| Theologian | Economic focus (Trinity & salvation/history) | Relational ontology (God & persons) | Social / ethical applications |
| — | — | — | — |
| **Catherine LaCugna** | Insists there is no “immanent Trinity” behind the economic: “there is only the oikonomia, the mystery of God’s life with us and our life in God.” Trinity must be done as **God‑for‑us**, not as a separate metaphysics. [1][2] | Reads Cappadocians as giving ontological priority to **persons‑in‑communion**; being = being‑toward‑another. Divine essence is never considered apart from relations, and human persons mirror this ecstatic, relational existence. [3][4] | Trinity is a practical paradigm: church and society should manifest “shared rule of equal persons in communion,” rejecting domination and hierarchy; calls for egalitarian, mutual, non‑subordinating relationships (feminist, ecclesial, relational ethics). [3][5] |
| **John Zizioulas** | Begins from Eucharistic and episcopal experience of the church: Trinity known through **liturgical/sacramental economy** where the Spirit gathers many into the one Body of Christ under the Father. Economy reveals ontology but also safeguards divine freedom. [6][7] | Famous for “being as communion”: the person (hypostasis) is constituted by relation; the **monarchy of the Father** is source, but being itself is communion of Father, Son, Spirit. Human personhood arises in ecclesial communion as an image of this. [7][6] | Strongly ecclesial: the church, gathered in the Eucharist around the bishop, images the Trinity; emphasizes communal identity over individualism and critiques Western personalism. Less directly political than LaCugna or Boff, but still anti‑individualist and communion‑focused. [7][6] |
| **Jürgen Moltmann** | Reads Trinity through **history of salvation and the cross**: the triune God is revealed in the history of Jesus’ passion and the sending of the Spirit; insists the economic history (especially the cross) belongs to God’s own trinitarian life. [6][8] | Advocates a **social Trinity**: three distinct centers of consciousness in perichoretic unity, rejecting both modalism and subordination. Relation (mutual indwelling and openness) is the mode of divine being, not a mere attribute. [6] | Strong political and liberative spin: Trinity as model for **non‑hierarchical, participatory, democratic** community; used to critique authoritarian, patriarchal, and totalitarian structures and to support liberation, ecology, and solidarity. [6][9] |
| **Leonardo Boff** | Reads Trinity explicitly in light of **oppressed communities**: revelation of Father, Son, Spirit in the history of Jesus and the poor is the starting point; economic Trinity is the basis for a spirituality of liberation. [6][9] | Adopts a **social‑relational** picture: God as community of equal persons in mutual love; opposes monarchical, solitary images of God as underwriting oppression. Uses relational categories more programmatically than metaphysically. [10][6] | Explicit liberationist use: Trinity as paradigm for **base communities**, solidarity with the poor, and egalitarian, participatory church life; critiques patriarchy and class domination by appealing to the divine “community of equals.” [10][6]
Sources
[1] The Dimensions of God’s Life – Religion Online https://www.religion-online.
[2] [PDF] God For Us – -ORCA – Cardiff University https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/
[3] [PDF] The Trinitarian Theology of Catherine Mowry LaCugna | Word & World https://wordandworld.
[4] [PDF] The Relational Ontology of Augustine’s and LaCugna’s Trinity https://digitalcommons.csbsju.
[5] [PDF] ON THE TRIUNE GOD AND THE CHRISTIAN MORAL LIFE https://scriptura.journals.ac.
[6] Social trinitarianism – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
[7] The Importance of the Monarchy of the Father according to John … https://zizioulas.org/
[8] Trinitarian Theology After Barth https://barth.ptsem.edu/
[9] Participation as a Trinitarian Virtue – University of Toronto Press https://utppublishing.com/doi/
[10] [PDF] The Trinity in Contemporary Theology: Questioning the Social Trinity https://ctsfw.net/media/pdfs/
