TRINITY AND REVELATION

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen

William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company

Grand Rapids, Michigan / Cambridge, U.K.

© 2014 Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen

All rights reserved

Published 2014 by

Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.

2140 Oak Industrial Drive N.E., Grand Rapids, Michigan 49505 /

P.O. Box 163, Cambridge CB3 9PU U.K.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kärkkäinen, Veli-Matti.

Trinity and revelation / Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen.

pages cm.—(A constructive Christian theology for the pluralistic world; v. 2)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8028-6854-1 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Trinity. 2. Revelation. 3. Christianity and other religions. I. Title.

BT111.3K36 2014

231′.044—dc23

2013044664

www.eerdmans.com

A Constructive Christian Theology for the Pluralistic World

volume 1

Christ and Reconciliation

volume 2

Trinity and Revelation

Contents

Abbreviations

Preface

Introduction: A Hospitable and Inviting Methodological Vision

Constructive Theology as a Dialogue and “Conversation”

PART I: TRIUNE REVELATION

1. On the Conditions of the Doctrine of Revelation

Is There a Revelation in Christian Religion?

The Doctrine of Revelation on Both Sides of Modernity

The Widening Horizon of the Discourse on Revelation and Scripture in a Pluralistic World

2. Triune Revelation

Loving Father and the Cruciform Revelation

Incarnated Son and Embodied Revelation

Life-Giving Spirit and Living Revelation

3. Revelation as Historical-Eschatological Word of Promise

Theology of History

Revelation in History

Revelation as History and as Word

An Eschatological-Historical Promise

4. Liberating Word

“The Biblical Texts as Furthering Life”

Inclusive Word

Revelation as Liberation

The Liberating Power of Translation

“Reading the Bible in Spanish”

5. God’s Word in Human Words

Inspiration of Scripture: Divine-Human Dynamic

Scripture as the Word of God and Human Testimony

A Truthful Encounter

The Revelatory Power of Metaphors and Symbols

The Category of Myth and Mysticism

6. Scripture, Community, and Tradition

Which Use of the Bible? Whose “Authorship”?

Scripture as the Ultimate Norm of Theology

Scripture and Church

Living Tradition and “Closed Canon”

Tradition, Identity, and Context

7. Natural Theology as Christian Theology

Natural Knowledge of God Is “Natural”

How Natural Theology Became “Unnatural”

Natural Theology as Trinitarian Christian Theology

Wisdom as Revelation

8. Revelation and Scripture among Religions

The Challenge and Complexity of Interfaith Engagement of Scriptures

Hindu Scriptures and Authority in a Christian Perspective

Is There Revelation in Buddhist Traditions?

The Qurʾan and the Bible

The First and the Second Testaments

Common Scripture Reading as a Form of Interfaith Theologizing

PART II: TRIUNE GOD

9. On the Conditions and Contours of God-Talk

The Doctrine of God in a New Environment

God in a Secular Age

Objections against God-Talk

The Atheistic Rebuttals of Faith in God

The Re-turn of Metaphysics

The “Traces” of God in the Created ...