The doctrine of the Trinity is a case in point of how, even for Protestants, we cannot just go straight to Scripture and bypass the historic teaching and theological reflection of the Church. Recent renewed controversies over the Trinity among evangelicals highlight this danger. But how do we make sure we are giving the right amount of weight to Scripture and to historic creedal standards? Ben Miller and Brad Littlejohn discuss.
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Discussion Points
00:55: How did the early Church Fathers set boundary markers for our thinking about the Trinity?
2:00: One boundary marker: we cannot be monotheists without qualification.
2:35: Another boundary marker: we cannot be tritheists in any sense.
3:20: How have some modern theologians pushed or transgressed these boundaries (social trinitarianism, eternal subordination of the Son)?
4:30: The kind of plurality we find in the Trinity is totally different from the kind of plurality that we experience as creatures.
5:30: But doesn’t Scripture seem to speak of the Son and Father as two different agents?
7:00: Does modern Trinitarian theology helpfully challenge traditional exegesis at any point?
7:50: Because God is love eternally, we can speak of an inner-Trinitarian love between Father, Son, and Spirit; but we must be careful not to distort our understanding of God more than we illuminate our theology of marriage by trying to use the former as a blueprint for the latter.