The second volume of Robert M. Doran’s magisterial The Trinity in History continues his exploration of the Trinitarian theology of Bernard Lonergan, focusing now on the notions of relations and persons and connecting the systematic proposals with the so-called "Third Quest for the Historical Jesus." Doran not only interprets Lonergan’s major work in Trinitarian theology and Christology but also suggests at least a twofold advance: a new version of the psychological analogy for understanding Trinitarian doctrine and a new starting point for the whole of systematic theology. He links these theological concerns with Ren¿irard’s mimetic theory, proposes a theory of history based in Lonergan’s scale of values, and creates a link between exegetical and historical scholarship and systematic theology.

Preface

1. Imitating the Divine Relation

Overall Introduction to the Present Volume
A General Note on Lonergan and Girard
The Divine Relations and Their Imitations
Autonomous Spiritual Processions
The Duality of Consciousness and the Dialectic of Desire
Imago Dei

2. The Program

Actual Grace
Divine Relations and Persons
A Relational System among the Created Terms
Social Grace and Imitation of and Participation in Divine Circumincession
Social Grace and the Mission of the Word

3. Actual Grace and the Elevation of the Secular

The Proposal
Sacralizations and Secularizations Welcomed and Resisted
The Problem
Questions Posed by Vatican II and Pope John Paul II
Help from Aquinas
Lonergan on Actual Grace
The Universal Mission of the Holy Spirit
The Universal Mission of the Divine Word
The Multi-religious Context and the Structure of Systematic Theology
Charles Taylor’s Disjunctions

4. The Relations That Are Imitated

Doctrines and Systematics
The Metaphysics of Relations
Three Elements
The Four Divine Relations
Subsistent Relations
Three Really Distinct Relations
Divine Relations and the Divine Essence

5. Mission and Person

Introduction: Four Theses
Lonergan’s History of the Notion of Person
Balthasar’s History of the Notion of Person
Lonergan on Person
Person and Mission in Balthasar

6. Transition to the Historical Jesus

Jesus’ Human Consciousness and His Human Self-understanding
Faith, Theology, and History
Concluding Theses

7. Ben F. Meyer, The Aims of Jesus, and the Third Quest for the Historical Jesus

Two Affirmations
Paul and Acts
Gospel Literature
Wright’s Comments and Contribution
Conclusion

Appendix: Theses Presented in the First Two Volumes of This Work