Beloved Protestant-turned-Catholic writer Hahn (The Lamb's Supper, etc.) gives us his most sophisticated book yet, an extended meditation on the Trinity. Theologians and scholars from Miroslav Volf to Eugene Rogers have been paying more attention to the Trinity in recent years, but Hahn is one of the first authors to produce a book designed to introduce a general audience to the theological resources of Trinitarianism. His central point is that God exists as a Trinitarian family, and that living in God's image means modeling our lives and relationships on God's three-in-one relationship with himself. Although he reveres the institution of the family, Hahn powerfully warns against making an idol out of human relationships, insisting that the Trinity is "the home we have desired," while marriage is but "a living, embodied analogy that points the way to something greater." The book is not flawless. Hahn's effort is slightly marred by the cutesy subheadings with which he insists on cluttering all his books ("Children of a Lesser Good," "Re-flesh My Memory" and so forth). The brief foreword by the Pontifical Roman Theological Academy's Ronald Lawler doesn't add a thing. Some readers—especially those who know that other contemporary theologians find in the Trinity ballast for liberal programs like racial reconciliation and acceptance of homosexuality—may quibble with Hahn's socially conservative ends: for him, Trinitarian life translates into heterosexual marriage and calling God "father." But readers who either share, or can set aside, Hahn's conservative theology will consider this a riveting introduction to the mysterious doctrine of the Trinity. (Apr.)
