Saturday, November 19, 2016

Eastern Orthodox View of Trinity and Subordinationism





There has been an ongoing debate among Evangelicals over the eternal subordination of the Son and the eternal subordination of women or wives. I have been looking at the early church fathers on this issue but the one group that has some of the best insights on issues like this is the Eastern Orthodox. Here is what the Eastern Orthodox say:

According to the Orthodox view, the Son or Logos is derived from the Father who alone is without cause or origin. This is not a subordination in time, since the Son is co-eternal with the Father or even in terms of the co-equal uncreated nature shared by the Father and Son. However, this view is sometimes considered a form of subordinationism by Western Christians, and the Western view is often viewed by the Eastern Church as being close to Modalism.[28][page needed][29] Regarding this point, the Revised Catechism of the Orthodox Faith notes that "This (the Orthodox view) is sometimes misunderstood (by Christians influenced by Western teachings on the Trinity) as "subordinationism," but this term cannot rightly be applied to the Orthodox teaching because it can be said that God the Father depends on the Son to be called "Father..."[30] (from Wikipedia)

The problem in western theology by some Evangelicals is they try to focus on the Divine Trinity being hierarchal rather than relational. Those who speak of the son’s eternal subordination to the Father and therefore women’s subordination for eternity has been a gross reaction to feminism showing little historical awareness to the ancient creeds or tradition of the church


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