2019 Kistemaker Academic Lecture Series with Dr. Fred Sanders

Blessed Trinity: The Beatitude and Triunity of the Christian God

Dr. Fred Sanders

2019 Kistemaker Academic Lecture Series

Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando

 
On February 26 and 27, Dr. Fred Sanders, Professor of Theology at Biola University’s Torrey Honors Institute, will deliver the Kistemaker Academic Lecture Series (KALS) at RTS Orlando.
 

The gospel includes the announcement of “the glory of the blessed God” (1 Tim 1:11), and the goal of these lectures is to draw attention to the divine perfection of blessedness. Among the divine perfections, blessedness repays our contemplation especially because of what it says about the totality of all other perfections, because of how it points to the mysterious depths of God’s own self-possession, and because of the way it manifests the inward intensification of the doctrine of the one God into an account of the perfect life of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is particularly this trinitarian aspect of divine blessedness that we will explore, describing the conceptual tools that support our praise of “God in three persons, blessed Trinity.” After a general survey of blessedness as a divine perfection, we will locate God’s blessedness fundamentally in the eternal processions within the divine life, and then in its triumphant and saving demonstration in the temporal missions of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Finally we will examine some of the reasons for the partial eclipse of this glorious doctrine in the modern period, attempting to do justice to the concerns of theologians who have preferred to speak of divine pain, but recommending that the path forward for Christian dogmatics is to confess the blessedness of the triune God.

Lecture 1: Divine Blessedness and the Triune God

Lecture 2: Depth of Blessedness: The Ingenerate Father

Lecture 3: Demonstration of Blessedness: The Exalted Son and the Indwelling Spirit

Lecture 4: Retrieval of Blessedness: After Modernity, Light

Fred Sanders is professor of theology in the Torrey Honors Institute at Biola University, where he has taught undergraduate general education using great books pedagogy since 1999. He has also taught regularly at the Los Angeles Bible Training School since 2009, and will help launch Talbot School of Theology’s Master of Arts, Classical Theology in fall 2019. He holds a BA in studio art from Murray State University, an MDiv from Asbury Theological Seminary, and a Ph.D. from the Graduate Theological Union. He has been thinking about the Trinity for a long time now, but feels like he is just getting started.

Dr. Sanders is author of The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything(Crossway, second edition 2017), John Wesley on the Christian Life: The Heart Renewed in Love (Crossway, 2013), and The Triune God (Zondervan, 2016) in the New Studies in Dogmatics series. His other publications include academic articles on the Trinity, the academic monograph The Image of the Immanent Trinity: Rahner’s Rule and the Theological Interpretation of Scripture (Peter Lang, 2005), and a set of theological comic books featuring a talking sheep. He has co-edited Retrieving Eternal Generation (Zondervan, 2017) with Scott Swain, Theology and California: Theological Refractions on California’s Culture (Ashgate, 2014) with Jason Sexton, Jesus in Trinitarian Perspective: An Introductory Christology (B&H Academic, 2007) with Klaus Issler, and six volumes of Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics with Oliver Crisp, his co-convenor for the annual Los Angeles Theology Conference.

Dr. Sanders lives in La Mirada, CA with his wife Susan. They have been married for 28 years, have two teen children, and are members of Grace Evangelical Free Church in La Mirada.

Established in 2003 and named in memory of the Rev. Dr. Simon J. Kistemaker, longtime professor of New Testament at Reformed Theological Seminary, these annual lectures offer scholarly insights on contemporary issues in biblical studies, systematic theology, and practical theology.

2019 Schedule

Tuesday, February 26

11:00 am – Lecture 1: Divine Blessedness and the Triune God

1:00 pm – Lecture 2: Depth of Blessedness: The Ingenerate Father

Wednesday, February 27

11:00 am – Lecture 3: Demonstration of Blessedness: The Exalted Son and the Indwelling Spirit

Noon – 12:50 pm: Community Lunch in the Fellowship Hall

1:00 pm – Lecture 4: Retrieval of Blessedness: After Modernity, Light