Trinity, time and ecumenism in Robert Jenson’s theology

Abstract

Robert Jenson, an American Lutheran theologian, is well known as a Trinitarian andecumenical theologian. In his Trinitarian theology he makes specific choices regardingthe relationship between God and time as an attempt to overcome the Hellenisticinfluences on the early church’s theology, especially about the timelessness of God.Jenson proposes a temporal infinity or timefullness of God, which is central to therelationships within the Trinity. Jenson temporally defines the unity of the Trinityin relation to the claim that God is in fact the mutual life and action of the threepersons, Father, Son and Spirit as they move toward the future. In the Trinity’srelationship to time the person Jesus fulfils a very specific role, namely the “speciouspresent”, and this temporal location of Him leads in Jenson’s theology to a verystrong ecclesiology and eventually to specific proposals regarding ecumenism. In thisarticle I will investigate this link between Trinity, time and ecumenism in Jenson’stheology.