Watch this short video on the Trinity. You'll be glad you did.

9/23/2014

In our "Fuel for Faith: An Important Class about Christian Theology" session last weekend, we looked at the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. We learned that God is three Persons in one God - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit Each of these Persons is distinct yet connected to/relating with the others, and each Person is fully God. Even though we can understand God's Triune nature truly, that does't mean we'll be able to exhaust its meaning fully. In other words, there's still an element of mystery to the Trinity. There are still ways this doctrine makes smoke come out of our ears. And for me, that's OK. After all, we're talking about God - there should be some categories of Deity that challenge my understanding as a finite creature.

With all this serious stuff in mind, I love that this short video can remain orthodox in its understanding of the Trinity AND have some light-hearted fun with acknowledging how it can blow apart some of our categories and ways we tend to think about it. (In other words, don't take this video more seriously than it wants to be taken.) So take the doctrine of the Trinity very seriously, and then enjoy this appx 4 min video on the Trinity:

Bruce

9/24/2014 03:43:45 am

Here is a good link discussing Orthodoxy from the Credo House Parchment and Pen. They list 6 different views of what it means to be orthodox. So where does Brookside fit...Reforming Orthodoxy?

http://www.reclaimingthemind.org/blog/2014/09/six-views-means-orthodox/

Tim Wiebe

9/24/2014 05:46:18 am

Bruce,

Thanks for passing along the link. I'm aware of Credo House, follow them off-and-on, and am a fan of what they're trying to do there (or at least the stuff I'm familiar with, anyway!).

Yes, among the options listed, I would probably put Brookside in the Reforming Orthodoxy category, in my opinion. I really like Patton's last two major paragraphs, where he nuances his approach to Reforming Orthodoxy a bit. For e.g., I'm in agreement with him that we don't want to ignore or dismiss the label of Paleo-Orthodoxy entirely (we can and should learn much from the early church).

A potential danger of Reforming Orthodoxy could be a thirst for or addiction to "change" and "progress" when none is needed - either because certain issues have already been dealt with, or because sometimes our desire for theological change may be driven more by novelty than need, which can get us into dangerous waters.

With this nuancing in place, I (personally) would land in the category of Reforming Orthodoxy b/c of the supreme authority it places on God's Word and b/c of the allowances for theological maturation to happen as God's Word continues to be read down through the centuries, from multiple perspectives.

A helpful book that lines up with some of this is Michael Svigel's _RetroChristianity: Reclaiming the Forgotten Faith_. If you're ever looking for something to read, maybe something to check out.

9/24/2014 07:20:00 am

Thanks for the book suggestion. Not sure how you have time to read all these books with the number of kids you have. But good for you if you can find the time.

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