In the modern era, Christology and Pneumatology have been treated as independent loci, with Christology owning the lion's share of theological terrain. But properly, these two doctrines are expressions of the dogma of the Holy Trinity: they are the temporal missions of the divine processions. Katherine Sonderegger treats the missions of the divine persons in this volume, the third book of her Systematic Theology. The structural aim of this volume is to return these doctrines to their original home; much of the dangers in modern treatments of the Life of Jesus will be mitigated by this return to a dogmatic center.
The Scriptural center of the divine missions is found in the Book of Exodus. In the encounter with Moses, the Lord God says: "I have heard the cry of my People and I have come down to deliver." This is the temporal end of the divine Life: to deliver and to hallow. The plagues visited upon the taskmasters provides the form of the Life of Jesus; the Passover and crossing of the Red Sea are connected to the Passion and rising of the Incarnate Son. The doctrines of atonement and sanctification are caught up in the act of sacrifice, the central cultus of ancient Israel and of the church. Christ is prophet, priest, and king, the deliverer with healing in his wings.
