Trinity, Time, and Church, edited by Colin E. Gunton
By any measure--longevity, productivity, respect, acuity--Robert W. Jenson is a great theologian. His two recent volumes of systematic theology, marked by lyric beauty and dialectic power, will be read long after the current revival of the genre has ended. His distinguished writing career is now almost 40 years old, beginning with an early immersion in Barthian theology and including later forays into trinitarianism and sacramental theology. Perhaps he would say that his favorite book is the one about Jonathan Edwards, although confessionally Jenson is Lutheran, not Calvinist.
Such a noteworthy body of theological thought deserves the kind of response offered by the 21 essays collected in this volume. Their authors, the likes of Wolfhart Pannenberg and Geoffrey Wainwright, would together comprise one of the world's best theological faculties. Each writer brings his or her own theological scrutiny and specialization to Jenson's work. The point is neither to regurgitate Jenson nor to supersede him. These responses are measured, considered, probing and respectful. Some tend toward the macro, tracing big themes throughout Jenson's career; others are less ambitious and consequently more nuanced.
The three theological moments listed in the title--Trinity, time and church--are never far from view, regardless of the respondents' own theological interests. The geographical and confessional range of the essayists is an homage to Jenson's own theological vision, which takes in Lutheran, Reformed, Roman Catholic and Orthodox perspectives.
