Divine Complexity: The Rise of Creedal Christianity

by Paul R. Hinlicky

Paul Hinlicky reads the history of the early church as a genuine, centurieslong theological struggle to make sense of the confession of Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. Protesting a recent parting of the ways between systematic theology and the history of early Christianity, Hinlicky relies on the insights of historical criticism to argue in this historical survey for the coherence of doctrinal development in the early church. Hinlicky contends that the Christian tradition shows evidence of being governed by a hermeneutic of "cross and resurrection." In successive chapters he finds in the New Testament writings a collective Christological decision against docetism; in the union of Old and New Testaments, a monotheistic decision against Gnostic dualism; in the resulting sweep of the canon a narrative of the divine economy of salvation that posed a trinitarian alternative to Arian Unitarianism; and in the insistence upon the cross of the incarnate Son, a rebuke of Nestorianism. This book is written with the student of early Christianity and the development of doctrine in mind.

304 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2010

About the author

Dr. Hinlicky is an internationally-known theologian who has published more than seventy articles and many books. He is an authority on the theology of Martin Luther and how Luther's theology played out in history since the time of the Reformation. He also works on the re-integration of Reformation and Patristic theology, ecumenical and interfaith dialogue, and is concerned with the interplay between Christian theology and contemporary, "post-modern" philosophy. He is an ordained minister in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America who has served congregations for extended terms in Delhi, NY, and Blacksburg, VA. He was editor of the Lutheran Forum and Pro Ecclesia. Dr. Hinlicky came to Roanoke College in 1999 after teaching theology for six years at Jan Comenius University in Bratislava, Slovakia.

Reviews

[Bruce · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hinlicky tracks the rise of credal Christianity in “primary theology” for today. Primary theology includes canonical Scripture, Creeds and Reformation confession of justification by faith. "Today" is the situation of ecumenical dialogue in post-Christendom. He characterizes his project as advancing the thesis that “God the Almighty Father is determined to redeem the creation through His Son, Jesus Christ, and bring it to fulfillment by His Spirit.” He goes from Kerygma to Gospel narrative to Scripture as promissory narrative, to the Trinitarian rule of faith, to the Church’s confrontation with philosophical monotheism, to the outcome in Trinitarian dogma. Driving this development is the paradox of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior, who dies the death of a criminal on the Cross. The tension in this paradox is heightened by the Gospel account that shows why this paradox is necessary. The necessity is the inter-trinitarian unity in sacrificial love. Hinlicky links this message to the lifestyle of martyrdom. Martyrdom differentiated Christianity from Docetists and Gnosticism. The benefit of this approach is that it links doctrinal development to a coherent pattern of life and reflection. Major figures in his development of Creedal Christianity are Ignatius, Polycarp, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Origen, Arius, Athanasius and the Capadocians. Augustin, Luther and modern historical criticism are dialogue partners in the development of his theme. Hinlicky keeps simplicity doctrine as a noetic boundary, not a positive definition of divine nature. He jettisons impassibility as a divine property along fairly traditional lines that suffering was incorporated into the godhead through the Incarnation as passible-impassibility. The claim that inclusion of the Holy Spirit as a late doctrinal development after the failure of Nicea to eliminate subordinationism explained why trinitarian doctrine resulted in a self-related, transcendent monotheistic godhead in contrast to the hierarchical god of philosophical monotheism. Hinlicky implies that trinitarian development was completed by 381 AD in Constantinople. The grounding of sacrificial love in the Trinitarian relationships does not come through in his treatment of Nicene and post-Nicene theology. He does not draw attention to the difference between the trinitarian relationships, trinitarian operations, and trinitarian missions. Overall an excellent resource for tracing the development of doctrine beyond the Bible for the sake of the Bible.

[André Sette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very rare for a theologian to be courageous enough to unite modern exegesis, modern theology, philosophy and history to make a point – even rarer for it to be a biblical point. All of the problems in the book are obfuscated by its greatness here. Also fresh air compared to the return of naive metaphysics that reigns in the theological academia today.