Theology and the Social Consciousness: A Study of the Relations of the Social Consciousness to Theology (2nd ed.)King, Henry Churchill
Religion
Theology and the Social Consciousness: A Study of the Relations of the Social Consciousness to Theology (2nd ed.)
King, Henry Churchill
Christian sociology; Theology, Doctrinal -- History -- 20th century
The distinction drawn by Dr. W. N. Clarke,[111] between the doctrine
of the biblical Trinity and the doctrine of the Triunity, I count of
decided value; but after one has made the distinction, one may doubt
the value of the contribution made by the doctrine of the Triunity.
The really immanent relations of the Godhead are necessarily hidden
from us, and are, also, so far as the writer can see, without ethical
or religious significance for us, except in the way of possible injury
through substituting some supposed altogether mysterious and
incomprehensibly sacred, for the well-known and truly sacred shown in
the ethical relations of common life.
The doctrine of the Triunity seems to have been originally intended to
enable the church to hold the divinity of Christ. If we now get at
that and hold that from quite a different point of view, the older way
becomes less essential. We must, indeed, keep the ancient treasure,
but we need not keep it in the same ancient chest. None of us--not the
most orthodox--really find the _reasons_ for holding the divinity of
Christ in the doctrine of the Triunity. It is interesting to observe
how widely separated from the doctrine of the Triunity are the
considerations which really move men to faith in the divinity of
Christ. That doctrine is, at the very most, only our philosophical
supplement intended to bring that, which on other grounds we have come
to believe, into unity with our thought of God.
But, at least, we must so conceive the divinity of Christ, as not to
get two or three Gods. And a "Social Trinity" does not seem to me to
avoid that, except in terms. However, therefore, we are to solve our
problem, we are not to take _that_ way out.
What Dr. Clarke calls the biblical doctrine of the Trinity, on the
other hand, seems to me to contain the very heart of Christianity,
whatever philosophical theory we put beneath it; and it became,
therefore, as expressed in the baptismal and benediction formulas, the
great daily confession of the church, since it strongly expresses that
of which we have been speaking,--the living love of God, a life of
absolutely self-giving love, of eternal ministry.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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