TheoLogica: An International Journal for Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology
CALL FOR PAPERS
CONCILIAR TRINITARIANISM
Guest editors:
Beau Branson (Brescia University)
Scott Williams (University of North Carolina Asheville)
Joseph Jedwab (Kutztown University)
TheoLogica invites submissions for a new issue on “Conciliar Trinitarianism.” Following Timothy Pawl’s definition of Conciliar Christology, we define “Conciliar Trinitarianism” as the conjunction of claims about the Trinity in the first seven ecumenical councils. Much recent work in analytic theology on Trinitarian doctrine has been limited in two related ways: (1) a narrow focus on the apparent inconsistency of the doctrine and (2) little regard for the historical context in which the doctrine developed. In an effort to overcome these limitations, we invite papers from both analytic theologians and patristics scholars that address some aspect of how analytic and historical theology may mutually inform each other in the area of Conciliar Trinitarianism. In particular, we seek papers that clarify the contents and contexts of Conciliar Trinitarianism with reference to either the conciliar documents, relevant theologians, Christology, Pneumatology, soteriology, ecclesiology, liturgy, sacraments, icons, biblical canons, laws, or politics.
Possible topics include: Whether the pronouncements of the councils have too little content to
define any particular view of the Trinity, or too much to be consistent; whether Conciliar
Trinitarianism commits one to particular definitions of key terms like “ousia,” “hypostasis,” and
“prosopon”; how the philosophy of law might bear on the question of whether we should be looking at the original meaning or intent of conciliar documents, or treating them as “living documents”; to
what extent the background beliefs of the authors of conciliar documents constrain how we must
understand the content asserted by those documents; whether, given that non-Trinitarians in
antiquity typically had different canons of scripture, questioning Trinitarianism without equally
questioning the canon of scripture can be rationally justified; what the relation was between
Conciliar Trinitarianism and widespread liturgical practices in the fourth century, and what is or
should be the relation between our own views on the Trinity and our own worship practices; the role
of the Monarchy of the Father in Conciliar Trinitarianism; whether there is a distinctly
Conciliar Pneumatology; what the relation was or should be between Conciliar
Trinitarianism and Conciliar Christology (e.g., should terms like “physis” and “hypostasis” be
given the same meanings in both contexts?); in what ways Conciliar Trinitarianism might relate to
the theology of icons, given that Christ is “the Ikon of the Invisible God”; any other issues,
whether substantive or methodological, that pertain to Conciliar Trinitarianism.
The issue will include original papers by Michel Barnes, Oliver Crisp, Mark Edwards, Timothy Pawl,
Dale Tuggy and Anna Zhyrkova, as well as responses by Richard Cross, R. T. Mullins, Andrew
Radde-Galwitz, Anna Usacheva, and others.
Deadline for submissions: September 30th, 2019
Full papers should be submitted via our website: (https://ojs.uclouvain.be/index.php/theologica/index)
or sent to: managingeditor.theologica@gmail.com.
In order to contribute equally to scientific international discussions held in several languages, articles written in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish are accepted. Visit the TheoLogica homepage for a description of the journal and instructions to authors.