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Is the Doctrine of the Trinity Scriptural?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

R. G. Crawford
Affiliation:
Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Extract

One of the big questions which agitated the minds of theologians and laymen alike in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries was whether or not the doctrine of the Trinity was scriptural. The controversy raged throughout the United Kingdom and extended to the shores of America where the eminent preacher William Ellery Channing embraced the Unitarian cause.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1967

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References

page 282 note 1 The literature is enormous. See Samuel Clarke's Scripture Doctrine of the Trinity, 1712; An Examination of the Charges made against Unitarians and Unitarianism and the Improved Version by the Right Rev. Dr Magee, Bishop of Raphoe, by Lant Carpenter, 1820; The Trìnìtarian Controversy Revìewed, 1760, by the Author of the Appeal, etc.

page 282 note 2 Channing was an Arian believing in the pre-existence of Christ. His famous Baltimore sermon caused much stir in many quarters. Delivered on 5th May 1819, it was said to be the most widely read and influential sermon ever preached in America.

page 284 note 1 So Hodgson, Leonard in The Doctrine of the Trinity, 1943, p. 223.Google Scholar

page 284 note 2 An example of this was Thomas Emlyn (1663–1741), an Englishman, who ministered in Wood Street, Dublin. He altered his opinions about the Trinity after reading a book by William Sherlock entitled Vindication of the Trinity, published in 1690.

page 284 note 3 Oral. c. Arian. IV.i.

page 284 note 4 De Trin. V. 9, 12.

page 284 note 5 This was the debate between the Dean of Dromore, C. Down, Daniel Bagot, and J. Scott Porter, minister of the First Presbyterian Church, Belfast, in 1834. Bagot was congratulated by the Synod of Ulster for his defence of the traditional view. See J. S. Porter's Works.

page 285 note 1 Noted by Green, F. W., Essays on the Trinity and Incarnation, p. 284f.Google Scholar

page 285 note 2 Doctrine of the Trinity, pp. 86ff.

page 285 note 3 ibid., p. 96.

page 285 note 4 Franks, R. S., Doctrine of Trinity, pp. 196ffGoogle Scholar; D. Baillie, M., God was in Christ, pp. 141ffGoogle Scholar; Welch, C., The Trinity in Contemporary Theology, p. 253f.Google Scholar

page 286 note 1 A Biblical Approach to the Doctrine of the Trinity, 1953, p. 48.Google Scholar

page 286 note 2 Claude Welch, op. cit., p. 239.

page 286 note 3 Aulén, Gustaf, Faith of the Christian Church, p. 258.Google Scholar

page 287 note 1 A way out of the Trinitarian Controversy’, Essays, Reviews and Addresses, Vol. ii.Google Scholar

page 287 note 2 He is dependent upon Aulén here. See op. cit.

page 287 note 3 Christian Theology, p. 196.

page 287 note 4 An Outline of Old Testament Theology, p. 179.

page 287 note 5 Theology of the Old Testament, E.T., p. 187. Cf. Driver, S. R., The Book of Genesis, p. 14.Google Scholar

page 288 note 1 op. cit., p. 20.

page 288 note 2 See Conybeare, F. C., Zeilschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft, 1901, pp. 275288Google Scholar. Chase, F. H., Journal of Theological Studies, VI, pp. 483ff, argues against Conybeare.Google Scholar

page 288 note 3 Judaism, Vol. I, p. 188.Google Scholar

page 289 note 1 Hoskyns, Edward, The Fourth Gospel, Vol. II, 1940, p. 453.Google Scholar

page 289 note 2 Barrett, C. K., The Gospel according to John, p. 318Google Scholar. Cf. Westcott, B. F., The Gospel according to St. John, p. 159.Google Scholar

page 289 note 3 Baillie, D. M., God was in Christ, p. 68.Google Scholar

page 290 note 1 The Trinity in the New Testament, pp. 257ff.

page 291 note 1 op. cit., p. 23.

page 291 note 2 Hendry, G. S., The Holy Spirit in Christian Theology, p. 31.Google Scholar

page 291 note 3 Dogmatik, 1, p. 229.Google Scholar

page 291 note 4 Early Christian Creeds, p. 23.

page 291 note 5 Westminster Catechism, Question 21.

page 291 note 6 D. M. Baillie, op. cit., p. 153.

page 292 note 1 Five Theological Orations of Gregory of Nazianzus, iii. 19Google Scholar. Cf. Athanasius, , C. Arian. ii. 8.Google Scholar

page 292 note 2 In Ierem. horn. 15.6, In Ioh. 32.25.325.

page 292 note 3 C. Eunom. 5.

page 292 note 4 Antirrh. 42.

page 292 note 5 Church Dogmatics, 1.2, p. 160f. Cf. Calvin, : ‘Rather the truth is that the being of God is one. Hence the whole Godhead is revealed in the flesh’ (Works, 40, 56).Google Scholar

page 293 note 1 G. A. F. Knight, op. cit., p. 8.

page 293 note 2 Process and Reality.

page 293 note 3 Space-Time and Deity.

page 293 note 4 Philosophers speak of God.

page 293 note 5 Adv. Prax., I.

page 293 note 6 First Council of Sirmium, A.D. 351.

page 293 note 7 Mozley, J. K., The Impassibility of God, 1926, p. 174.Google Scholar

page 294 note 1 Sirmium Synod, 357.

page 294 note 2 Origen, , C. Celsum, iv. 7172.Google Scholar

page 294 note 3 Vide Mozley, op. cit., p. 120.

page 294 note 4 A full discussion is found in Luther‘s Table-Talk.

page 294 note 5 Pringle-Pattison, A. S., Idea of God in the light of recent Philosophy, 1920, pp. 399417.Google Scholar

page 294 note 6 Stevens, G. B., The Christian Doctrine of Salvation, 1905, p. 445f.Google Scholar

page 294 note 7 See Quick's, Oliver plea for a synthesis between the Hebrew and Hellenic idea of God: Doctrines of the Creed, pp. 149ff.Google Scholar