The Holy Trinity: Hans Urs Von Balthasar and His Sources

This book explores the ways in which Balthasar employs and adapts the thought of Sergei Bulgakov with the Trinitarian theology of Thomas Aquinas to form a kenotic Trinitarian theology that is based on the notion of Personhood as a relation of self-donating love. When we look at Balthasar's Trinitarian theology in light of Bulgakov, and particularly as a rereading of Bulgakov in light of a Thomistic Trinitarian theology, we are not only able to more clearly understand the implications of Balthasar's own Trinitarian theology but also to highlight the beauty and relevance of Bulgakov's Trinitarian contribution. This reading of Balthasar's Trinitarian theology, read in light of a Thomistic adjustment of Bulgakov, provides an excellent point of integration for an ethics that takes into account not only individual virtues and perfection but also the social/relational context of human personhood. This ethics is based in a concept of human nature bearing the imago Trinitatis and fulfilling that nature through sacramental participation and ethical extension of Christ's self-offering love.