This term is used in the discussion about the relationship between the three persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Trinity is probably the most difficult concept that Christian theology has had to struggle with, and one of the major difficulties is how to understand, e.g., Jesus's many self-assertions that he was sent by the Father and that he does nothing or knows nothing but what the Father tells him which give the impression that the Father is greater than him, and that, therefore, the Son is subordinate to the Father (see, e.g., Jn 5:19; 6:57; 8:28; 10:18). Similar observations may be said about what Jesus taught about the Holy Spirit. The important question for Christian theology is what exactly may we understand and assert about the nature and extent of this 'subordination.' As a summary of this complex discussion, it may be said that most Reformed and evangelical theologians subscribe to some measure of subordination, of which Louis Berkhof provides a useful summary: "there can be no subordination as to essential being of the one person of the Godhead to the other, and therefore no difference in personal dignity. . . The only subordination of which we can speak, is a subordination in respect to order and relationship." Even so, Berkhof warns that it "is especially when we reflect on the relation of the three persons to the divine essence that all analogies fail us and we become deeply conscious of the fact that the Trinity is a mystery far beyond our comprehension. It is the incomprehensible glory of the Godhead."
In recent years, however, there has arisen the teaching among a significant number of North American evangelical theologians asserting that Jesus is, in fact, subordinated to the Father in a manner reminscent of the style of Arians. Kevin Giles argues that this new trend—beginning in the 1070s, and largely arising out of the debate about feminism—came to fruition in the work of Wayne Grudem. "Authority and submission between the Father and the Son . . . and the Holy Spirit, is the fundamental difference between the persons of the Trinity." . Grudem's Systematic Theology, Giles continues, "was the first evangelical systematic theolory to enunciate the doctrine of the eternal subordination of the Son in function/role and authority." Since then, the idea has been taken up by other North American theologians, including Norman Geisler, Bruce Ware, and George Knight. ". . . the doctrine of an eternally subordinated Son in function and authority is found only in post 1970s conservative evangelical writings. It is unknown in mainline Protestant and Roman Catholic works on the Trinity."
Further Reading & Resources:
Kevin Giles, "The Evangelical Theological Society and the doctrine of the Trinity Evangelical Quarterly 80.4 (2008): 323-338.
Pdf N 5-6 (Open on Phone)
Further Reading:
Kevin Giles, Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Trinity. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2006.
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