Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord is one!
It strikes me that it is rarely wise to discuss the “plurality” of God without simultaneously holding in mind the complete “oneness” of God. Yes, God is three distinct and unique persons, so the heart of reality is one of relational love. Yet those three persons exists in such perfect, non-hierarchical, self-yielding communion that they are also described as unitary. “Triune” is not a word that simply describes plurality. Nor does it follow that there is therefore a plurality of Truth. As we know Jesus, we grow to know Truth (for he himself is Truth). Yet as we know Jesus, we also know the Father and the Spirit, for they are one with Jesus to the extent that Jesus not only describes themselves as one with the other, but says that if we have seen him, we have seen the Father. The idea that a plurality of truth rises out of the Trinity seems to me to require that we would know a different truth through the Father or the Spirit than we know through the Son.
If we are going to use the language of a “triunity” in the discussion, that’s ok. But while the modern radical pluralism that Protestantism has become is self-evident, where is the unity? The Triune God is as much one as three. The same is not even vaguely true within Christian pluralism. It’s simply plural with, at best, the barest bones of commonality.

Scott, give Scot a chance to get to the rest of the book. Franke addresses the unity in plurality, plurality in unity motive within the trinity relationship.

Scott, Rob, and Scot (did I get everyone?),
I had the same reaction Scott (2 t’s) had: the statement “Plurality arises out of God. God is triune. That is, the Truth is characterized by plurality” impressed me as unwise.
I just got Franke’s book and will hunt this down, mindful as Rob noted and I somewhat expected, with the expectation that some amplification and clarification lies within.
From what I’ve gleaned though, this book does a good job of describing reality, i.e., it’s not just that observation that socially truth is characterized in plural ways, we also have to account for a multiplicity of Christian communities declaring truth, living by it, observing the same texts: and yet also coming up with different constructs of truth. There are missional and ecclesial questions awaiting!

“Plurality arises out of God. God is triune. That is, the Truth is characterized by plurality.”
What does this actually mean? I get what he is saying about that there is truth and because of Christ Jesus we can know that truth about God. How does God being triune give rise to plurality?
Is he saying that the different persons of the trinity have different views of what is true? Do different traditions interact with the Trinity differently which leads to a plurality of belief?
Would God lead certain traditions to know false things about Himself and themselves for the sake of plurality?
Christian Plurality resulting from our brokenness, inability to follow the Spirit, and finite limitations seems to make more sense to sense to me.

I’m not sure I see the connection with the Trinity, but I’ll wait for further exposition. There’s a great little book by Merold Westphal that just hit the shelves (or at least just hit Amazon). It’s titled “Whose Community? Which Interpretation?” or something like that. I’m only about a third of the way through it, but he makes a pretty good case, so far, for a plurality with respect to truth.

While I’m also not sure about the connection to the Trinity (is there plurality to geometry because a triangle has 3 sides?), the other statements here make good sense.
we can affirm the reality of ultimate or transcendent truth even as we acknowledge the interpretive character of human knowledge
Truth is absolute, but our human knowledge can’t be, because we do not have a God’s-eye view. This seems to be very much a position of “critical realism” (Scot, does Franke use that term?), which has also been lifted up by NT Wright, John Polkinghorne, and others (it comes up in philsophy of science as well).
As mentioned, problems come when people claim their own situated views as absolute objective God’s-eye truth, with no recognition that their view may be distorted and that other perspectives may have value in contributing to the web of things that we trust to be true.
Man, I’ll be glad when we can get rid of the Capcha. Yes, the text (but not your name) is saved when you refresh, but then it all disappears if you click in the box to edit it …