From the New Conceptions of the Person in God

Abstract

In the classical Trinitology being developed in the East mainly the conception of Persons of the Trinity was emphasized, whereas in the West the oneness of the Three-Person God was stressed. The author has chosen four main approaches to the problem in the new Western trinitology: Trinity as three ways of the existence of the one Person of God (K. Barth, K.Rahner, P. Schoonenberg); as the Communio of Persons, being the essence of God (J. Moltmann, G. Greshake); as the pre-model of social-political life: individual vs community (L.Boff); and as a sequential genetic fulfillment of the relation from the Father through the Son to the Holy Spirit (J. Ratzinger, Cz. S. Bartnik, K. Góźdź). This last approach stresses the intrinsic existence of the person, the fullness of the being and the subjective depth of the ego, and in consequence ontological trinitology without reducing the Persons in the Trinity to Love only, even if it could be put in the first place.