God in trinity, love in creation

Abstract

This thesis attempts to display vital connections between themes not generally connected. On the one hand, it considers the notion of love and relation in connection with God and the idea of Trinity. On the other, it endeavours to show how the notion of a Triune God of Love may be used to safeguard an idea of human beings in which their dependence upon love and relationship is stressed. Fundamental to this is the demand of freedom in terms of choice. This is shown to be a direct consequence of the nature of love, and to necessitate considerable revision of conventional doctrines of grace and providence. Throughout the thesis, great stress is laid on an eclectic use of sources to demonstrate the argument. The thesis comprises two chapters of ontology, and three chapters of human concern. In the first two, the nature of Trinity and Creation are examined from a standpoint of the philosophy of loving relation. Three negative forces are identified in the shape of Cartesian Solipsism, the Platonic philosophy of Love, with its lack of relation and its abstract view of the Good, and thirdly Nygren's theology of agape, which it is held destroys man’s integrity. Coupled with his non-use of the Trinity, it also reduces God to an abstract monad. Positive thought is taken from Vanstone's Love's Endeavour Love’s' Expense which develops a doctrine of God from a theology of Love, and this is taken into the third chapter which considers the consequences for grace and providence. A revised portrait of providence coupled to a God who is neither impassible nor omniscient is provided. The remaining two chapters examine the consequences of such theology for man's own expectations concerning self-fulfillment and his obligations to others.