God for Us: The Trinity and Christian Life

By Catherine Mowry Lacugna

Book Overview

An extraordinary work that revitalizes theology and Christian life by recovering the early roots of Trinitarian doctrine and exploring the enduringly practical dimensions of faith in God as a community of persons.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0060649135
• ISBN13: 9780060649135
• Release Date: June 1993
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.26 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.2" x 9.4"

Customer Reviews

Best book on Trinity

The Trinity is one of the most challenging and most neglected doctrines in the Church. Lacugna makes learning about the doctrine A VERY REWARDING EXPERIENCE.She summarizes the development of the doctrine from the first century to today. Her intent, however, is to argue that the doctrine of the Trinity is not an explanation of a God who is somewhere "out there" in eternity, but rather an explanation of the community of a God who is present and inviting us into community. She supports her position well, drawing from the ancients and contemporary Orthodox and Catholic theologians.The subject matter of the book is very challenging. It will take most people awhile to get through the material. But each page is a pearl and the reward for reading it is great. I encourage anybody with an interest in the doctrine of the Trinity to prioritize reading this book.

Refreshing integrity.

The maze of philosophical thought through which the anti-Nicene Fathers traveled, and through which the leaders of the Church traveled following Nicea and Chalcedon, are very difficult to trace. However, Catherine Lacugna has been of great assistance to me in the effort to understand them.

Challenging, but rewarding

This book is quite challenging, intellectually, but worth the effort. Be aware of her bias: her position is that the devlopment of Trinitarian theology lost its way after the 4th century Cappadocians! As a result, she asserts, the doctrine lost its relevance. It has become only a source for academic speculation, detached from "real life." LaCugna wants to "rescue" the Trinity from that irrelevance. In the book, she effectively reformulates the doctrine as a source of theological nourishment for the church today. The doctrine only has value, according to LaCugna, if it describes our experience of how God comes to us, offering salvation. In that context, LaCugna does an excellent job of summarizing the historical background to the doctrine of the Trinity, and of connecting the doctrine to the Christian life.