Trinitarian Minutiae

By Ion Chibzii. Unaltered. License

Derek Rishmawy recently tweet-blogged about the Trinity and how evangelicals engage with Trinitarian theology. For example:

2) Evangelicals at the pop level simply don't take the Trinity that seriously. They believe it mostly, but often not "deeply".

— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) December 2, 2016

His observation conveys what I've observed over the years. Evangelicals pay lip service to the Trinity, but they rarely discuss the details of Trinitarian theology. It is assumed and muted. Of course, Trinitarian theology may be viewed as minutiae, unnecessary for most Christians. But as Rishmawy tweets:

@wileyberry Ah, but what counts as "minutiae" says something about how we value it. There are minutiae--but that used to be smaller category

— Derek Rishmawy (@DZRishmawy) December 2, 2016

His point, I think, is that we view Trinitarian dogma as minutiae because of what we value. Few evangelicals would call details on the theology of the cross minutiae---knowing that Christ died in our place is a central part of our faith. Yet we appear to see Trinitarian theology as minutiae, as something for the theologians to argue over or for a church history class. This attitude strikes me un-Jesusical. In Jesus' high priestly prayer, he defines eternal life as knowing God and the son whom God sent: "And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). If knowing God (here the Father) and Jesus Christ (the Son) is eternal life, should we not at least consider what it means to know our God, our God who is triune, who is three? Pursue eternal life by knowing God, all of who he is and what he has done, something which cannot be done apart from his inseparable works as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.