Christ as Son

By "Christ as Son" I'd like to call attention to a factor of Christology that has not fallen by the wayside due to philosophical shifts like Christ as "mediator," or snuck into theology like "presence," but seems to be growing steadily. This is a very broad, inductive idea I have here, but one I think fits a shift in theology: we could call it a shift to a more "Christological Trinitarianism."

A little description of the books I have in mind might flesh this out. I used an upcoming theology exam as an opportunity to read two books I wanted to acquaint myself with: Bruce Marshall's Trinity and Truth and Kathryn Tanner's recent book Christ the Key.

Both authors position themselves in their different contexts on what I think is the same foundation: what we learn about the Trinity through the life of Christ as described in Scripture.

Bruce Marshall uses this "Christological trinitarianism" to make arguments against the attempt of modern theology to justify the faith (including making the Trinity "make sense") on foundational arguments alien to Christian convictions. Kathryn Tanner uses a similar focus to argue against a too-easy "socio-political Trinity" that makes arguments for the way the human community should be based on developed Trinitiarian speculation, like saying that humans should embody the Trinity's own embrace of "difference" within itself. Tanner notes, rightly I think, that the Bible says that the only way human society images the Trinity is through the believer's being made one with the Son, i.e. being brought into Christ's body through baptism.