Trinitarian Self and Salvation: An Evangelical Engagement with Rahner's Rule
In 1967 Karl Rahner famously wrote: "The economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity, and vice versa." From that time onwards, Rahner's Rule has become the norm for conceiving the relationship between the Trinity in the economy of salvation and God's eternal inner life. Evangelical theologians currently employ Rahner's Rule in a variety of ways. One of the most popular is the "Strict Realist Reading" whereby trinitarian relationships in salvation history are taken to mirror eternal relationships within God. This book brings this norm into conversation with the witness of Scripture in order to assess its viability. In doing so, it highlights troubling issues that arise from the application of the Strict Realist Reading of Rahner's Rule to the narrative of Luke-Acts. This book suggests that the Strict Realist Reading can be shown to be a questionable basis for our doctrine of God's inner life.
"Based on Luke-Acts Scott Harrower has mounted an exegetical
challenge to the strict realist reading of Rahner's rule that
evangelicals would be foolish to avoid. The biblical accent does
not fall on the imitation of the Trinity's inner life but on the
imitation of Christ in the economy of salvation. The onus is now on
those who champion the rule or something like it in its strict form
to meet the challenge."
--Dr. Graham A. Cole
Anglican Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School, Samford
University
Author of Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith? (2012)
"The book leverages its investigation of Luke-Acts to lodge a
protest against a widespread, highly influential, but seldom
critically examined movement in modern Trinitarian methodology. . .
. I commend this book as an excellent piece of research theology,
the kind of solid work that captures the theological moment,
advances the next few steps into new territory, and indicates where
future progress lies."
--Fred Sanders, from the foreword
Associate Professor in the Torrey Honors Institute, Biola
University
Author of The Deep Things of God (2010)
"'Rahner's Rule' has exercised massive influence over recent
theology. To this point it has not-quite surprisingly-been
subjected to adequate biblical scrutiny. In this insightful work,
Scott Harrower takes important steps to provide such scrutiny. The
result is a book that will repay careful study, and even those who
are not fully persuaded by all the arguments will benefit from
engagement with it."
--Thomas H. McCall
Associate Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School
Author of Which Trinity? Whose Monotheism? (2010)
"Based on Luke-Acts Scott Harrower has mounted an exegetical
challenge to the strict realist reading of Rahner's rule that
evangelicals would be foolish to avoid. The biblical accent does
not fall on the imitation of the Trinity's inner life but on the
imitation of Christ in the economy of salvation. The onus is now on
those who champion the rule or something like it in its strict form
to meet the challenge."
--Dr. Graham A. Cole
Anglican Professor of Divinity at Beeson Divinity School, Samford
University
Author of Do Historical Matters Matter to Faith? (2012)
"The book leverages its investigation of Luke-Acts to lodge a
protest against a widespread, highly influential, but seldom
critically examined movement in modern Trinitarian methodology. . .
. I commend this book as an excellent piece of research theology,
the kind of solid work that captures the theological moment,
advances the next few steps into new territory, and indicates where
future progress lies."
--Fred Sanders, from the foreword
Associate Professor in the Torrey Honors Institute, Biola
University
Author of The Deep Things of God (2010)
"'Rahner's Rule' has exercised massive influence over recent
theology. To this point it has not-quite surprisingly-been
subjected to adequate biblical scrutiny. In this insightful work,
Scott Harrower takes important steps to provide such scrutiny. The
result is a book that will repay careful study, and even those who
are not fully persuaded by all the arguments will benefit from
engagement with it."
--Thomas H. McCall
Associate Professor of Biblical and Systematic Theology at Trinity
Evangelical Divinity School
Author of Which Trinity? Whose Monotheism? (2010)
- Title: Trinitarian Self and Salvation: An Evangelical Engagement with Rahner's Rule
- Author: Scott Harrower
- Publisher: Pickwick Publications
- Print Publication Date: 2012
- Logos Release Date: 2020
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Ebook
- ISBNs: 9781621894421, 9781498261616, 9781610976749, 1621894428, 1498261612, 1610976746
- Resource ID: LLS:9781621894421
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-29T18:17:26Z