The doctrine of the Trinity was settled in the fourth century, and maintained, with only very minor disagreement or development, by all strands of the church--Western and Eastern, Protestant and Catholic--until the modern period. In the twentieth century, there arose a sense that the doctrine had been neglected and stood in need of recovery. In The Quest for the Trinity, Holmes takes us on a remarkable journey through 2,000 years of the Christian doctrine of God. We witness the church's discovery of the Trinity from the biblical testimony, its crucial patristic developments, and medieval and Reformation continuity. We are also confronted with the questioning of traditional dogma during the Enlightenment, and asked to consider anew the character of the modern Trinitarian revival. Holmes's controversial conclusion is that the explosion of theological work in recent decades claiming to recapture the heart of Christian theology in fact deeply misunderstands and misappropriates the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. Yet his aim is constructive: to grasp the wisdom of the past and, ultimately, to bring a clearer understanding of the meaning of the present.

A constructive study of Trinitarian theology that aims to clarify our knowledge of the triune God by rightly ordering the theological language we use to praise him.

The Triune God reaches its conclusions about how this doctrine should be handled on the basis of the way the Trinity was revealed. As such, theologian Fred Sanders:

Though Sanders does interact with major voices from the history of doctrine--and his arguments are indebted to and informed by the great tradition of Trinitarianism--he is clear throughout that Trinitarianism is a gift of revelation before it is an achievement of the church. The most patristic way to proceed toward a well-ordered doctrine of the Trinity is, after all, to study Scripture.

-ABOUT THE SERIES-

New Studies in Dogmatics seeks to retrieve the riches of Christian doctrine for the sake of contemporary theological renewal. Following in the tradition of G. C. Berkouwer's Studies in Dogmatics, this series provides thoughtful, concise, and readable treatments of major theological topics, expressing the biblical, creedal, and confessional shape of Christian doctrine for a contemporary evangelical audience.

The editors and contributors share a common conviction that the way forward in constructive systematic theology lies in building upon the foundations laid in the church's historic understanding of the Word of God as professed in its creeds, councils, and confessions, and by its most trusted teachers.