Matthew Barrett - Simply Trinity: The Unmanipulated Father, Son, and Spirit

Matthew Barrett has the evangelical instinct for classic, time-tested, deeply traditional biblical teaching about the Trinity. This book is the story of his joy in finding that doctrine after clearing aside some rubble and debris that had accumulated on top of it in recent years. Simply Trinity proclaims the good news of the unmanipulated doctrine of the triune God.

Fred Sanders, Torrey Honors College, Biola University

Matthew Barretts book is perfect for students of theology in the evangelical tradition. In clear and readable chapters Barrett draws his readers to appreciate classical trinitarian theology as the foundation of biblical faith. Readers are led away from the rocks of those who have sought to convince us that such theology needs radical change, and into the calm, wide sea that is the Christian communitys historic faith.

Lewis Ayres, Durham University

Matthew Barrett exposes those tinkering with the Trinity and provides a great antidote to them. He offers a sane and sober recovery of the churchs exegesis of Scripture to explain that the three persons of the Godhead share in one substance, power, and eternity without hierarchies or other heresies. Barrett provides an informative mix of exegesis, church history, and systematic theology to defend the Christian doctrine of the Trinity against its unwitting saboteurs.

Michael F. Bird, Ridley College, Melbourne, Australia

Simply Trinity delivers an accessible scholarly introduction to historic and biblical understandings of the Trinity and demonstrates how much is at stake in the trinitarian debates that have recently roiled the evangelical community. I recommend it highly.

Thomas S. Kidd, Baylor University

I was blown away by this book, a clear, powerful intervention into trinitarian controversy. The critique of evangelical subordinationists alone is fantastic, and no attentive reader should miss their connections with social trinitarianism. Evangelical theology is in serious trouble, and I think many of us have known that for years, but this book will be impossible to ignore. We simply must turn this trend around or evangelicalism will lose its hold on the gospel.

Craig Carter, Tyndale University

I hope this accessible book is widely read and discussed, especially by evangelicals. It will challenge some things taught in recent decades. But Barretts arguments from Scripture and tradition are to be taken seriously, since we all long for our speech and worship of the triune God to be faithful.

Kelly M. Kapic , Covenant College

Matthew Barrett has written a stormer of a book. He meets head-on the major turn away from the historic Christian account of the triune God to the post-enlightenment account that favored redefinition and novelty tending toward unorthodoxy. In the twentieth century evangelicals adopted this new strategy and have sought to redefine God in favor of their social agendas. I am grateful to God for this book and for the service Professor Barrett has done the church of Christ.

Liam Goligher, Tenth Presbyterian Church

Barrett glorifies the infinitely simple Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with deep wisdom. This would be reason enough to read, but most doctrinally rich books about the Trinity are boring. By contrast, this book sings! From the get-go, Barrett captures ones attention and doesnt let go. The result is urgently needed nourishment for both head and heart.

Matthew Levering , Mundelein Seminary

Matthew Barrett provides the church with a valuable resource, introducing a pro-Nicene account of the Trinity peppered with stories, illustrations, and examples that will make Simply Trinity both engaging and understandable for students and for Christians in the pew. This work is solidly biblical, consciously pro-Nicene, and the ideal replacement for the various social trinitarian treatments of the Trinity that have been popular in the local church in recent decades.

Glenn Butner, Sterling College

Immediately convinced of the need for this book, readers become acquainted with the history of Trinity drift as well as the history of its antidote. Barretts style is both inviting and accessible, utilizing first-person narrative and cogent theological explanation to communicate rigor and depth. He presents a biblically and historically thorough case for the simple triune God differentiated only by eternal generation and spiration. I will value this book as a scholarly dialogue partner and pedagogical teaching text, showing that if we fail to submit ourselves to the image of our gracious God consistent in text and tradition, we will have no foundation from which to think and live theologically in such a demanding time as this.

Amy Peeler, Wheaton College

Matthew Barrett is a theologian who delights in the Trinity, a man who perceives the Trinitys importance. Because of his love of the Trinity, Barrett is flustered by the fact that many twentieth-century evangelical theologians have used and distorted the Trinity for their own social and political agendas. They have misinterpreted the Scriptures. They are ignorant of the church fathers and much of the Christian theological tradition. They have set the Trinity adrift. Barretts book is a refutation of such trinitarian drift, but more so, it is a clear, creative, robust, and scholarly presentation of the Trinity, a presentation that will bring joy to the minds and love to the hearts of all who read it. In so doing, all will give praise to the Father, honor to the Son, and glory to the Holy Spirit.

Thomas G. Weinandy, Capuchin College, Washington, DC

The Trinity is one of the Bibles more challenging doctrines, and yet Matthew Barrett ably guides readers through the issues to present clear and cogent teaching. He opens the treasures of the past and draws on patristic, medieval, Reformation, and contemporary theologians to explain the doctrine of the Trinity. But he also usefully shows where some have gone astray and charitably speaks the truth in love. People would do well to read this book and plumb the depths of the Bibles teaching on the nature of our triune God.

J. V. Fesko, Reformed Theological Seminary, Jackson, MS

Simply Trinity could be a game changer. By writing a book for laypersons on the doctrine of the Trinity and the contributions of the church fathers, Matthew Barrett has gone a long way in helping to banish popular errors that continue to persist about the very nature of God. But this book is so much more. Complex doctrines and historical terms are brought out of the halls of academia and given back to the laity. As I read, there were moments when I shut my eyes and gave thanks to the God whose essence and perfections are beyond words. Please read this book.

Todd Pruitt, Covenant Presbyterian Church, Harrisonburg, VA; cohost, Mortification of Spin podcast

Simply Trinity successfully aims to put the church back on the path of confessional fidelity. Matthew Barrett helps us understand that how we read the Bible and whom we read it with is imperative to beholding the triune Author who reveals himself to us in his Word. You will see how our understanding of God affects our understanding of salvation and what we forfeit if we get it wrong.

Aimee Byrd, author of Recovering from Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

Simply Trinity will help nudge readers to a more scriptural and historically orthodox formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity; it will also help in doing the same for various attributes of God. If you are interested in what Scripture teaches about God and Trinity, how the early creeds of Christianity formulated Scriptures teaching into creedal statements, and how many in our day have left the old paths on this issue, this book is for you.

Richard C . Barcellos, Grace Reformed Baptist Church, Palmdale, CA; IRBS Theological Seminary, Mansfield, TX