In his mature theological anthropology, Augustine notes that a pregnant woman cannot create or alter the nature of the unborn child in her womb because all natures are created by God, the creator of all things who is uncreated. This understanding underscores that since God created Adam and Eve with physical and gender distinctions, gender … Read more
Despite its centrality to Christian theology, the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed’s implicit doctrine of revelation remains under-explored. This may seem unsurprising since the doctrine was largely assumed in the debates of the time and not a focus of the Creed. This does not, however, mean that doctrine is absent or irrelevant. This paper reflects on several features … Read more
It has long been observed that churches in the Free Church tradition, with its emphasis on ‘the autonomy of the local church,’ often see little value in creedal affirmations and prefer to ask the question: ‘Where stands it written [in Scripture]?’ In fact, Donald Durnbaugh in his classic ‘The Believers’ Church: The History and Character … Read more
This paper explores and compares three major theological approaches to the discernibility of the persons of the Trinity: the patristic doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son, John Calvin’s assertion of the Son as autotheos, and Brant Bosserman’s philosophical argument for triune necessity as articulated in The Trinity and the Vindication of Christian Paradox: … Read more
The Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed’s affirmation that Jesus Christ “by the Holy Spirit was incarnate of the Virgin Mary” reflects a deeply biblical and theologically rich claim about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. By retrieving and clarifying the Creed’s brief but profound affirmation, this paper helps illuminate the Spirit’s identity as the Lord and … Read more
The Nicene Creed states that the eternal Son of God “came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Spirit.” This language raises a question about the what it means that the person of Jesus Christ “came down from heaven.” The development in the Chalcedonian Definition indicates that this one Son is “made known … Read more
Three hundred and ten years after the First Council of Nicaea in 325, the Nicene Creed finally made its way to China in the seventh century, when missionaries from the Church of the East journeyed along the Silk Road and arrived in Tang China’s capital in 635. Since that time, despite numerous unsuccessful attempts by … Read more
Though the late German Lutheran theologian, Wolfhart Pannenberg (1928-2014), is well-known for his rigorous academic style and critically-constructive approaches to doctrines and themes like theological anthropology, Christology, and the doctrine of the Trinity, his many ecumenically-sensitive writings about ecclesiology (within which he is arguably at his most conservative) are often overlooked and neglected. In the … Read more
This paper examines specific language in the Christian Scriptures that identify and discuss the Holy Spirit as the key point of contact between Creator and creation. It will proceed to draw connections between this language and the pneumatology of specific theologians in the Nicene Tradition. Christian Scripture regularly connects the Spirit with English adjectives and … Read more
This paper constructively argues for a method of rooting divine simplicity in Scripture that builds on pro-Nicene approaches to the doctrine, and which has been almost entirely overlooked in the modern history of the doctrine. In the 4th and 5th centuries, pro-Nicene theologians defended the doctrine of the Trinity on the basis of divine simplicity. … Read more