Abstract
Sarah Coakley,
God, Sexuality, and the Self: An Essay ‘On the Trinity’
, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 2013; 384 pp.: 9780521552288, £55.00/$85.00 (hbk), 9780521558266, £18.99/$29.99 (pbk)
Many years in the making, Sarah Coakley’s latest book is the first installment of a projected four-volume systematic theology. The Trinity is a not-unexpected topic for the first volume of a systematics, but one might wonder about its being relegated to a subtitle. Does this mean that the Trinity is subordinated to the sex and gender issues that are central for feminism? That is not quite correct, but the doctrine of the Trinity is never allowed to be separated from such issues, in spite of the insistence of all classical theologians that sex and gender do not properly apply to God. In actual religious practice, Coakley argues at length, no such separation is feasible.
Coakley’s method is described by her as théologie totale, which is ‘founded in ascetic practices of attention, but also rooted in an exploration of the many mediums and levels at which theological truth may be engaged’ (p. 48). In fact, the selection of materials is somewhat surprising. One entire chapter out of seven is devoted to Coakley’s ‘field work’ studies of two charismatic congregations in northern England. Another chapter is devoted to some thirty-nine artistic representations of the Trinity (regrettably, reproduced here in black and white). At the same time, there is surprisingly little discussion of key New Testament texts which are foundational for the Trinitarian tradition, with Romans 8 being the chief exception. And there is less detail than one would expect concerning patristic formulations of the doctrine. (The chapter on Gregory of Nyssa and Augustine spends more time on their views of sex and gender than on Trinitarian doctrine as such.) Perhaps Coakley is presupposing familiarity with this more standard Trinitarian material. But doing that seems problematic in view of the non-theologians among her intended audience, as well as the contested nature of the evidence itself.
Coakley’s overall argument is too complex for even a cursory review in a brief notice such as this. As for her conclusions, the following (inadequate) summary will have to suffice. She affirms that the practice of ascetic contemplation is crucially important both for a proper approach to the doctrine of the Trinity and for a resolution of the issues of sex and gender that bedevil the contemporary Church. Without an emphasis on the Holy Spirit in the practice of prayer, the doctrine of the Trinity is apt to recede into practical irrelevance, as it has in many Christian circles. Coakley affirms both the economic Trinity and the immanent, ontological Trinity, but has remarkably little to say about the latter. The closest thing I could find to an answer to the question ‘three what?’ is the remark (in a footnote) that Father, Son and Spirit are ‘personal entities so subtly distinguishable qua inherent relations that one can at best talk of each attracting the possibility of verb-forms, and then only in mutual “co-inherence” with each other’ (p. 321).
This is systematic theology, but perhaps not ‘church theology’ – no Kirkliche Dogmatik here! It is feminist theology, but above all it embodies a profoundly personal vision, albeit one informed by broad and deep scholarly knowledge. Without doubt it will prove to be challenging, perhaps even disturbing, to the wide readership it richly deserves.