Ethos: What Africa may learn from Trinity

In his book, 'ETHOS: What Africa may learn from Trinity' Temitope Apoola has done an exceptional amount research, bringing together a rich and varied tapestry of insights from theology, science and philosophy. This work will be of interest to scholars from variety of disciplines who wish to be challenged to think deeply and critically about the relationship between religious notions of God and scientific notions of creation; and the implications of these for ethical thought and moral action in society. - Dr. Dion Forster University of Pretoria When I first began to read this very well researched and presented book, I felt like the subject was somewhat meaningless to me. That is not because of lack of interest of Trinity and the believe in the oneness of God, on my part, but because, as a philosopher who is fully involved in most religious criticism epsecially against the doctrines of the church, the trinitarian Doctrine means nothing to me except for what its influence in the ecclessiastical systems of the church accomplished. The development of the trinitarian doctrines in the Christian churches that follows the ecclestestial system. For me, the dogma is meaningless and it is only the fact that it was only a concept developed in the “theodicy” of the church to enhance some philosophies behind the trinitarian doctrine of the ecclestestial church and the concept of the oneness of God. I see the Catholic dogma as nothing more than an ancient idea canonized by the members of the councils in the Middle Ages. I have not seen any first century Christian, let's say St. Paul, mentioning the word “ Trinity”, but as a scholar of religious studies who have studied the traditions of the church I really ended up enjoying “ETHOS; What Africa may learn from Trinity”. The author clearly showed that classical philosophy can be applied in the study of Trinity using reasoning tool “R”, the small “r” and Prudential Acquiessence. Yes I quite agree that epistemological principles must be applied to grasp the full meaning of Trinity from a classical point of view, even though the originators of the dual nature of materials and metaphisical things agree with that. Furthermore, Philos, Heraclitus, Aristotle and Plato were once on the quest for the existence of a diety from traditional perspectives of the Greeks but Tope Apoola showed how classical reasoning can help an average African Christian to understand the mystery behind the trinitarian monotheism as well as to see true reason in the concept of dualism by studying the Logos. I think Tope did a great job of showing the difference between tradition and the classical ideas of the trinitarian doctrines. This book is very well written, excellently thought through and wonderfully illustrated as well. As I read, I thought several times that this writer had done a lot of research and defended his premise very well indeed. I highly recommend that you read ETHOS by Tope Apoola because it shows with classical and intellectual honesty that Trinity is not a dogma one must reason from a traditional perspective. I felt that this book showed that Africans must be freed from enslavement of tradition to enhance their civilization through the knowledge of the classical concept of Trinity. ~ Nwaocha Ogechukwu Member Royal Imstitute of Philosophy England