5 - The Trinity from Schleiermacher to the end of the twentieth century

Summary

THE ENLIGHTENMENT AND THE DETRADITIONALISATION OF THE THEOLOGY OF THE TRINITY

Between the time of the Reformation and the beginning of the nineteenth century a number of intellectual developments took place which impacted on the theology of the Trinity. First, the separation of faith and reason, already begun in the late medieval period (Condemnation of 1277) became even more pronounced during the Reformation and its aftermath. In the light of the religious conflicts within Western Christendom, an appeal to mere reason without any reference to the tradition proved popular. Descartes' Meditations (1641) is a clear example of this approach. This modern understanding of reason as ‘autonomous’, separate from faith, led in our view to the impoverishment of both reason and faith, for it led to the decline of the contemplative disposition, which had been central to the approach to the mystery of the Trinity amongst medieval schoolmen. A merely rationalistic or a merely fideistic approach was alien to them. A second major development was the rise of empirical sciences which ultimately led to the concept of a mechanistic universe which was explicable in its own terms, without reference to God. In philosophical terms, British empiricism, by acknowledging only sense data as a source of true knowledge, led to the marginalisation of traditional religion, to deism, and even to scepticism. The titles of some of the main works of this time speak for themselves.