Tinitarian Theology Teaches Us How to Read the Bible

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For me, one of the unexpected benefits of studying the history of the development of the doctrine of the Trinity is that it reminds me how to study the Bible. In his Spirit of Early Christian Thought, Robert Wilken captures the lesson with this profound observation:

"We are accustomed to think of exegesis as an enterprise of drawing out the meaning of a text by determining what the words signify. The interpreter begins with the words, that is, the signs, and seeks to discover the res, the subject matter about which the text speaks. But if the interpreter has no knowledge of the reality to which they refer, the meaning will always be elusive...Only as the biblical texts [about] the Holy Spirit were read in context of the church's life and worship did they disclose their meaning." (104)


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