A steadfast foundation of faith, no matter what accusations fly
Differing biblical interpretations have been used as weapons, but the key to Christianity remains intact, writes John Woodhouse.
Christian people make a remarkable claim: to know God. The claim rests on the conviction that God has made himself known in the historical person Jesus Christ (who was "God in the flesh") and the message about him in the Bible (which is God's word to humanity).
That from the beginning there have been disagreements among Christians about what they know of God is neither surprising nor alarming.
In every field of knowledge there are disagreements. Mathematics, history, linguistics, for instance, contain conflicting ideas and vigorous debate. It is a function of the incompleteness and imperfection of all human knowledge. Such disagreements do not mean that there is no genuine mathematical or historical knowledge. The debates themselves clarify issues and expose erroneous ideas.
The same is true of our knowledge of God. To know God is not only a remarkable claim, it is a revolutionary experience. To know that God is there and to know something of what he is like changes everything.
This means that those who take into account a knowledge of God will think differently from those who do not, about human sexuality, abortion, euthanasia, mandatory detention of asylum seekers, truth-telling, stem cell research, national reconciliation, the Iraq war, and the mistreatment of prisoners of war. Much that is taken for granted in the cultures that have been historically influenced by Christianity (like Australia) has been profoundly affected by this knowledge of God.
This does not mean that Christians claim to "have all the answers" to complex issues. But knowing God does illuminate every aspect of life.
Discussions and debates about God have been taken with utmost seriousness - though, sadly, with more than a few examples of the human perversity that the Bible teaches us to expect.
This is the background to the controversy reported on Friday in the Herald. The Doctrine Commission of the Sydney Diocese has been accused of "wrongly interpreting the Trinity to find Christ eternally subordinate to the Father, in a manner which imposes an unequal relationship on them".
This accusation is incorrect. I do not have the space to address the theological arguments in this piece, but it is important to understand the context in which they were made.
The distinctive Christian knowledge of God is expressed in what is usually called the doctrine of the Trinity. This is the understanding that while there is only one God, this one God is three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
The Trinity is every bit as wonderful as the fact that God is the creator, that he is good and that he is personal. It means that the brilliant reality of personal relationships is not an accidental feature of the world, but is of immense and fundamental value. Within God himself is love. As the Bible puts it, "God is love."
Through the vigorous debates that surrounded this tremendous subject in the early centuries of Christianity, it became clear that there were errors that were so serious that they had to be recognised as such. They were, if you like, the theological equivalents of the historical error of denying the Holocaust.
One of the most serious of these became associated with the name of a 4th-century figure named Arius. "Arianism" denied that Jesus Christ was fully divine, asserting that the Son of God did not always exist, but is merely the first among creatures.
The consequences of views such as this cannot be pursued in this brief piece. Suffice to say that it became clear that it was so far from the truth God had made known in Jesus Christ that they were a denial of the Christian knowledge of God.
An unfortunate aspect of the discussions down the centuries has been that these serious errors have often been used unjustly as rhetorical devices.
As the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, explains in his book on Arius, the accusation of Arianism has often been enlisted to further some contemporary agenda, since it can so effectively blacken an opponent's name. In the 16th century, that champion of biblical Christianity, John Calvin, was accused of Arianism. That the same has happened in recent discussions of this topic in Australia is, to say the least, regrettable.
The astounding thing, however, remains. It is not the fact that Christians are debating, nor even that some of them have used intemperate language. It is that they claim to know God, because God has made himself known.
John Woodhouse is principal of Moore Theological College and chairman of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney Doctrine Commission.