Trinity, Incarnation, and Atonement: Philosophical and Theological Essays

TLDR: In this paper, the authors present a collection of essays by philosophers and theologians on the central doctrines of the Christian faith, including the Trinity, the Incarnation and the Atonement.

Abstract: This volume is a collection of essays by philosophers and theologians on the central doctrines of the Christian faith. The eight essays aim to present the subleties and riches of the Christian doctrines of Trinity , Incarnation and Atonement - doctrines that are essential for understanding the distinctiveness of Christianity. In discussing the Trinity the book examines a social theory of the Trinity and defends it against the objection that theories of this kind are tritheistic. It then presents an insightful look at the changing conceptions of "person" and how they relate to a proper concept of Trinity. Subsequently it explores some metaphysical insights in Aquinas relevant to a fuller understanding of trinitarian doctrine. On Incarnation the contributors aim to defend the strategy for the doctrine of the Incarnation deployed in "The Logic of God Incarnate", reassessing it and extending it in new ways, and they then develop and defend one of the two major ways of explicating philosophically the doctrine of the Incarnation, showing its logical consequences. On atonement, the volume examines the role satisfaction for sin plays in Aquinas's account of the Incarnation in Part III of the "Summa Theologiae" and also concentrates on the work of Thomas Aquinas, turning to the doctrine of justification and its connection to the Atonement. Finally it considers some important church issues surriounding salvation theology.