Stephen Theron Thomas Aquinas and Georg Hegel on the Trinity

Annotation

This book compares two Trinitarian studies, those of Hegel's and Aquinas's Trinitarian treatises, following upon Augustine's De trinitate. It distinguishes, regarding Hegel, doctrinal development of earlier texts from contradiction or false rationalisation ("logicisation") thereof, or from their mere repetition. All separation of philosophy and theology is renounced, consistently with "absolute idealism" as defended here. Historical contexts are nonetheless respected in this book. Hegel, the profoundest Trinitarian philosopher-theologian since at least Aquinas, claims that ultimately "revealed" truth generally "belongs to the philosophical order" of necessity. Faith finds philosophical credentials in this universalist (kat'holon) expansion of "the sacred", ripping the veil. Near-perfect harmony is found beneath Hegel's and Aquinas's very different idioms, post-Kantian and medieval respectively, a mixture suited to induce further scholarly treatment or, for readers generally, enriched participation in what emerges as multi-implicative for man's or thought's self-understanding. Full citations of relevant texts, Thomist (Latin and English) and Hegelian (English alone), are provided throughout the books.