Journal: Southeastern Theological Review
Volume: STR 03:2 (Winter 2012)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

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STR 3:2 (Winter 2012) p. 259

Book Reviews

Khaled Anatolios. Retrieving Nicaea, The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2011. 322 pp. ISBN: 9780801031328

For those who know Anatolios’ work it will come as no surprise that his contribution on fourth century Trinitarian doctrine is well worth the investment. To be sure, this is not a work for beginners, but it can certainly be read with profit by those who have a solid foundation in early church history and doctrine. Anatolios’ overall plan is to engage and interact with Trinitarian theology in the period leading up to Nicaea, and then reflect on its development after the first ecumenical council through the works of Athanasius, Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine.

Anatolios opens by asserting that when the early Church Fathers reflected on the Trinity, they did not do so as a matter of speculation or philosophical pedantry, but with the purpose of expressing, “coherent construals of the entirety of Christian existence”. (p. 1) Quite apart from treating the Trinity as an abstract concept, as difficult as it is to penetrate, they were adamant that, given proper understanding and priority, this is doctrine that has implications for every area of life. It is Anatolios’ hope that by retrieving this dimension of Trinitarian expression something of the texture and flavor of those early dialogues will return to our contemporary treatment.

To this end, Anatolios borrows from the philosophy of Gabriel Marcel who posited a distinction between primary reflection and secondary reflection. Simply put, primary reflection places a subject at a distance from the thinker while secondary reflection continually asserts and appropriates a connection between the subject and the one reflecting on it. Anatolios contends that, today, we have a habit of engaging in primary reflection on the doctrine of the Trinity, but in the early church, theologians of all descriptions (heterodox as well as orthodox) were far more interested in secondary reflection. The reason is that their doctrinal confessions were made in and came out of the context of worship. Retrieving Nicaea is about more than just terminology and disagreements, it is about recovering the unity of Christian experience that is made possible under an orthodox appreciation of the Trinity.

The opening two chapters address the doctrinal situation leading up to Nicaea. Here, Anatolios wends his way through the complexity of the debates of this period with clarity, to say nothing of his grasp of the personalities involved. In the midst of this narrative and commentary, two foundational points bear highlighting if for no other reason than because they are all too often forgotten. First, those who argued against the orthodox position such as As...

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