Tuesday, June 03, 2008
Free Tutorial on the Trinity
Though not a systematic theologian, frequently SWNID gets asked to explain the Trinity. To save a few more discourses, we refer gentle readers looking for a clear discussion of the topic to the "Theology in the News" posting on Christianity Today's blog network by Collin Hansen. Prompted by the recent allegorical novel, The Shack, Hansen gives a brief, clear and pretty thorough discussion of this challenging and foundational theological concept.
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13 comments:
I thought it was monumentally uninformative... two paragraphs of substance in the whole thing. The odd thing, though, was the opening.
He ties the piece to The Shaq, but doesn't bother to examine the book's view of the Trinity. Why even bring the subject up, then?
We suspect that it is uninformative to people who already understand the subject. As someone who explains it (gladly, I hasten to add) often, we found it very servicable as an introduction.
The blog is supposed to be about theology in the news, so we assume that The Shack (interesting homophone that you used, BTW) is the newsy item that provokes the post.
I have to say that I agree in part with Micah. It is a fine introduction for something more in depth on the subject. I think the key is that by the end of the post, you are left more with what the Trinity is not than what it is.
That doesn't mean it isn't useful, just that it will only deflect people for a short time.
Why can't lay people just read Pelikan's volume 1 of The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine?
He gives a terrific survey of the multiple early views of the trinity and how it worked itself out as early orthodoxy developed.
I'm being a bit silly of course, but Pelikan is still great and volume 1 is accessible to anyone willing to apply themselves a bit.
I should mention at this point that a certain gentleman keeps an online annotated bibliography of NT resources that has proven so exceptionally helpful to me that I am compelled to mention it here.
Hopefully he will read this and accept our heeartfelt appreciation for that work.
Thanks gratefully accepted, but I'm beginning to think that y'all are living in a world different from ours. We get asked about the Trinity by normal people who have jobs and watch American Idol, including middle school kids (whose job is being immature). Jaroslav Pelikan might as well be Jonathan Livingstone Seagull for our audience. We don't imagine them reading this and then begging for something a bit more thorough and challenging.
Honestly, when SWNID is more in touch with the proletariat than our gentle readers, there's something awfully out of sync with our world.
Oh. I was being completely silly. The article you linked to is fine as far as I'm concerned.
Although volume 1 of Pelikan's opus really is as approachable as anything out there.
Of that genre, I mean.
Swind said "We suspect that it is uninformative to people who already understand the subject." That's the problem.
I wouldn't claim to have even a moderate understanding of the subject, but nothing in there was new to me. Either I'm better informed than I thought, or everyone else is less informed.
Disturbing.
You are better informed than you think. Though not a systematician, SWNID is hard pressed to think of something important about trinitarian theology that is not articulated in this brief piece.
Now you are still better informed, as you have a better assessment of your informed-ness.
As I said, disturbing. But there's a good story that should be told here.
I was a comm major in undergrad. I wanted to pick up a bible degree as well, but couldn't afford to go the four years it would have taken to double major (I graduated in three). A bunch of my friends, though, were Bible majors. And all Bible majors had to pass oral exams.
The systematics guy at my alma mater had one true hatred: bad analogies for the trinity. Talking about water or an egg or an apple in his presence would bring out his (normally well-hidden) wrath.
With the help of one other examiner, the seniors played a wee joke. After the last question had been asked, the examiner posed one more question: "Is there an appropriate analogy for the Trinity, and if so, what is it?"
The first senior thought hard, then replied "The trinity is kind of like a Hardee's sausage gravy biscuits. See, there's the sausage, and the gravy, and the biscuit, and each one is an important part of the whole..." and so on.
The prof (who was the head of the department) almost had a coronary, but the student was able to make it out of the room. The next student came in and took his orals, which ended with the question "Is there an appropriate analogy for the Trinity, and if so, what is it?" The prof figured it out after that, but every single student received and answered the question in that day's orals.
Good times.
heresy is more fun.
As a current pastor who works directly with adult education and has already had to deal with lay leaders in the church who taught that a) the Trinity is an unbiblical concept (important, but not a HUGE deal), and b) that Jesus was not God (definitely a HUGE deal), I found the article helpful. Certainly there was no new information for me, but I also have a Master's degree in Biblical Studies. Almost none of the people in my church have had the opportunities to study the Bible and Christian theology that I have had, and this article is a helpful summary. Thanks for the heads-up.
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