‘Historically orthodox’
For more than a decade, we have described our theology as “Incarnational, Trinitarian theology.” The capital letters (prescribed by the Merriam-Webster dictionary for these adjectives) make it look like this is a formal title, and some people within GCI have used it that way. Some people have a Reformed theology, some a Lutheran theology, and some seem to think that Incarnational, Trinitarian theology is like that.
If prospective students want to learn more about this type of theology, they might look in a theological reference book. They will find an article on the Incarnation, and one on the Trinity, but they will not find any article for “Incarnational Trinitarian theology.” If they search on the internet for the exact phrase, they will find a few dozen results (or more if the search engine counts occurrences in very similar documents) – most of them from Grace Communion International or people associated with GCI.
Although “Incarnational Trinitarian theology” may look like a label for a well-defined theology, a school of thinking generally known among Christian thinkers, it is not. It was not intended to be an identifying label. Rather, it is a summary description of some of our central doctrinal beliefs.
Almost all Christian churches accept the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Trinity – the two beliefs usually go together. Yet few churches use the combination phrase Incarnational Trinitarian, or its reverse, Trinitarian Incarnational. What do we mean by this combination of terms? By Incarnation, we are pointing to the importance of the fact that the eternal Word of God became flesh and lived among us (John 1:14). Many other doctrines are connected to this doctrine:
- Humans cannot know God unless God takes the initiative. The best that humans can do on our own is to realize that our standard ways of knowing cannot explain everything. Those ways serve as the origin of many mythologies and religions, as people hypothesize what might lie beyond our understanding. The Christian doctrine of the Incarnation says that the Incarnation – Jesus Christ – is the transcendent and eternal God revealing himself to us.
- All reality must be understood in the light of God becoming a human, living perfectly as a human, dying on the cross as an atonement for all our sins, and being resurrected from the dead not only as an example of what will happen to us, but also as the means by which it does happen.
We have a Christ-centered theology. Everything else depends on him.
When we say Trinitarian, we mean much more than a simple acceptance that “God is three persons in one being.” Many churches accept that teaching, but it makes no practical difference in what they do. When we say Trinitarian, we are pointing not just to the formula, but to the worship and beliefs that were involved in developing that formula. The formula points to the revelation of Jesus Christ to the inner dynamic of the kind of God we worship: three divine persons in eternal communion with one another, involved in dynamic relationship with one another.
- The doctrine of the Trinity is not just about the way God is within himself – it’s also about the way humans are made in his image, how God interacts with us, and how we interact with one another.
- The focus on relationships reminds us that God relates to us on a personal level, not based on legally defined performance. It’s a family kind of relationship, a covenant, a personal bond of loyalty and trust, not a contract or bargaining relationship.
In saying Trinitarian, we are also pointing to the early church councils in which this teaching was clarified. We are “historically orthodox” – we are describing ourselves not in reference to the Great Awakening, the Great Disappointment, or the Reformation. Rather, we are pointing to the early church and its definition of correct Christian beliefs.
What makes those historically held beliefs orthodox (right)? They are orthodox because they are based on the preaching and teaching of the original apostles, whom Jesus appointed to represent him. The early church relied on the teachings of those apostles, now collected in Scripture. Describing our beliefs as Incarnational and Trinitarian means they are biblical or apostolic; that is what is meant by orthodox.
The history of the church gives us many case studies in how different ideas being promoted during those first four or five centuries were evaluated. These findings are well summed up in three confessions or creeds formulated during the first four centuries of the church: the Apostle’s Creed (second century AD), the Nicene Creed (325 and 381), and the Definition of Chalcedon (AD 451).
What, then, does describing ourselves as being Incarnational and Trinitarian add up to?
- Our primary standard is Jesus, who is revealed to us through the witness of the Scriptures, including the Old Testament as it was interpreted and validated by what Jesus said and did.
- We are also attentive to how the New Testament witness was lived out in the early centuries of the church and embodied in its worship of the Father, through the Son and in the Holy Spirit.
- The early church was not infallible, and we do not need to copy all their methods of showing piety and reverence, but we believe that Jesus was the head of the church in those early centuries, just as he is now, and we can learn from the way he continued to lead them by the Holy Spirit in understanding the Scriptures, and from the summary conclusions they were led to on that basis.
The assumptions, ideas, attitudes of modern culture are not our standard. Rather, we want to be able to present historically orthodox beliefs in the world today. Just as the early church wanted to present timeless truths in a way that spoke to the culture they were in, so also do we. Methods may change, but we always strive to be biblical, Christ-centered and historically orthodox. That’s what we mean when we describe ourselves as being Incarnational and Trinitarian.
Michael Morrison, GCS News, Fall 2022