Steve Holmes' paper at the Colin Gunton conference argued for a shift in Gunton's thinking in the early 1990s with regard to the doctrine of the Trinity. In the first half of his career the doctrine of the Trinity mattered in Gunton's theology, but only because it helped with other parts of theology. The One, the Three and the Many (published in 1993 based on his 1992 Bampton Lectures) is regarded widely as Gunton's best work, but Colin himself believed it didn't contain enough theology. For Colin it wasn't trinitarian enough. Holmes argued that this book marks the end of one approach to the doctrine of the Trinity, to which the rest of the 90s and early 2000s saw Gunton go in a different direction. The subtitle to Enlightenment and Alienation (1985, although finished in 1982) is 'An Essay toward a Trinitarian Theology' and his collection of essays published in 1991 is called The Promise of Trinitarian Theology. These titles perhaps reveal that Gunton was looking for a way to do theology in a more trinitarian manner.
What we detect in the early 1990s (as Holmes showed) was the introduction of Irenaeus notion of the Son and the Spirit as God's two hands (the first time it is referenced is in Christ and Creation. The 1990 Didsbury Lectures published in 1992). From this point onwards Irenaeus' two hands is in constant use and Colin begins to develop a trinitarian theology of mediation. In A Brief Theology of Revelation. The 1993 Warfield Lectures (1995), The preface to the second edition of The Promise of Trinitarian Theology (1997), The Triune Creator (1998), Intellect and Action (2000), The Christian Faith (2002), Act and Being (2003) and Father, Son and Spirit (2003) (which is interestingly subtitled 'Toward a Fully Trinitarian Theology') references to meditation and Christ as mediator can be found frequently. A trinitarian theology of mediation enabled Colin to articulate a trinitarian theology, which would have witness most fully in his projected dogmatics.
The first part of Colin's dogmatics (which was finished in draft) is still to be published, but Jenson said he hoped it wouldn't be too long before the editing is finished.
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