The doctrine of the Trinity was settled in the fourth century, and maintained, with only very minor disagreement or development, by all strands of the church--Western and Eastern, Protestant and Catholic--until the modern period. In the twentieth century, there arose a sense that the doctrine had been neglected and stood in need of recovery.

In The Quest for the Trinity, Holmes takes us on a remarkable journey through 2,000 years of the Christian doctrine of God. We witness the church's discovery of the Trinity from the biblical testimony, its crucial patristic developments, and medieval and Reformation continuity. We are also confronted with the questioning of traditional dogma during the Enlightenment, and asked to consider anew the character of the modern Trinitarian revival.

Holmes's controversial conclusion is that the explosion of theological work in recent decades claiming to recapture the heart of Christian theology in fact deeply misunderstands and misappropriates the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. Yet his aim is constructive: to grasp the wisdom of the past and, ultimately, to bring a clearer understanding of the meaning of the present.

The doctrine of the Trinity was settled in the fourth century, and maintained, with only very minor disagreement or development, by all strands of the church--Western and Eastern, Protestant and Catholic--until the modern period. In the twentieth century, there arose a sense that the doctrine had been neglected and stood in need of recovery. In The Quest for the Trinity, Holmes takes us on a remarkable journey through 2,000 years of the Christian doctrine of God. We witness the church’s discovery of the Trinity from the biblical testimony, its crucial patristic developments, and medieval and Reformation continuity. We are also confronted with the questioning of traditional dogma during the Enlightenment, and asked to consider anew the character of the modern Trinitarian revival. Holmes’s controversial conclusion is that the explosion of theological work in recent decades claiming to recapture the heart of Christian theology in fact deeply misunderstands and misappropriates the traditional doctrine of the Trinity. Yet his aim is constructive: to grasp the wisdom of the past and, ultimately, to bring a clearer understanding of the meaning of the present.

Stephen R. Holmes (Ph.D., King's College London) is Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. His books include (Paternoster and Baker, 2002), and , edited with Lindsey Hall and Murray Rae (SCM, 2010).

Trinitarian theology has been a rallying cry for a particular constructive project in modern dogmatics...In this volume, Holmes sets out a rather different account, one which tracks the tradition with greater care. This will in all likelihood be a healthy corrective to some enamored with an inflated or hypertrophied trinitarian theology.
-Oliver Crisp,
Fuller Theological Seminary

In this lively and engrossing book, Stephen Holmes charts the development of the doctrine of the Trinity...calling into question some established conventions about the history of trinitarian theology. This is a work of considerable theological intelligence and historical discrimination; it will enjoy a wide readership.
-John Webster,
University of Aberdeen

It is rare to write something which can be both a textbook and a real intervention in a debate, but Steve Holmes has pulled it off. As a textbook for serious students, this is superb, covering the history of the doctrine in a way that is fresh, illuminating, concise and intelligent. I wish we had had it sooner.
-Karen Kilby,
University of Nottingham

Stephen Holmes's book is brilliant in so many ways: provocative, timely, historically nuanced, theologically insightful, academically courageous and wonderfully sane. This book is must reading for all interested not only in the ongoing scholarly debate about trinitarian theology, but also for those concerned that their worship of the triune God echoes, in some meaningful ways, the voices of the saints throughout the ages.
-Kelly M. Kapic,
Covenant College

"Stephen Holmes's book is brilliant in so many ways: provocative, timely, historically nuanced, theologically insightful, academically courageous and wonderfully sane. This book is must reading for all interested not only in the ongoing scholarly debate about trinitarian theology, but also for those concerned that their worship of the triune God echoes, in some meaningful ways, the voices of the saints throughout the ages."

"It is rare to write something which can be both a textbook and a real intervention in a debate, but Steve Holmes has pulled it off. As a textbook for serious students, this is superb, covering the history of the doctrine in a way that is fresh, illuminating, concise and intelligent. I wish we had had it sooner."

"In this lively and engrossing book, Stephen Holmes charts the development of the doctrine of the Trinity . . . calling into question some established conventions about the history of trinitarian theology. This is a work of considerable theological intelligence and historical discrimination; it will enjoy a wide readership."

"Trinitarian theology has been a rallying cry for a particular constructive project in modern dogmatics. . . . In this volume, Holmes sets out a rather different account, one which tracks the tradition with greater care. This will in all likelihood be a healthy corrective to some enamored with an inflated or hypertrophied trinitarian theology."

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