Set 5: Christian Theology and Missiology Saturday, January 5, 2013, 9:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
LIMITED RESOURCES: A printed one-volume annotated Bible, a printed one-volume Concordance, a printed 1979 Book of Common Prayer and a printed Hymnal 1982. NO electronic or Internet resources.
Dorothy Sayers famously observed that if people depended upon the Church to answer the question, “What is the Trinity?” the vast majority of people would respond:
“The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the whole thing incomprehensible.’ Something put in by the theologians to make it more difficult—nothing to do with daily life or ethics.”
Drawing on the allowed resources and your own understanding, write an essay of approximately 1,500 words explaining how the doctrine of the Trinity is relevant to “daily life or ethics.”
General thoughts on theology and missiology:
I might sound like a broken record at this point but it is really important to NOT make these questions about your theology or your missiology. The GOE is interested in whether or not you can articulate a basic understanding of theology and missiology on a subject in a way that a person with only a passing interest in either would understand. This is where actually having an intense interest in theology and missiology can be in your DISFAVOR. Keep It Simple Stupid!
This question in particular:
As long as you do not get wrapped up in your own theology, etc. this question is actually pretty straight forward on account of the resources that they give you. They allowed you access to three resources and you need to consistently use them.
The first paragraphs:
Dorothy Sayers famously observed that if people depended upon the Church to answer the question, “What is the Trinity?” the vast majority of people would respond:
“The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the whole thing incomprehensible.’ Something put in by the theologians to make it more difficult—nothing to do with daily life or ethics.”
I love Dorothy Sayers, both for her theology and her mystery novels. I know where Sayers goes next after this quote. I have to toss that information out of my head. This is not exactly fluff but it is dangerous because people will either be bummed out because they have no idea who Dorothy Sayers is or be super excited because they can talk about Dorothy Sayers until the cows come home. This whole thing is just set up, take the general idea and move on from the details.
The actual question:
Drawing on the allowed resources and your own understanding, write an essay of approximately 1,500 words explaining how the doctrine of the Trinity is relevant to “daily life or ethics.”
The quote comes into play here a little bit... in that we know we want to undue the idea that each part of the trinity is “incomprehensible” as well as the construct as a whole. Here is how you do this:
Open up the BCP to the CATECHISM and find a statement about the Father, about the Son, and about the Holy Ghost that you can argue is “relevant to “daily life or ethics””. Do the same for the Trinity as a whole (this last one is the hardest). Find a Bible passage that backs up that statement about each part of the trinity and the trinity as a whole. Open the hymnal to the hymns on “The Holy Trinity” and find a hymn or hymns that have lines that can back up your general thesis. If you can get one hymn to line up with a set of statements from the catechism and fill in with some bible you are set. The outline would be:
375 words on: God the Father is relevant to daily life and ethics because:
The Catechism makes this clear when:
Which is strongly supported in the bible verse:
And is a theology we sing in the hymn:
375 words on: God the Son is relevant to daily life and ethics because:
The Catechism makes this clear when:
Which is strongly supported in the bible verse:
And is a theology we sing in the hymn:
375 words on: God the Holy Spirit is relevant to daily life and ethics because:
The Catechism makes this clear when:
Which is strongly supported in the bible verse:
And is a theology we sing in the hymn:
375 words on: God the Trinity is relevant to daily life and ethics because:
The Catechism makes this clear when:
Which is strongly supported in the bible verse:
And is a theology we sing in the hymn:
I know there is a lot of really cool Trinitarian theology out there. I am half way through Sarah Coakley’s text “God, Sexuality, and the Self” and want to bring it up like crazy in this essay... DON”T... I recognize a lot of need to work with how we approach the terms “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost” when it comes to inclusive language DON’T DO THAT HERE... Just write a basic essay from the catechism about the trinity to get people to the point where they might be interested in the other stuff. Keep it simple, check spelling and grammar, and keep yourself out of it.
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