Jesus And the Father Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity

Jesus and the Father Copyright © 2006 by Kevin Giles Requests for information should be addressed to: Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Giles, Kevin. Jesus and the father : modern evangelicals reinvent the doctrine of the Trinity / Kevin Giles - 1st ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-10: 0-310-2664-5 ISBN-13: 978-0-310-26664-8 1. Trinity - History of doctrines. 2. Evangelicalism. I. Title. BT111.3.G45 2006 231'.044 - dc22 2005034545 CIP The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America, and are used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture verses marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other - except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher. The website addresses recommended throughout this book are offered as a resource to you. These websites are not intended in any way to be or imply an endorsement on the part of Zondervan, nor do we vouch for their content for the life of this book. Interior design by Nancy Wilson Printed in the United States of America 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 - 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 We want to hear from you. Please send your comments about this book to us in care of zreview@zondervan.com. Thank you. 17 Chapter 1 Contemporary Evangelicals and the Doctrine of the Trinity In the past thirty years there has been an amazing resurgence of interest in the doctrine of the Trinity. Roman Catholics, mainline Protestants, and Eastern Orthodox theologians have published numerous studies and books on the Trinity, and they are continuing to appear. Evangelicals at first were not involved, but a change is under way, as this book and others written recently by evangelicals indicate.1 After a long period of neglect, this doctrine is now on center stage as it should be, because it is nothing less than our distinctive Christian doctrine of God. Most contemporary books on the Trinity have two foci. They look back to the historical sources to see how the doctrine was developed by the best of theologians across the centuries, and they look at the present to see how this fundamental doctrine can be best expressed building on all the work and thought that has gone before. Irenaeus, Tertullian, Athanasius, the Cappadocian Fathers, Augustine, Aquinas, and Calvin are the most commonly studied historical authorities. One of the most important developments in this doctrinal renaissance has been the recognition that there is much to learn from the early Greek-speaking theologians, particularly Athanasius 1 For example, Millard Erickson, God in Three Persons: A Contemporary Interpretation of the Trinity (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1995); Roger E. Olson and Christopher A. Hall, The Trinity (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 2002); Stanley J. Grenz, Rediscovering the Triune God: The Trinity in Contemporary Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 2004); Brian Edgar, The Message of the Trinity (Leicester, England: Inter-Varsity, 2004); Robert Letham, The Holy Trinity in Scripture, History, Theology, and Worship (Phillipsburg, N.J.: P&R, 2004). and the Cappadocian Fathers, who for centuries were somewhat forgotten by Roman Catholic and Protestant theologians. Right at the heart of their doctrine of the Trinity was the belief that God's triunity was to be underGiles, Kevin is the author of 'Jesus And the Father Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity', published 2006 under ISBN 9780310266648 and ISBN 0310266645.