One of the Trinity Has Suffered

Joshua R. Brotherton holds an M.A. in Philosophy from the University of Dallas, an M.A. in Theology from Franciscan University of Steubenville, and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Catholic University of America. He has published in a wide variety of scholarly journals.

Hans Urs von Balthasar's speculations on Christ's descent into Hell and its significance for the Trinity have been celebrated by some as epochal insights and denounced by others as bordering on heresy. Joshua Brotherton admirably avoids partisan extremes in this careful and penetrating analysis. Displaying a striking command of the issues and literature, Brotherton sympathetically lays out Balthasar's important contribution, but does not shy away from fundamental criticism." - Michael Root, Catholic University of America"Joshua Brotherton's reading of Balthasar's reflection on the Trinity from a Thomistic point of view is at once fundamentally appreciative and critical, in equal parts surprisingly positive and bracing. At no time does one doubt his grasp of those theological points that divide Aquinas from Balthasar. Yet marking disagreements is in the service of staging a genuine encounter between two theologians who are an expression and fruit of the Church. The encounter needs to continue." - Cyril O'Regan, University of Notre Dame"With breadth of vision, Brotherton orients the reader to the state of this highly relevant question and stimulates further debate. Reading Balthasar in light of Maritain and others, he attempts a critical and broadly Thomistic appropriation of central elements of Balthasar's thought. Through a complex negotiation, Brotherton seeks to retrieve Balthasar's essential view of Christ's salvific suffering, while resisting Balthasar's projection of kenosis into the Trinity itself—a problem he perceptively traces to Balthasar's lack of an adequate theory concerning the relationship of grace and freedom." - Robert J. Matava, Christendom College