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The Doctrine of God Leaven Volume 8 Issue 3 Theology and Ministry Article 5 1-1-2000 The Doctrine of God John Mark Hicks Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven Part of the Biblical Studies Commons, Christianity Commons, and the Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Hicks, John Mark (2000) "The Doctrine of God," Leaven: Vol. 8 : Iss. 3 , Article 5. Available at: https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol8/iss3/5 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Religion at Pepperdine Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Leaven by an authorized editor of Pepperdine Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. Hicks: The Doctrine of God 118 Leaven, Fall 2000 The Doctrine of God BY JOHN MARK HICKS This paper was prepared for the "Theology in Service of sion in a formula, reduced piety to the forms and the Church" seminar held on July 17-18 in conjunction structures of the true church, and relegated God to with the 1996 Christian Scholars Conference, Nashville, the fringes of human experience. God has done his Tennessee. part in both creation and redemption, it reasoned, and now we must do ours. Where Are We Today? Secularized religion, however, does not represent One of the most significant influences upon the our authentic heritage. The Stone wing of our move- vision of God commonly held among Churches of ment had a dynamic view of the conversion and Christ has been the secularization of our culture. By transformation of human lives. God was not on the secularization I mean the desacralization of institu- fringes of his world, but was deeply involved tions, the transposition of religious functions into the through spiritual and providential activity. One need secular domain, and the differentiation of sacred and only remember the views of James A. Harding to secular so that the sacred loses its overarching claim.' note the powerful influence of the Stonite perspec- This secularization entails the loss of a sense of tran- tive on subsequent views of spiritual dynamics and scendence in the life of faith; a pragmatic or dog- providence.David Lipscomb, whose Stonite roots matic emphasis on rule keeping takes precedence. It are well known, believed that God had a dynamic, entails the reduction of Christianity to religious or- rather than static, relationship with his world, in- ganizations; Christianity is equated with cluding the divine ordering of civil war within a ecclesiology and its institutions. Further, it entails nation.According to Lipscomb, God" tolerat[ ed] and the loss of a sense of divine immanence within the ordain[ ed]" the evil of slavery in order to punish the cosmos; the perceived activity of God is restricted to South through" God's battle-axe," the Northern maintaining the regularity of nature. Consequently, army.' words like "accident" and "luck" are more a part of The Campbell wing of our heritage was rooted our vocabulary than is the biblical phrase "Lord will- in a solidly Reformed perspective on providence and ing." God's involvement in the world.' While rarely dis- Secularized religion, as an ideological perspec- cussed today,Campbell's view of God's activity in tive, characterized Churches of Christ of the mid- the world was dynamic: God acts in history to bring twentieth century. Secularization, however, took a about his kingdom. His own movement, he believed, particular form in our movement. It focused conver- Published by Pepperdine Digital Commons, 2000 1 Leaven, Vol. 8 [2000], Iss. 3, Art. 5 Theology and Ministry 119 was a work of God that would usher in the millennial has been written out of our hymnbooks (as in "Holy, kingdom. Holy, Holy"). I have no vested interest in the term But as the Churches of Christ increasingly con- myself. Where my interest lies is in a communitarian centrated on the plan of salvation and church order, understanding of God. What I mean by "Trinity" is where the concerns were primarily centered on hu- the divine community that created the cosmos and man activity, our own vision of God was increas- redeemed a fallen people. The Father created and ingly influenced by the cultural dynamic of secular- redeemed a people for himself through the Son by ization.Failing to reflect specifically on the doctrine the Holy Spirit. Ever since Barth's Church Dogmatics of God as the transcendent One, we unconsciously and Rahners What Is the Trinity? there has been a and subtly remade our doctrine of God in the image revival of trinitarian theology, and in the last two of our ecclesiology and culture. Our polemics against decades, there has been a revival of Eastern social the direct operation of the Holy Spirit, against trinitarianism over against Western trinitarianism, miracles, and against the special and specific provi- which emphasizes the monarchy of God.This revival dential work of God had the tendency to reduce the of social trinitarian ism is one of the most significant transcendence of God to our human-focused developments in contemporary theology." It fosters ecclesiological issues. We tended, then, to adopt a a communitarian understanding of God over against secularized, deistic vision of God. a more individualistic understanding of the relation- Currently, tremendous confusion characterizes ship between the Father, Son, and Spirit. our doctrine of God. We are uncertain about whether Social trinitarianism affirms that a community to believe God is the enthroned sovereign of created a community. The Father through the Son premodern thought, the deistic watchmaker of mod- and by the Spirit created male and female as a com- ern thought, or the divine partner and fellow suf- munity that was to reproduce itself through procre- ferer that characterizes some postmodern theology.' ation. The human community was to model the cre- We are uncertain about how our doctrine of God ative act of the divine community. Just as the Trinity ought to impact our lives-whether we should ex- created in order to share the love of their commu- pect to experience God in the daily moments of life, nity, so parents have children in order to share their or only in the pages of scripture. We are uncertain love within community. God is interested in about how to reflect upon the life and character of koinonia-a fellowship that flows out of the commu- God-whether we should follow metaphysical, pi- nity of God to envelop the human community. etistic, or pluralistic models. We are uncertain about When the human community fell, the divine how the love and holiness of God ought to mold our community took the initiative to redeem. God in- lives. We are uncertain about whether a personal, tends to have a people for himself, among whom he institutional, or mystical experience of God ought can dwell-a community where they can be his to be expected. We are uncertain about how the doc- people and he can be their God. The Holy Commu- trine of God should mold our vision of the church, nity intends to dwell with a community; it intends when we have for so long permitted our ecclesiology koinonia. A holy community was created, but it fell, to mold our vision of God. Clearly, we need some and now the Holy Community takes the initiative profound thinking, dialogue, and application of the to redeem what has fallen. doctrine of God in the life of the church. I wish to The created and redeemed communities are offer three directions for thinking about God in our called to image the trinitarian community of God. fellowship. The model for human community is the community of God. Humanity was created to image God. Israel Directions for the Future was redeemed as a people of God who would repre- The Trinitarian Community of Holy Love sent God in the world. The church is called to emu- Trinity has not been a popular term in our fel- late the community and unity of the Father and the lowship. Campbell and Stone both rejected it, and it Son. Jesus offers the relationship between himself https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/leaven/vol8/iss3/5 2 Hicks: The Doctrine of God 120 Leaven, Fall 2000 heaven. The church ought to be the image of God's A communitarian holy community on earth. Doxological Understanding of God's Attributes understanding of God As I surveyed recent writings on the subject of rejects the highly God, I was struck by the incessant and persistent /I problem-solving" approach to our understanding individualistic and ego- of Cod.' While there are some notable exceptions, centered character -of our discussions of God have tended to focus on cer- Western, and particularly tain problems regarding his attributes. Given our rationalistic, as well as modern (that is, scientific), American, culture. methodologies, we tend to approach God as an ob- ject to be dissected, analyzed, and justified (as in theodicy). We seek to maintain the logical consis- and the Father as the model of community relation- tency of our God through exploring and determin- ships among his disciples (John 17:21). Consequently, ing the logical relations of God's attributes. Our ra- how the community of God models self-giving love, tional inquiry functions to delimit the sort of thing how it models gracious initiative, how it models self- that God can be. For example, we want to know how risking servitude, how it models holiness, how it God's immutability is consistent with his activity in models mutual interdependence ought to give hu- the world. Or, we want to know how God's omni- man communities-family, church, and state-a vi- science is consistent with his creation of free crea- sion of God's intent for them." This communitarian tures.
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