Regnum Caelorum

In some theological discussions on social media, it's becoming commonplace to say that the doctrine of the Trinity is nowhere found in Scripture. It's unclear why the church has nearly universally accepted the doctrine of the Trinity if we can't find it in Scripture. If we're going to wade into this discussion effectively, however, we need to define the doctrine of the Trinity as it has been historically taught by the Christian church. Then we can evaluate to what extent that view is or isn't in the Christian Bible or whether it can be considered in any sense "biblical." Statement of the Doctrine T here are many ways the doctrine of the Trinity. It has been formulated in several different ways, often because of the chosen language for theological terminology (whether you prefer using Greek terminology or Latin terminology), but a formulation that we can all agree is an accurate representation of the doctrine in English is this: "There is one God who...

I've been seeing a lot of discussion recently suggesting that those who have a high view of the authority  and accuracy of Scripture assert its "univocality." Frequently this is asserted without defining the term, but when it is defined, it is often defined as if it essentially means "inerrant" or "infallible." I find this deeply problematic on multiple levels, at least for those who want to have an open and honest conversation about the concept of Biblical authority and what that entails. I want to make a case here that, even for those with the strongest convictions of Biblical inerrancy, there is absolutely no reason to simultaneously assert its univocality. These are entirely different concepts - in principle, the Bible could be inerrant and multivocal; it could also be errant and univocal. We need to begin with a good definition of "vocality."[1] The term "vocality" has to do with what we should expect of the Scriptures if we as...