine Processions of the Trinitarian Persons
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24204/ejpr.v9i3.1941Abstract
Within contemporary evangelical theology, a peculiar controversy has been brewing over the past few decades with regard to the doctrine of the Trinity. A good number of prominent evangelical theologians and philosophers are rejecting the doctrine of divine processions within the eternal life of the Trinity. In William Hasker’s recent Metaphysics and the Tri-Personal God, Hasker laments this rejection and seeks to offer a defense of this doctrine. This paper shall seek to accomplish a few things. In section I, I shall first set the stage for a proper understanding of the discussion. Section II will articulate the basic Trinitarian desiderata that must be satisfied by any model of the doctrine of the Trinity. This will help one understand the debate between Hasker and the procession deniers. Section III will offer an articulation of what the doctrine of divine processions teaches. Section IV will examine Hasker’s defense of the doctrine point by point. I shall argue that his defense of the doctrine of the divine processions fails.
References
Anatolios, Khaled. Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine. Baker Academic, 2011.
Ayres, Lewis. Augustine and the Trinity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511780301.
Barnes, Michel R. “The Background and Use of Eunomius’ Causal Language.” In Barnes; Williams, Arianism After Arius.
Barnes, Michel R. and Daniel H. Williams, eds. Arianism After Arius: Essays on the Development of the Fourth Century Trinitarian Conflicts. Bloomsbury T & T Clark, 1993.
Beeley, Christopher A. The Unity of Christ: Continuity and Conflict in Patristic Tradition. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.
Bird, Michael F. Evangelical Theology: A Biblical and Systematic Introduction. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2013.
Cross, Richard. “Latin Trinitarianism: Some Conceptual and Historical Considerations.” In Rea; McCall, Philosophical and Theological Essays on the Trinity.
———. “Philosophy and the Trinity.” In The Oxford Handbook of Medieval Philosophy. Edited by John Marenbon. Oxford handbooks. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2012.
Dolezal, James E. “Trinity, Simplicity and the Status of God's Personal Relations.” International Journal of Systematic Theology 16, no. 1 (2014): 79–98. doi:10.1111/ijst.12016.
Duby, Steven J. Divine Simplicity: A Dogmatic Account. T&T Clark Studies in Systematic Theology v.30. London: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015.
Ellis, Brannon. Calvin, Classical Trinitarianism, and the Aseity of the Son. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Eunomius. The Extant Works. 1st ed. Edited by Richard P. Vaggione. Oxford Early Christian Texts. Clarendon Press, 1987.
Evans, C. Stephen. “Catholic-Protestant Views on Justification: How Should Christians View Theological Disagreements?” In The Redemption: An Interdisciplinary Symposium on Christ as Redeemer. Edited by Stephen T. Davis, Daniel Kendall and Gerald O’Collins. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2004.
Feinberg, John S., and Harold O. J. Brown. No One Like Him: The Doctrine of God. Foundations of Evangelical Theology. Wheaton: Crossway Books, 2006.
Fiddes, Paul S. “Relational Trinity: Radical Perspective.” In Sexton; Holmes; Molnar; McCall; Fiddes, Two Views on the Doctrine of the Trinity.
Fowler, Gregory. “Simplicity or Priority.” In Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion: Volume 6. Edited by Jonathan L. Kvanvig. First edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Fox, Rory. Time and Eternity in Mid-Thirteenth-Century Thought. Oxford University Press, 2006.
Gavriljuk, Paul L. The Suffering of the Impassible God: The Dialectics of Patristic Thought. Oxford early Christian studies. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 2004.
Giles, Kevin. The Eternal Generation of the Son: Maintaining Orthodoxy in Trinitarian Theology. InterVarsity Press, 2012.
Gould, Paul M. “Introduction to the Problem of God and Abstract Objects.” In Beyond the control of God? Six views on the problem of God and abstract objects. Edited by Paul M. Gould. Bloomsbury Studies in Philosophy of Religion. New York, London, New Delhi, Sydney: Bloomsbury, 2014.
Hampton, Stephen William Peter. Anti-Arminians: The Anglican Reformed Tradition from Charles II to George I. Oxford theological monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199533367.001.0001.
