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

III. PART TWO: BIBLICAL EVIDENCES FOR ETERNAL ORDER IN THE GODHEAD

In Scripture, neither the ontological equality of the members of the Godhead nor the reciprocal indwelling of each in the other necessarily precludes an eternal relational order among the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Social trinitarians who largely concur with the model established in Part One divide around several issues that are helpful to review prior to evaluating biblical evidences for eternal divine relational order.

1. Contemporary divergence among social trinitarians. Social trinitarianism can be variously categorized. Almost all concur that the divine unity should be understood especially in terms of perichoresis, a fairly uncontested historical consensus in the West as well as the East (although often understood differently). Contemporary social models of the Godhead divide around three major questions, albeit not always neatly.

a. The Father as origin. First is the issue of the essentialist monarchy of the Father: Does the divinity of the Son and of the Spirit derive from the Father? Such a position is suggested in the Nicene Creed's description of the Son as "of the substance of the Father [ek tes ousias tou patros], God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God." Yet outside of Cappadocian Orthodoxy and a few contemporary trinitarians like Richard Swinburne, the great majority of trinitarians insist that the answer is "no." If deity is ontologically derived from another, then it cannot be ultimately equal to that of the unoriginated Originator.26

b. Ontological equality and social order. The second question is related to the first and the most significant in terms of both the history of trinitarianism and the present discussion. Even if the Son and the Spirit are not essentially derived from the Father, is there a sense in which the persons of the immanent Trinity possess eternal social order-a characteristic way of experiencing divine koinonia? Is the Father somehow characteristically central (though ever-bestowing)? Is the Holy Spirit ever-glorifying in his activity (even as he is Lord)? Is the Son forever co-laborer alongside the Father (even as co-regent)? That creedal Christendom has always confessed the eternal generation of the Son and the eternal procession of the Spirit implies, but does not oblige, a subordinational order in the Godhead. From the Cappadocians to John Owen, from Karl Earth to Avery Cardinal Dulles, some form of eternal divine order is frequently defended and may arguably be the dominant perspective of how the Godhead, even the immanent Godhead, has been understood by most Christians in history.

The converse position is ascribed to Augustine by Peter Lombard in the Sentences: "As the Son was made man, so the Father or the Holy Spirit could have been and could be now."27 Many have interpreted the statement to indicate that the parity of the divine subsistencies is absolute both as to nature and to order; that is, either the Father or the Spirit could have become man, alternative to the incarnation of the Son. For egalitarian trinitarians, eternal social differentiation in the Godhead is perceived as ultimately incompatible with triune equality. A leap of theological perspective, therefore, is justified from the economic revelation, which suggests hierarchy, to the immanent Godhead, which cannot admit hierarchy if there is to be true equality. Various theologians, even evangelical theologians, have questioned the traditional biblical proof texts for eternal generation and procession, arguing instead their relevance (at most) to the economic Trinity.28 But whether the specific terms of "begottenness" and "procession" are themselves exegetically applicable-although all classical Christianity has assumed themis I think somewhat beside the point. The greater issue is whether or not the revelation of the economic Trinity historically perceived as hierarchical in fact reflects ultimate ordered relationship in the immanent Trinity. While this article affirms eternal order, obviously many have concluded that historical, if not biblical, evidence suggests the opposite.