The doctrine of the Trinity and the Gospel of Salvation in the theology of Isaac Dorner

• Main Author: Norgate, Jonathan
• Published: University of Aberdeen 2007
• Subjects: 270.092
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.487336

The thesis is concerned with the relationship between the doctrine of God and the doctrines pertaining to salvation in the theology of Isaac Dorner (1808-1884) with particular reference to his System ojChristian Faith. The thesis seeks to depict the way in which Dorner both exposits and uses his doctrine of God to serve the purposes of demonstrating the certainty of the Christian faith, the necessity of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, and the coherence of the doctrine of substitutionary atonement. We argue that his acco/Illt of God is marked by a consistent, though not unproblematic, interest in demonstrating the certitude of the Christian idea of God as the objective content of basic Christian faith. His account of the economic relation between God and world is analysed in terms of its capacity to depict the possibility of divine immanence within the world without detriment to the world's distinction or prejudicing God's Self-sufficiency. We argue that the world's freedom, though not absolute, .is nevertheless authentic and preserved by its dependent state. In this arrangement we see Dorner's account of God's aseity as decisive. We trace the progress of his theological account from its foundational propositions concerning the objective content of the Christian belief in the Holy Trinity, considered both in its immanent and economic forms. This leads to an analysis of his doctrines of the human creature and its teleological relation to the idea of the necessary God-man. The second part of the thesis includes analyses of those doctrines which pertain to the salvific significance of the realised Godman, Jesus Christ. We investigate Dorner's treatments of the doctrines of Sin, Christology, and Atonement. Keywords Isaac A. Dorner; System ojChristian Faith; Fundamental Doctrine; Specific Doctrine; faith; Trinity; Gospel; atonement; sin; God-man; theanthropos; economic Trinity; Absolute Personality; Mediating theology; aseity; Christology; salvation; substitution; immutability; justification; sanctification; Jesus Christ.