TOWARD A BIBLICAL MODEL OF THE SOCIAL TRINITY: AVOIDING EQUIVOCATION OF NATURE AND ORDER

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 2004 by Horrell, J Scott

Within the framework of orthodoxy, numerous versions of ordered social models have been proposed through Christian history, some emphasizing considerable asymmetry between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, others little if any personal distinction at all. It should be observed that the human, practical implications of the nature of the immanent trinitarian relations are not patently easy to discern and lie outside the scope of this paper.37 As controversial as the applications might be, the issue at hand is our actual perception of God himself. This is sacred ground. Together we plead the Holy Spirit's grace in granting understanding of the triune God, lest we prove Ludwig Feuerbach true by forming God in our own ideal.

Parts One and Two have established both the loving relationality of the social Trinity as well as the hierarchical order of the Godhead that characterizes the economic Trinity in all relations to creation. Several concluding observations are in order.

1. Heeding the metanarrative of social trinitarian revelation. Of the six dozen texts that mention the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in various combinations, not many appear intentionally arranged as a theology proper (e.g. Matt 28:19; 1 Cor 8:4-7; Eph 1:3-14). Most seem casually expressive of the bountiful tri-fold experience with God of the early church. Nonetheless, although the chronologies of divine persons vary from text to text, and whereas all three persons may in some sense be present in every divine act, the Bible seems never to admit an inversion of the order. Certainly enough is said in Scripture to affirm the equal deity of the Son and the Spirit to the Father. But the hierarchy of the economic Godhead appears largely inviolable in the Bible itself. God the Father reflects generous preeminence. The Father loves the Son and gives everything to him, yet the Father is not left empty or without lordship for having given all things out of infinite fullness. Behind the monarchic, of Jesus Christ the King of Kings looms the monarchia of God the Father Almighty. While co-regent, the Son is collaborator, taking up what is given from the Father, and rejoicing in the communion of the Father. The Son, too, is fully God and exercises that deity, but there are no hints of the Father's retirement.

"The fellowship of the Holy Spirit" appears more complicated when turned Godward. Augustine's designation of the Spirit as gift and love in the Godhead seems appropriate, if taken as actively personal, yet this Spirit is also holy and ever-serving to glorify the Son and the Father. While the Holy Spirit may be "the Spirit of YHWH," "the other parakletos," and the revealer (or the "revealedness" of Barth) of the deep truths of God, there is no evidence anywhere, to my knowledge, that the Spirit would ever exercise authority over the Father.

The flow seems steadily from the Father through the Son and the Spirit, then back toward the Father through the Son and in the Spirit. Surely, if personal order is ultimately contingent or external to God's very being, then Scripture would provide telling evidence, but this is elusive. Before the abundant metanarrative of all divine revelation, the burden of proof rests with those who contend something other than a social order in the Godhead.