About 200 gathered today at the Friends Meeting House near Euston for the Westminster Conference. The opening lecture was on John Owen on the Trinity was given by Robe
rt Letham. An Englishman, Dr Letham has been pastoring in the USA for the last 17 years but has recently taken up an appointment in the Evangelical Theological College of Wales, Bridgend. Author of a recently published and well received IVP book on the Trinity, his lecture was fluent and erudite but included a few light touches to ease us along in what can be a diffiicult subject.
Dr Letham began by listing the works where Owen chiefly deals with the subject, highlighting Communion with God 1657. He then outlined the history of the doctrine chiefly in the western Catholic context, complaining about the way Hodge and others divide their teaching on God's attributes and the Trinity.
He saw Owen's strengths to be his biblical, orthodoxly western and yet, like Lombard and Calvin, partly eastern approach. He puts equal focus on the threeness adn the oneness of God.
There were some criticisms, for example Owen's over-reliance on arguments based on Song of Songs. Appreciation for Owen's use of covenantal theology was tempered too by a suggestion that he neglects the Spirit, probably due to Augustinian influence. (Augustine illustrated the Trinity by seeing the Spirt as the love that
binds lover and Beloved).
Chairman Errol Hulse suggested we either discuss reaching Muslims or communion with all three persons. We opted for the latter and one or two helpful things were said.
rt Letham. An Englishman, Dr Letham has been pastoring in the USA for the last 17 years but has recently taken up an appointment in the Evangelical Theological College of Wales, Bridgend. Author of a recently published and well received IVP book on the Trinity, his lecture was fluent and erudite but included a few light touches to ease us along in what can be a diffiicult subject.Dr Letham began by listing the works where Owen chiefly deals with the subject, highlighting Communion with God 1657. He then outlined the history of the doctrine chiefly in the western Catholic context, complaining about the way Hodge and others divide their teaching on God's attributes and the Trinity.
He saw Owen's strengths to be his biblical, orthodoxly western and yet, like Lombard and Calvin, partly eastern approach. He puts equal focus on the threeness adn the oneness of God.There were some criticisms, for example Owen's over-reliance on arguments based on Song of Songs. Appreciation for Owen's use of covenantal theology was tempered too by a suggestion that he neglects the Spirit, probably due to Augustinian influence. (Augustine illustrated the Trinity by seeing the Spirt as the love that
binds lover and Beloved).Chairman Errol Hulse suggested we either discuss reaching Muslims or communion with all three persons. We opted for the latter and one or two helpful things were said.
For a review of Dr Letham's book see
http://www.reformation21.org/Past_Issues/April_2006/Shelf_Life_/Shelf_Life_/166/vobId__2627/
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