“The Triune Personal God: Trinitarian Theology in the Thought of Cornelius Van Til” by Lane G. Tipton

This study investigates the function of the Trinity in Cornelius Van Til’s theology and apologetics and suggests an exegetical strategy for enriching and developing his foundational insights. The thesis is that God as absolute triune personality supplies in Van Til’s system of thought the fundamental theological structure for both the content and defense of the Reformed faith. Locating Van Til’s historical context in his theological and philosophical interaction with the Boston Personalists, who affirmed personality only of God’s unity, and Gordon Clark, who affirmed personality only of God’s diversity, this study will explore the theological rationale for Van Til’s formulation that God is absolute personality, which can be expressed in the language that the triune God is one person and three persons, or one-conscious and three-conscious.