This collection of twelve essays, growing out of the 2008 Wheaton College Theology Conference, explores the bearing of trinitarian theology on the doctrine and interpretation of scripture (part I), the call to Christian community (part II), and the renewal of Christian worship and witness (part III). As editors Daniel J. Trier and David Lauber explain, the topic of the conference was chosen because evangelical theologians are increasingly active participants in the trinitarian renaissance, and their present task should be to pursue trinitarian doctrine ‘all the more carefully’, so that it may influence church life ‘more explicitly and intentionally’.

Part I begins with two chapters on ‘Triune Discourse’ by Kevin J. Vanhoozer, who revisits the doctrine of scripture by asking what its proper location is within Christian dogmatics. According to Vanhoozer, the doctrine of scripture is not a division of a doctrine of providence, or incarnation, or revelation. Instead, its ‘home’ is the triune discourse of God, discourse that ‘the Father initiates, the Son effects, and the Spirit perfects’. When the doctrine of scripture is set in this context, Vanhoozer thinks that the long-contested issue of whether biblical truth is ‘a static textual property’ such as inerrancy, or ‘a dynamic event’ in which God always remains the primary subject is, if not definitively resolved, at least helpfully reframed. Vanhoozer's relocation of the doctrine of scripture raises some important questions for the traditional evangelical approach to the doctrine. One is whether the Spirit's work of illumining scripture's truth is viewed as ‘part and parcel of [God's] communicative action’. Equally important is the question whether the love of scripture is rightly ordered among the other loves of Christians, including their ‘first love, Jesus Christ’.

A recurrent theme, especially in part II of the book, is the danger of misusing trinitarian doctrine, ‘functionalising’ it by misguided attempts to demonstrate its relevance. This is evident in efforts to draw a ‘straight line’ from intra-trinitarian relations to relationships within the Christian community, or even more problematic, to discover in trinitarian relations a blueprint for social reconstruction. Such misuse of trinitarian doctrine is a special concern of Mark Husbands, ‘The Trinity is NOT our Social Program’, and the concern is shared by Keith E. Johnson, ‘Does the Doctrine of the Trinity Hold the Key to a Christian Theology of the Religions?’. Husbands is surely correct in seeing the danger of abuse lurking in idealistic and uncritical moves from trinitarian doctrine to ecclesiology or social ethics. The ontological difference between God and humanity must never be forgotten. Nevertheless, while it is illusory to think that the church can simply replicate intra-trinitarian relations, Husbands’ exercise in ‘negative theology’ briefly acknowledges but leaves undeveloped the possibility of a proper analogical deployment of trinitarian doctrine based in faith alone and centred on the gracious action of God in Jesus Christ. Similarly, Johnson's criticisms of recent efforts to venture a Christian theology of religions with the help of trinitarian doctrine are telling, but one may still wonder whether any Christian theological approach to the encounter of faith traditions today will get very far without fresh and vigorous reflection on the riches of classical trinitarian faith.

Of the essays in part III of the book, those of Leanne Van Dyk, ‘The Church's Proclamation as a Participation in God's Mission’, and John D. Witvliet, ‘What to Do with our Renewed Trinitarian Enthusiasm’, are especially noteworthy. Van Dyk writes of the calling of the church to ‘mirror’ the hospitality and self-giving love of the Trinity in everyday Christian life, while Witvliet underscores the powerfully formative influence of trinitarian faith and practice when made explicit in every aspect of Christian liturgy and pedagogy.

Readers of this book will find much of benefit, much to ponder and much to debate. Several of its essays would well serve a pastor or Christian educator in an effort to draw his or her congregation into the ecumenical retrieval of robust trinitarian faith and life.