Invocation and Assent: The Making and the Remaking of Trinitarian Theology
Digital Logos Edition
Overview
In the seventeenth century the adoption of a new rule of faith forever changed the way many English-speaking Protestants perceive the doctrine of the Trinity. Instead of the proper personal name by which Christians come to know and love their God, English-speaking Christians increasingly began to think of the Trinity as a network of propositions in need of evaluation for rationality and intelligibility. Suddenly, it was no longer clear that the Trinity mattered for salvation. Invocation and Assent by Jason Vickers charts the effects of this crucial shift in the identity and function of the rule of faith. Examining this turning point in seventeenth-century theological thought, Vickers illuminates the origins of indifference to the Trinity found in many quarters of Christianity today.
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- Illuminates the origins of indifference to the Trinity found in many quarters of Christianity today.
- Explains how in the seventeenth century the doctrine of the Trinity was perceived in a different way.
- Charts the effects of this crucial shift in the identity and function of the rule of faith.
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1. Invocation: The Trinity and Salvation
- 2. Assent: Scripture and Salvation
- 3. The Protestant Dilemma
- 4. Boethius’s Ghost
- 5. Locke’s Legacy
- 6. Wesley’s Hymns and Prayers
- 7. The Work of Trinitarian Theology Today
- Bibliography
- Index
Jason Vickers provides a penetrating and fresh reading of the Trinitarian debates in England in the seventeenth century. This is not simply a matter of accurate theological archaeology; nor is it just a timely reminder of the critical importance of the much-neglected history of English-speaking theology. It also puts on display critical factors that contemporary doctrines of the Trinity must heed. The constructive dimension of this project builds skillfully on the historical and analytical; the lessons that lie in wait for the careful reader are both sobering and bracing.
—William J. Abraham, Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University
This insightful, engaging study of English Protestant theology in the seventeenth century helps us to account for the neglect of the doctrine of the Trinity in modern theology — something from which most Protestant Christians today are still trying to recover. By carefully recounting this largely unknown story, Jason Vickers has filled an important gap in the history of Trinitarian doctrine and made an important contribution to the current Trinitarian renaissance. Yet Invocation and Assent is much more than a historical study. Its greatest value lies in clearly and forcefully reminding us what the ultimate purpose of the doctrine of the Trinity is: not to offer a rational explanation of how God can be three in one, but to enable us — in baptism, worship, formation, and mission — to personally encounter, know, and love the triune God. That’s why this book needs to be read not only by academics but by pastors and Christian leaders everywhere.
—Stephen A. Seamands, Asbury Theological Seminary
- Title: Invocation and Assent: The Making and Remaking of Trinitarian Theology
- Author: Jason E. Vickers
- Publisher: Eerdmans
- Print Publication Date: 2008
- Logos Release Date: 2025
- Pages: 215
- Era: era:contemporary
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Reader Edition
- Subject: Trinity › History of doctrines
- ISBNs: 9780802862693, 0802862691
- Resource ID: LLS:NVCTNSSNTTRNTTH
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2025-10-02T21:52:44Z