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New Credo Podcast! Modern Trinity or Classical Trinity?

Many moderns constructed their doctrine of the Trinity according to Rahner’s rule, which says the immanent Trinity is the economic Trinity and the economic Trinity is the immanent Trinity. But should Christians even frame the Trinity in these terms? Are we conflating the Trinity with history itself by affirming this principle? But more broader still, how indebted is modern theology’s doctrine of the Trinity to the Enlightenment?

In this episode, Thomas Joseph White joins Matthew Barrett to differentiate between variations of modern and neo-orthodox approaches to the Trinity, taking a complex era and deciphering its turn away from Nicaea. White also helps listeners distinguish between a modern Trinity and a classical Trinity, encouraging us to adopt the language of processions and missions. Given his new research, White moves Christians away from a historicized understanding of the Trinity that looks to the economy to constitute the Trinity. In the end, White encourages us to pursue the revival of classical trinitarianism, which alone can overcome the obstacles of the last century.


Matthew Barrett

Matthew Barrett is the editor-in-chief of Credo Magazine, director of the Center for Classical Theology, and host of the Credo podcast. He is professor of Christian theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, and the author of several books, including Simply Trinity, which won the Christianity Today Book of the Year Award in Theology/Ethics. His new book is called The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. He is currently writing a Systematic Theology with Baker Academic.

Thomas Joseph White

Thomas Joseph White is the Rector Magnificus of the Pontifical University of St. Thomas (Angelicum) in Rome. He is the author of many books including, The Trinity: On the Nature and Mystery of the One God (Catholic University Press, 2022). He is the co-editor of the journal Nova et Vetera, a Distinguished Scholar of the McDonald Agape Foundation, and a member of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas.

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