Hasker, William. Metaphysics and the Tri-Personal God. First edition. Oxford studies in analytic theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Helm, Paul. “Eternal Creation.” Tyndale Bulletin 45, no. 2 (1994): 321–38.
———. “Time and Trinity.” In Questions of Time and Tense. Edited by Robin Le Poidevin. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.
———. “Is God Bound by Time?” In God under Fire: Modern Scholarship Reinvents God. Edited by Douglas S. Huffman and Eric L. Johnson. Grand Rapids, Mich: Zondervan, 2002.
———. Eternal God: A Study of God Without Time. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199590391.001.0001.
Heron, Alasdair I. C. “Homoousios with the Father.” In The Incarnation: Ecumenical Studies in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed A.D. 381. Edited by Thomas F. Torrance. Handsel, 1981.
Holmes, Stephen R. The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity. Downers Grove, Ill: InterVarsity Press, 2012.
Lyman, Rebecca. “A Topography of Heresy: Mapping the Rhetorical Creation of Arianism.” In Barnes; Williams, Arianism After Arius.
Mann, William E. “Divine Sovereignty and Aseity.” In The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Religion. Edited by William J. Wainwright, 35–59. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
McCall, Thomas H. Which Trinity? Whose Monotheism? Philosophical and Systematic Theologians on the Metaphysics of Trinitarian Theology. Grand Rapids, Mich: W.B. Eerdmans Pub. Co, 2010.
———. “Relational Trinity: Creedal Perspective.” In Sexton; Holmes; Molnar; McCall; Fiddes, Two Views on the Doctrine of the Trinity.
Moreland, James Porter, and William Lane Craig. Philosophical foundations for a Christian worldview. Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 2003.
Mullins, R. T. “Simply Impossible: A Case against Divine Simplicity.” Journal of Reformed Theology 7, no. 2 (2013): 181–203. doi:10.1163/15697312-12341294.
———. “Divine Temporality, the Trinity, and the Charge of Arianism.” 4, no. 1 (2016): 267–90. doi:10.12978/jat.2016-4.172413122018a.
———. The End of the Timeless God. Oxford studies in analytic theology. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Paasch, J. T. Divine Production in Late Medieval Trinitarian Theology: Henry of Ghent, Duns Scotus, and William Ockham. Oxford theological monographs. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199646371.001.0001.
Price, Richard. The Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 553. 2 vols. 2009.
Rea, Michael C. and Thomas H. McCall, eds. Philosophical and Theological Essays on the Trinity. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
Senor, Thomas D. “The Doctrine of the Trinity is Coherent.” In Debating Christian Theism. Edited by James P. Moreland, Chad V. Meister and Khaldoun A. Sweis. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Sexton, Jason S., Stephen R. Holmes, Paul D. Molnar, Thomas H. McCall, and Paul S. Fiddes, eds. Two Views on the Doctrine of the Trinity. Counterpoints Bible & theology. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2014.
Swinburne, Richard. The Christian God. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1994.
van den Brink, Gijsbert. “Social Trinitarianism: A Discussion of Some Recent Theological Criticisms.” International Journal of Systematic Theology 16, no. 3 (2014): 331–50. doi:10.1111/ijst.12053.
Ward, Keith. Christ and the Cosmos: A Reformulation of Trinitarian Doctrine. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Webster, John. “Life in and of Himself: Reflections on God’s Aseity.” In Engaging the Doctrine of God: Contemporary Protestant Perspectives. Edited by Bruce L. McCormack. Baker Academic, 2008.
Wesseling, Jordan. “Christology and Conciliar Authority: On the Viability of Monthelitism for Protestant Theology.” In Christology, Ancient and Modern: Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics. Edited by Oliver D. Crisp and Fred Sanders. Los Angeles Theology Conference Series. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2013.
Williams, Thomas. “Introduction to Classical Theism.” In Models of God and Alternative Ultimate Realities. Edited by Jeanine Diller and Asa Kasher. New York: Springer, 2013.
Yandell, Keith. “How Many Times Does Three Go Into One?” In Rea; McCall, Philosophical and Theological Essays on the Trinity.
