The Divine Name(s) and the Holy Trinity Paperback

Kendall Soulen’s particular concern in this book is the name of the Trinity. He identifies three ‘patterns of Trinitarian naming’, which are distinct, of equal value and interrelated. The three are: theological (the three Persons of the Trinity viewed in terms of the giving, receiving and glorification of the divine Name, the unspoken Tetragrammaton – a central, recurring notion in the book. This pattern does occupy a special place, as a kind of ‘fountain of divinity’, because the Tetragrammaton does ‘orbit the personal proper name of God’); Christological (the three Persons identified as Father, Son and Holy Spirit); and pneumatological (an open-ended variety of ‘ternaries’ is in mind here, such as ‘Love, Lover, Beloved’. There’s a gorgeous long list, on pages 249-250, of ternaries that faith has ‘coined’. And that’s only ‘a few’, according to the author!). Each of these ways of naming ‘illuminates the mystery of the Holy Trinity’, but it is the three together, ‘in their reciprocal supplementation, overlaps and differences that most fully illuminate the mystery of the Trinity revealed in the man named ‘Jesus’, who is the Lord, the Son of God, the Bright and Morning Star.’ I was interested to read about the special orthography by which early Christian scribes would highlight the so-called ‘nomina sacra’, Lord, God, Jesus and Christ, described here as a kind of ‘embryonic creed’.

I was glad to have persevered with this well-written, though demanding book. You, too, may find it leads you into unfamiliar yet rewarding territory. Roll on, Volume 2!