The Doctrine of the Trinity and the Experience of God: The Trinitarian Theology of Rowan Williams in Conversation with French Phenomenology

This project intends to investigate the concept of experience in the trinitarian theology of Rowan Williams. In order to achieve this, I will study Williams’s understanding of the historical development of the doctrine of the Trinity and his systematic reflection on trinitarian faith. The second part of the project is to study the analysis of the experience of God in three thinkers from the phenomenological tradition in France, namely: Jean-Luc Marion, Jean-Yves Lacoste and Emmanuel Falque. Then, Williams’s trinitarian theology will be compared and critically evaluated in conversation with three aspects in the philosophy of these three thinkers. First, Marion’s concepts of the gracious givenness of God and the saturated phenomena. Second, Lacoste’s idea of the believer’s place in front of God’s life and his phenomenological concept of the liturgy. Last, Falque’s concept of experience in his phenomenology of the body. Finally, the thesis concludes with a proposal towards a constructive trinitarian theology of experience, and a renewed grammar of the doctrine of Trinity with a central role for spiritual experience.