THE UNIVERSITY OF NOTRE DAME THEO 60808-01 THE MYSTERY OF GOD SUMMER 2014 § Pasquerilla Center 105 MTWRF 12:20 PM-3:00 PM

Jennifer Newsome Martin, Ph.D. 340 Decio Faculty Hall [email protected] (574) 631-7221

§ “In the end, only something endowed with mystery is worthy of love. It is impossible to love something stripped of mystery; at best it would be a thing one uses as one sees fit, but not a person whom one could look up to. Indeed, no progress in knowledge, not even when it occurs in love, may lift the veil from the beloved. Love itself demands, not only possession and unveiling, but just as forcefully reverence and, therefore, veiling….if love is to endure to the very end, then unveiling must not be ultimate, but only penultimate…True love is so full of the true mystery of being’s intimacy that it need never stagnate. Love remains vital because in its eyes the object itself, even apart from what love might add, is always ever greater and never wholly comprehensible.” Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Logic I, 209-10.

Course Description: Who is God? How does the infinite God relate to the finite world? How can human beings come to know God? What is the nature of mystery itself? The general aim of this course is to introduce students to the rich doctrine of God as , which is, as first and foremost a doctrine of salvation, the fundamental mystery of Christian profession and human life. Traditional reflection upon the Trinity evinces both a high degree of intellectual rigor as well as a precision--even elegance--of language, but these attempts at crisp articulation do not compromise the nature of the Trinitarian God as mysterium. The course explores this essential mysteriousness of God through the historical development of normative Trinitarian doctrine, with particular attention to the biblical, patristic, and creedal formulations, as well a selection of representative contemporary Trinitarian thinkers, both Catholic and Orthodox.

Course Objectives: 1. To gain knowledge of the historical and theological development of Trinitarian doctrine.

1 2. To appreciate the nature of the Christian theological tradition as intellectually rigorous, dynamic, and living. 3. To understand how Christian strives to express the wordless spiritual reality of God’s Trinitarian mystery without reducing that mystery to a verbal or conceptual idol.

Course Materials: The following texts are available in the Notre Dame Hammes Bookstore for purchase, as well as widely available online. Used copies are abundantly available through retailers like www.amazon.com.

Required: William G. Rusch, ed., The Trinitarian Controversy (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980). ISBN 0-8006- 1410-0.

Bonaventure, The Journey of the Mind to God, trans. Philotheus Boehner, O.F.M, ed. Stephen F. Brown (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1993). ISBN # 0-87220-200-3.

Karl Rahner, The Trinity (Crossroad Publishing Company, 1997). ISBN #978-0824516277.

Recommended: J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines (New York: HarperCollins, 1960). ISBN # 978-0-06-064334-8.

Denys Turner, The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian (Cambridge University Press, 1995). ISBN # 0-521-64561-1

The remaining texts will be available on Sakai, course reserves, or online, as indicated in the individual reading assignments below. If possible, these texts should be printed out and brought to class on the relevant days with your annotations.

Course Requirements: 1. Regular, punctual, and attentive course attendance and informed, active participation in-class discussion (10%). This class values the democratic quality of discussion of texts as an equivalently important component next to the lectures, so please do prepare accordingly by reading the assigned text carefully and critically.

2. Reading journal (20%). Each student will keep a journal of outlines of texts, responses, questions, and thoughts about the material read, to be submitted for evaluation at the end of each week (Fridays). In this notebook you may note points of particular significance, difficulty, or beauty, identify important or problematic passages, as well as note any clarifying or interpretive questions about the text itself or its relation to other texts or authors we have treated. Please feel free to tailor the content of these journals to your own academic and professional interests. These journal entries will form the basis of class discussion, as students share elements from their entries as the starting point for our conversation.

3. Two short reflection papers (3-5 pages) (15% each, for a total of 30%).

4. Final Exam (40%)

2 Attendance Policy Successful completion of the course and assignments depends on regular attendance. Because we will be covering an extensive amount of material in quite a compressed time, please make every effort to attend each class session. The class meets daily for 2 hours and 40 minutes, with one 10-15 minute break in the middle. If an absence is unavoidable, in the case of severe illness, family emergencies, or service to the University, please contact me by email, voicemail, or by a note in my PLS Office box in advance.

Evaluation: Grades will be calculated in accordance with the University’s grading system: A (4.00); A- (3.667), B+ (3.333), B (3.000), C+ (2.333), C (2.0), C- (1.667), D (1.000), F (0.000). Letter grades correspond as follows: 100-94% = A, 93-90 %= A-, 89-87% = B+, 86-84% = B, 83-80%=B-, 79-77%=C+, 76- 74%=C, 73-70%=C-, 69-60%=D, 60% and below=F.

Proposed Course Schedule WEEK ONE: Monday, June 16 The of the Mystery of the Triune God Karl Rahner, S.J., “The Concept of Mystery in ,” Theological Investigations 4.36-73 (Sakai Resources).

