The Trinitarian Source of Freedom in the Thinking of Ray L. Hart and David G. Leahy

Dise initiates an analysis of the nature of the Trinity in Hart and Leahy, both thinkers who contest the modalism in contemporary radical theology. For Hart, the Trinity involves the process of determination of God the Creator sourced in the indeterminate abyss of the Godhead. For Leahy, by contrast, the Trinity is the very transfiguration of the Godhead. Hart’s process of creatio ab origine et continua distinguishes Godhead (sheer origin), God the Creator qua originary determination, and God the Redeemer qua creature, whereas in Leahy’s vision there is no distance between Godhead and creation – indeed, created nature itself is not a bridge but the very transformation of the Godhead into the universe. Interestingly, for both Hart and Leahy, Creator and creature share determinate roles whereby two distinct types of freedom emerge: the divine freedom of the Creator to originate primordial actualities and the divine freedom of the creature to alter those actualities.