Wednesday 29 July 2009

And We Were On Top Of The Pile


I hoped it seemed so obvious before you read the last 2 posts here and here) that the doctrines of the Incarnation and the Trinity are Hellenistic expressions of political compromise and autocratic power. And just in case you are not quite at the point of wondering if you were a bit too hasty in your easy rejection of the doctrines on this basis, how to explain the doctrine of the Incarnation when Christianity was in the political and cultural ascendancy within the Roman Empire? The doctrine of the Incarnation is the major expression of the Christian God of lowliness and humility. If the doctrine of the Incarnation is merely an expression of political power and the church's capitulation to it, why continue with a doctrine that so clearly unites the way of God and the way of the cross? It makes no sense. What makes sense is that the doctrine of the Incarnation is the doctrinal expression of the story of the ministry, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth, and perhaps despite, and sometimes through, the process of doctrinal formulation, with all its problems, the gospel was held against temptations to the contrary.