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Eternal Generation and Logical Subordination: Trinitarian Work in Perkins, Edwards, and Hodge

While some theologians relativize the Trinity’s consistent manner of working out of concern about ontological subordination, evangelical theologians like Perkins, Edwards, and Hodge conclude that the Trinity works according to an intrinsic pattern of logical subordination. Theologians have helpfully described how Scripture presents the Trinity working in a certain manner—according to Trinitarian prepositional metaphysics. Theologians like Fred Sanders, Scott Swain, and Tom Schreiner recognize that Scripture’s use of certain prepositions (from, through, and by) indicate that the Father works all things through the Son and by the Holy Spirit. Swain states, “To say that God created all things through his Word (and Spirit) (Gen 1:1–3; Ps 33:6) is . . . [to describe] the agency of the Word . . . in terms of his personal mode of exercising divine power (‘through him’)” (Trinity in Canon, 185). However, other theologians like Madison Pierce describe these prepositions as having an unnecessary connection to the persons’ processions. Portraying the economic roles between the Father and the Son as interchangeable, she argues that “Hebrews speaks of both the Father and the Son as active agents who create (1:10–12; 3:4) and as instruments of creation (1:2; 2:10)” (The Trinity in the Canon, 49). This paper will defend the Son and Spirit’s consistent, logically subordinate manner of working. This is not an ontological subordination but—as argued by Perkins, Edwards, and Hodge—an expression of the Trinitarian processions.

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