[3-4-02]

Shawn Coons, a Candidate for Ministry under care of the Presbytery of East Iowa, recently posted this note in the WITHERSPOON MEMBERS meeting on PresbyNet, since it had not yet been published by Presbyterian Outlook, to which it was originally sent as a response to a Guest Viewpoint" essay on our language about the Trinity, by the Rev. James C. Goodloe IV. Her letter now is on the Outlook web site.

We are glad to share it here as a contribution to the continuing efforts that we must make to deal responsively with "how we talk about God."

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In his Guest Viewpoint "On the Trinity," Rev. James C. Goodloe IV seems to conclude that using any language to address God other than language Jesus used "reveals a dangerous arrogance." One passage of scripture he uses to support this assertion is Matthew 6:9, where Jesus instructs the disciples to pray. Given his stance I assume that Rev. Goodloe has always used in worship the Lord's Prayer exactly as it is recorded in Matthew 6:9-13, and not the more widely-used and traditional version.

I assume this because, as I understand Rev. Goodloe's reasoning, the confessions and the church have shown some of this "dangerous arrogance" in the presumption that they know how to pray to God better than Jesus. This arrogance is revealed in the addition of the phrases "who art in heaven" and "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever." Jesus did not use these two phrases and so to use them must be a "departure from the biblical witness."

Or maybe Jesus did not come to set down an exhaustive and prescriptive list of what is orthodox language for all time. I believe that Jesus came, among other reasons, to give us the foundation of our faith, but our faith is nothing if we do not build upon that foundation. Much like the early church expanded the Lord's Prayer, I think it is acceptable, if not our call, to expand in other areas of faith, including our language about God.

What language do we use to describe God? Rev. Goodloe is correct when he writes that Jesus never used "Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer," to refer to the Trinity. Then again Jesus never used the word "Trinity," yet we use that word in our worship and our liturgical year regularly. This is one example of expanding our language about God.

Rev. Goodloe reasons that to use "Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer" to the exclusion of other Trinitarian language is unbiblical and heretical. I think a more accurate conclusion is that to use any one description of God to the exclusion of other descriptions is the real danger to the church.

All language about God is incomplete and insufficient. How can we use the finite to completely describe the infinite? To emphasize one aspect of God, for example, God as Creator, to the exclusion of others is incomplete. Likewise it would be just as wrong to only use language that represents God as masculine, when the Bible and our confessions offer a more complete witness (Matt. 23:37, Isa. 46:3, BoC 10.3).

Rev. Goodloe says that using "'Creator, Sustainer and Redeemer' in the place of 'Father, Son and Holy Spirit' is not a matter of alternative but acceptable language," and I agree, at least in part. It is not a matter of alternative language; instead it is a matter of additional language. The use of this functional language no more leads to modalism than use of the traditional language inevitably leads to sexism.

The words we use to address God are not important simply because Jesus used them, they are important because of the meaning behind them. We stand in a tradition that is called to continually restate and re-express the core of our beliefs, and while we should not abandon the normative language of the church, neither should we abandon the attempt to describe a God who will not be confined to any one expression.

Shawn Coons
Candidate for Ministry under care of the Presbytery of East Iowa
Currently working at Bon Air Presbyterian Church in Richmond, VA

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