Tuesday, June 17 The Trinity in Scripture Walter Kasper, The God of Jesus Christ, New Edition (T&T Clark, 2012), pp. 116-130 and pp. 233-249 (e-reserves). Edmund Hill, The Mystery of the Trinity (London: Gregory Chapman, 1985), pp. 11-41 (e-reserves).

*Please bring a to this class session.

Wednesday, June 18 The Trinity in the Ante-Nicene Fathers J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, “The Pre-Nicene Theology,” 83-108. (e-reserves) Ireneaus, Against , Book III. 16-19 (http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/text/irenaeus- book3.html)

Thursday, June 19 The Trinity in the Fourth Century Fathers I, The Arian Controversy Arius’s Letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia (Rusch), pp. 29-30. Arius’s Letter to Alexandria of Alexandria (Rusch), pp. 31-32. Alexander of Alexandria’s Letter to Alexander of Thessalonica (Rusch), pp. 33-44. “The of the Synod of Nicaea, June 19, 325” (Rusch), p. 49 Athanasius’s Orations against the Arians, Book I (Rusch, pp. 63-129), especially pp. 63-83.

*Recommended: Athanasius, “Orations Against the Arians, Book III,” The Christological Controversy, trans. Richard A. Norris (Fortress Press, 1980), pp. 83-101 (e-reserves). J.N.D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines, “The Nicene Crisis,” 223-251.

3 Friday, June 20 The Trinity in the Fourth Century Fathers II, The Cappadocians “’s Concerning We Should Think of Saying That There Are Not Three Gods to Ablabius”, The Trinitarian Controversy, ed. William G. Rusch (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1980), pp. 149-161. John Zizioulas, “The Trinity and Personhood: Appreciating the Cappadocian Contribution,” Communion and Otherness, 155-170, and "Appendix: Person and Individual--a 'Misreading' of the Cappadocians?" pp. 171-177 (e-reserves).

WEEK TWO Monday, June 23 FIRST REFLECTION PAPER DUE The Trinity in the West: Augustine I Augustine, De Trinitate, Books I and VIII (e-reserves).

*Recommended: Denys Turner, “Interiority and Ascent: Augustine’s De Trinitate,” The Darkness of God: Negativity in (Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 74-101.

Tuesday, June 24 The Trinity in the West: Augustine II Augustine, De Trinitate, Books IX and X (e-reserves).

*Recommended: Augustine, De Trinitate, Book XV.

Wednesday, June 25 The Trinity in Late Patristic Theology/Mysticism Pseudo-Dionysius, The Mystical Theology, and The Divine Names (Book I, Chapters 1-3) in Pseudo- Dionysius: The Complete Works (Classics of Western ), trans. Colm Luibheid (New York, Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1987), pp. 49-70 and pp. 135-141 (e-reserves).

*Recommended: Denys Turner, “Cataphatic and the apophatic in Denys the Areopagite,” The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism (Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 19-49.

Thursday, June 26 The Trinity in Medieval Theology: & Aquinas Bonaventure, Itinerarium Mentis in Deum [The Journey of the Mind to God], 1-39. , Summa Theologica Prima Pars, Q.27-29 (http://www.newadvent.org/summa/1.htm)

*Recommended: Denys Turner, “Hierarchy interiorized: Bonaventure’s Itinerarium Mentis in Deum,” The Darkness of God: Negativity in Christian Mysticism (Cambridge University Press, 1995), pp. 102-134.

Friday, June 27 Introduction to Modern Trinitarian Developments Joseph Ratzinger (Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI), “Belief in the Triune God,” Introduction to (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1969), pp. 162-190 (e-reserves).

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*Recommended: Joseph Ratzinger, The God of Jesus Christ: Meditations on the Triune God (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2008), pp.15-37 (e-reserves).

WEEK THREE Monday, June 30 SECOND REFLECTION PAPER DUE Contemporary Roman Catholic Trinitarian Developments I: Karl Rahner & Absolute Mystery Karl Rahner, The Trinity (selections)

Tuesday, July 1 Contemporary Roman Catholic Trinitarian Developments II: Hans Urs von Balthasar & Suffering Love Hans Urs von Balthasar, Theo-Drama IV and Theo-Drama V (selections, TBA)

Wednesday, July 2 The Trinity, Creation, and the Beautiful: Aesthetics, Poetics & The Patrick Sherry, “The Holy Spirit in the Trinity,” Spirit and Beauty: An Introduction to Theological Aesthetics, 2nd edition (SCM Press, 2002), pp. 77-99, and “The Holy Spirit, Transfiguration, and Glory,” pp. 144-150 (e-reserves).

Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Pied Beauty,” (http://www.bartleby.com/122/13.html) “God’s Grandeur,” (http://www.bartleby.com/122/7.html), “As Kingfishers Catch Fire,” (http://www.bartleby.com/122/34.html).

*Recommended: Pavel Florensky, “On the Holy Spirit,” in Alexander Schmemann, ed. Ultimate Questions: An Anthology of Modern Russian Religious Thought (New York, 1965), pp. 137-72. Sergei Bulgakov, The Comforter, pp. 200-205.

Thursday, July 3 FINAL EXAM

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