Review of The Trinity in the Canon: A Biblical, Theological, Historical, and Practical Proposal.

Smith, Brandon D., ed. The Trinity in the Canon: A Biblical, Theological, Historical, and Practical Proposal. B&H Academic, 2023, pp. 496, $19.24, Kindle.

TC takes its place in evangelical dogmatics alongside other recent volumes (e.g., the series New Studies in Dogmatics edited by Swain and Michael Allen) that ground theology in Scripture—interpreted through the Christian tradition.

Brandon D. Smith (PhD, Ridley College, Melbourne), editor of The Trinity in the Canon (hereafter, TC), serves as Chair of the Hobbs School of Theology & Ministry and as an Associate Professor of Theology & Early Christianity at Oklahoma Baptist University. He also co-founded the Center for Baptist Renewal and serves as the host of the Church Grammar podcast. Smith’s other recent books on the Trinity and theological hermeneutics include The Trinity in the Book of Revelation: Seeing Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in John’s Apocalypse (Dec., 2022), The Biblical Trinity: Encountering the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in Scripture (May, 2023), Taught by God: Ancient Hermeneutics for the Modern Church (March, 2024), and Beholding the Triune God: The Inseparable Work of Father, Son, and Spirit (Sept. 2024).

An edited collection of fifteen chapters, TC proposes that Scripture’s subject matter is the Trinity. The Scriptures themselves are an invitation to hear from the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As with Smith’s other works, TC represents a broadly Thomistic (i.e., classical) understanding of the Trinity. In this work, Smith has gathered scholars from a wide range of fields—from New Testament studies to apologetics—to defend Scripture’s Trinitarian witness. The majority of contributors to TC write from the perspective of theological interpretation (i.e., a mode of reading Scripture in which faith, presuppositions, and creeds serve as preconditions to understanding). Madison Pierce describes this mode of biblical interpretation as “shaped by the discipline of systematic theology but still attentive to the individual contributions of each biblical text. It is not just confessional but focused and ecclesial” (p. 54). The ideal hermeneutic neither allows the tradition to over-determine one’s conclusions nor presumes that biblical authors conflict with the tradition.

The primary strengths of TC are its defenses of the Trinity’s common deity, its affirmation of pro-Nicene theology, and its reliance on biblical authority. First, the contributors show Scripture’s consistent testimony to the Trinity’s common deity. Matthew Emerson effectively categorizes four kinds of evidence: “The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit each have the same appellations, attributes, actions, and adoration” (p. 119). May these clear, biblical, and traditional Trinitarian principles ring from pulpits and echo through pews.

Second, the work unapologetically affirms pro-Nicene theology. Along with hearing from usual pro-Nicene theologians like Athanasius, the Cappadocians, Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin; we also learn of lesser-known pro-Nicenes like Ephrem the Syrian, Didymus the Blind, John Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and Bede of England. Capturing the volume’s understanding of this tradition, R. Luke Stamps states, “In a very real sense, the doctrine of the creeds can be demonstrated from the Gospel [of Luke]” (pp. 175-176). Multiple authors defend pro-Nicene principles like inseparable operations, prosopological exegesis, partitive exegesis, and redoublement. TC has done well to introduce its readers to pro-Nicene representatives and their interpretative strategies.

Third, TC places appropriate weight on Scripture’s authoritative testimony. The volume’s ten middle chapters broadly cover the entire Bible—with nine on the NT and one on the OT. The book leaves little of the New Testament’s witness to the Trinity unaddressed. For example, Fred Sanders skillfully covers the “Pauline Epistles” (pp. 245-271) and Darian R. Lockett does an effective overview of the Trinitarian witness in the “Catholic Epistles” (pp. 311-341). More can be said about Scripture’s Trinitarian witness, but covering such a broad scope of Scripture makes the right statement about doctrine’s ultimate authority.

The primary strengths of TC are its defenses of the Trinity’s common deity, its affirmation of pro-Nicene theology, and its reliance on biblical authority.

In critique of the volume, the work faces two significant difficulties in content and one in form. First, the authors seem to disagree regarding whether—according to pro-Nicene theology—we can distinguish the persons by more than their eternal origins. On the one side, Emerson and Stamps distinguish the persons immanently by their origins only (pp. 122, 169); on the other side, Scott Swain and David Baggett defend immanent distinctions in the persons’ loving regard for one another. With support from Augustine’s Homilies on the Gospel of John (1:365), Swain represents attentive adoration in the immanent Trinity: “We must describe the Son’s relation to the Father as one of both origin and orientation: he is the eternal Son of the Father, eternally turned toward the Father in attentive adoration” (pp. 200-201, emphasis added). Similarly, Baggett understands the Trinity’s loving regard for one another to be a foundation of classical apologetics (pp. 453-462). While the volume’s contributors agree Scripture reveals the Trinity’s relations of origin, the book’s theologians disagree whether this relation cannot—or must—include distinctive, attentive love of the Father, Son, and Spirit toward each another.

Second, the authors find disagreement regarding the Trinity’s economic prepositions (i.e., from the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit). Whereas some of the contributors relativize New Testament “prepositional metaphysics,” other theologians find in the prepositions objective Trinitarian distinctions. For example, Gerald Bray downplays the prepositions: “All three prepositions [from, through, and in] could be (and were) used more or less indiscriminately of all three persons. . . That in itself was an argument for their equality, if not interchangeability” (pp. 25-26). In a similar manner, Pierce points to Hebrews 2:10, concluding, “Hebrews speaks of both the Father and the Son as active agents who create (1:10–12; 3:4) and as instruments of creation (1:2; 2:10)” (p. 49, emphasis added). These theologians seem to appeal to interchangeable economic modes as an argument for divine unity. On the other hand, Swain describes the prepositions as indicating distinct personal modes: “To say that God created all things through his Word (and Spirit) (Gen 1:1–3; Ps 33:6) is . . . [to describe] the agency of the Word . . . in terms of his personal mode of exercising divine power (‘through him’)” (p. 185). Similarly, Sanders sees these prepositions as fundamental to the definition of Pauline Trinitarianism (p. 271) as does Tom Schreiner in the Trinitarianism of Hebrews (p. 290, 300). Such discord among the contributors about the biblical witness seems to work against the book’s argument about the Trinitarian witness.

Third, regarding the edited volume’s form, the practical chapters that conclude the volume may distract some from the book’s thesis. While I commend applying Trinitarian theology to pastoral practice and while the final three chapters do this well, these chapters may feel out of place to some—like applying the thesis before its complete defense. One might wonder if less practical chapters and a few more OT chapters would have better served the overall argument. This is especially the case given Heath Thomas’s position that the OT provides Trinitarian definition (pp. 61-82).

In conclusion, TC takes its place in evangelical dogmatics alongside other recent volumes (e.g., the series New Studies in Dogmatics edited by Swain and Michael Allen) that ground theology in Scripture—interpreted through the Christian tradition. Prior to reading this volume, students should understand basic Trinitarian theology regarding the one divine essence, three distinct divine persons, eternal relations of origin, and economic missions. The book’s internal tensions might make it better for upper-level theology classes than for busy pastors. The text would be ideal for instructors who want to assign individual chapters or tease out Trinitarian nuances. Certainly, this volume will help students understand the consistent biblical grounds for identifying the Trinity’s common divinity: attributes, appellations, activity, and adoration. It will also help familiarize students with various pro-Nicene figures and theological principles. TC’s proposal—that the Bible is the Trinity’s self-revelation—is of eternal and salvific significance. May all who read be persuaded.