Some very interesting material in Richard Muller’s book on the Trinity, the fourth volume of his monumental Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics . First, a couple of quotations about the treatment of the Trinity in early Reformed Orthodoxy:
One of the major features of this period was “a broadened sense of the significance of the doctrine [of the Trinity] as a basis for understanding the divine operation in other doctrinal topics (notably predestination, the ordo salutis, and covenant)” (p. 83). Jerome Zanchi’s De tribus Elohim is particularly interesting in this regard: “The word is significant for its exegetical (as opposed to more speculative) emphasis and for the fact that Zanchi placed [the doctrine of the Trinity] first in order in the model for his massive (and, unfortunately, never fulfilled system), before his discussion of the essence and attributes in the De natura Dei ” (p. 85). Zanchi thus reversed the order that Rahner said was characteristic of post-Aquinas Western theology.
Muller also examines the debates regarding the Trinity that the Orthodox carried on with the Remonstrants. According to Arminius, only the Father possessed the quality of aseity, and the Son and Spirit were not, as Calvin had argued, autotheos . It would be intriguing to trace out this debate to see how it relates to the more famous debates between Reformed and Remonstrants.
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