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This introductory chapter discusses some of the most important objections against analytic theology. It begins by explaining the meaning of the terms ‘analytic philosophy’ and ‘analytic theology’. It then presents what is essentially an analytic theologian's perspective on the most salient objections against the enterprise of analytic theology. An overview of the subsequent chapters is presented.

This chapter examines how developments in the analytic tradition during the 20th century not only made room for analytic philosophical theology, but contributed to its flourishing. The flowering of philosophical theology was made possible by the surrender, by analytic philosophers, of certain assumptions characteristic of philosophy in the modern period, and by the emergence of a new understanding of the task of philosophy and its role in culture. It is argued that behind attempts to belittle the significance of the flourishing of analytic philosophical theology is almost always a refusal to surrender those traditional assumptions, and resistance to accepting this new self-understanding of the task and role of the philosopher.

The Introduction establishes the context of the work as a whole, including the revival of theological interest in the Trinity, the new developments in scholarship on the formative years of trinitarian doctrine, and the work done by analytic philosophers on the three-in-oneness problem of the Trinity. There is a brief description of each of the three main parts of the book: Trinitarian Foundations, Trinitarian Options, and Trinitarian Construction, with an indication of the major issues that are addressed in each part. Included are acknowledgements of various persons who have been especially helpful in the preparation of the book. The Introduction concludes with a tribute Professor John McIntyre, to whose memory the book is dedicated.

The focus of this essay is the idea of the univocity of being, championed by Duns Scotus and given prominence more recently by Gilles Deleuze. Although one concern of the essay is with how this idea can be established, its primary concern is with something more basic: how the idea can even be properly thought. This issue is explored with the aid of some ideas about logical syntax borrowed from Wittgenstein’s Tractatus. One incidental benefit of the exercise is to indicate how there can be dialogue between analytic philosophers and those of other traditions.