On Behalf of Classical Trinitarianism: A Critique of Rahner on the Trinity

ON BEHALF OF CLASSICAL TRINITARIANISM: A CRITIQUE OF RAHNER ON THE TRINITY PHILLIP CARY Yale University New Haven, Connecticut CLASSICAL TRINITARIANISM, I shall argue, is one and the same doctrine, whether it be expressed in Latin or in Greek. Of course Latin Trinitarianism has its own special nuances and emphases, many of which it inherits from Augustine, but in its essential logic it does not differ substantively from the orthodox teaching of the Greeks, which was forged by the Cappadocian fathers. If my thesis is correct, then the effort current in our day to appeal to the Greeks in order to criticize the Latins is mistaken, and is liable to lead us away from the tradition of classical Trinitarianism altogether. I shall try to show this by a critical examination of the work of Karl Rahner, who is probably the most influential of the W·estern theologians who profess to find the Greek doctrine of the Trinity superior to the Latin. I shall be trying to show, first, that his criticism falls with equal weight upon both Greek and Latin Trinitarianism. Secondly, I shall inquire about the motives of this criticism, which amount to a dissatisfaction with classical Trinitarianism as a whole. I think these motives are specifically modern, and that a healthy dose of self-criticism directed toward some of the reigning assumptions of modernity would help us to see that classical Trinitarianism is not so unsatisfactory after all. The central conceptual issue, to anticipate, is the meaning and justification of the distinction between the economic Trinity and the immanent Trinity. This distinction is fundamental to classical Trinitarianism, but Rahner moves in the direction of abolishing it or rendering it insignificant. 365 366 PHILLIP CARY I. Rahner's Critique of Latin Trinitarianism Rahner's major essay on the Trinity is a contribution to Mysterium Salutis entitled "The Triune God as the Transcendent Primordial Ground of Salvation-History" ; 1 the title announces the theme of the relation between the economic Trinity and the immanent Trinity, already suggesting Rahner's contention that to be drawn into the H eilsgeschichte (or economy of salvation) is necessarily to be drawn into the immanent life of its triune transcendent ground. The three aspects of the divine selfcommunication in the economy, Rahner claims, are identical with the three subsistent modes of being of the immanent Trinity: " each one of the three divine persons communicates himself to man in gratuitous grace in his own personal particularity and diversity. . . . these three self-communications are the self-communication of the one God in the three relative ways in which God subsists." 2 Rahner takes this claim to be a major reversal and correction of the role that had been assigned to the doctrine of the Trinity in the Roman Catholic dogmatics of previous generations. The " extrinsicist " theology of neoscholasticism had made the Trinity into a mystery that must be believed as a revealed article of faith but that had strangely little to do with us and our experience of salvation. As a result, the doctrine of the Trinity played little or no role in popular piety; even in scientific dogmatics it stood strangely isolated in a separate treatise, and its connection with the rest of dogmatics was unclear or even non-existent.3 By insisting on the Trinity's immediate relevance for salvation-history Rahner hoped to show its pervasive relevance for the Christian life as well as for theology. Rahner sums up his basic thesis in an axiom identifying the 1 Mysterium Salutis: Grundriss heilsgeschichtlicher Dogmatik (Einsiedeln: Benziger Verlag, 1965-1981), vol. 2, chapter 5: Der dreifaltige Gott als transcendenter Urgrund der Heilsgeschichte. English translation by J. Donceel: The Trinity (New York: Herder and Herder, 1970). 2 Rahner, The Trinity, p. 34f. a Ibid., p. 15. CLASSICAL TRINITARIANISM: RAHNER ON TRINITY 367 immanent Trinity and the economic Trinity: "The 'economic' Trinity is the ' immanent ' Trinity and the ' immanent ' Trinity is the ' economic ' Trinity." 4 What precisely does this axiom mean? Clearly it must be claiming more than just the identity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit of salvation-history with the three persons of the immanent Trinity; for that is an identity already written into the...