Acknowledgments ix

Introduction 1

1 Setting the Scene: Theological Ends 12

Chapter 1 Sacra Doctrina: Wisdom, Scripture, and Metaphysics 23

1 Wisdom 28

2 Theologizing as a Wisdom-Exercise 34

3 Isaiah and St. John the Evangelist as Contemplatives 39

Chapter 2 YHWH and Being 47

1 R. Kendall Soulen's Post-Supersessionist Trinitarian Theology 53

2 Aquinas on Being and YHWH 57

Chapter 3 Scripture and Metaphysics in the Theology of God's Knowledge and Will 75

1 Jon D. Levenson on the God of Israel 77

2 St. Thomas Aquinas on the Knowledge and Will of God in His Unity 83

Chapter 4 The Paschal Mystery and Sapiential Theology of the Trinity 110

1 N. T. Wright and Richard Bauckham on Jesus and the Identity of God 112

2 Hans Urs von Balthasar on the Cross as Analog for the Trinity 120

3 The Paschal Mystery as Revelatory of the Trinity in Aquinas 132

Chapter 5 Scripture and the Psychological Analogy for the Trinity 144

1 Aquinas and the Psychological Analogy 149

Chapter 6 Biblical Exegesis and Sapiential Naming of the Divine Persons 165

1 The Person of the Father 169

2 The Person of the Son 179

3 The Person of the Holy Spirit 185

Chapter 7 Essence, Persons, and the Question of Trinitarian Metaphysics 197

1 Trinitarian Ontology in Clarke, Zizioulas, and Hütter 202

2 Trinitarian Ontology and Aquinas's Approach 213

Conclusion 236

Index 242