It was fine! A good book! I agreed with it! However, one does wonder... just how much can we expound on such a mystery as the Trinity is without delving into heresy on either side. ( )

This book is an attempt by Reformed Christians to discuss the Trinity as they have rediscovered Thomas Aquinas. As such, this is a book that seeks to recover Thomistic Classical Theism, and to do so in polemics against what the author Matthew Barrett asserts are doctrinal errors concerning the Trinity. There is a strong focus on a robust Thomistic Classical Theism, which is its strength.

Most of the venom here is directed against a view held by fellow Reformed Evangelicals: Eternal Submission of the Son (ESS). Also called EFS (Eternal Functional Subordination) or ERAS (Eternal Relations of Authority and Submission), this view asserts that within the Godhead, the Son submits to the Father from eternity, and this submission is functional not ontological in nature. In Chapter 8, Barrett's recovery of Thomas Aquinas spill over into vehement polemics, as Barrett continuously misrepresent ESS according to a Thomistic and Aristotelian framework. Barrett attacks EFS as asserting that there is subordination in the immanent Trinity (It doesn't), he attacks EFS as teaching separate wills of the persons leading to an implicit tritheism (It doesn't), and that it tends towards Modalism and most certainly Subordinationism (It doesn't). Barrett asserts that it is species of Social Trinitarianism (It isn't), and I am sure he would throw extra accusations if he thought it would stick. On this issue, Barrett has totally lost it.

If one wants to know what Thomistic Classical Theism teaches, by all means get the book. But if one wants to know what it teaches without the polemics, I suggest other books are better. It goes without saying that if one wants to learn the doctrine of the Trinity broader than the Thomistic tradition, this book is not for you. ( )