Pannenberg on Divine Personhood

Does the notion of ‘Trinitarian persons’ have any practical value for the lives of Christians today? While theologians such as Karl Barth and Karl Rahner have famously argued that ‘person’ is an outdated term that can no longer adequately speak to contemporary Christians because of shifts in the term’s meaning, others like Wolfhart Pannenberg are convinced that these shifts are the precise reason that the term ‘person’ is more valuable than ever for trying to understand God and the divine/world relation. This article seeks to set out a clearer definition of Pannenberg’s use of the term ‘person’ in contrast to the definitions set out by Barth and Rahner and will use this definition to demonstrate the significance of Trinitarian personhood for theology.