Eutychus

Ben Witherington, Professor of New Testament Interpretation at Asbury Theological Seminary, has posted part one of a review of Reimaging Church by Frank Viola.  In part one, Witherington deals with Viola’s assertion that the relationship of the members of the triune Godhead is essentially egalitarian, and therefore relationships within the church are to reflect the Trinity.  Witherington concludes:

So here is where I stress that ontological equality, and functional subordination have always been and always will be compatible, and the blueprint Godhead provides us with a reason to expect that in the church there will be a hierarchial pattern of ordering things. I would hasten to add that it does NOT lead us to expect that this pattern will involve a gender hierarchy. No, it will involve a leader and follower, shepherd and sheep, pastor and congregation, apostle and co-workers hierarchy— something Frank wants to avoid at all costs, seeing it as either inorganic or simply fallen human structures.

Alas, however, it is the divine design, mirroring the functional subordination that indeed has and does exist in the Trinity. When the Bible says ‘honor thy father (and mother)”, it never conceives of a day when somehow the son ever ceases to be a son, ceases to owe respect to the father, ceases to be ordered under the father in these ways. There will always be an ordering in that relation and so a hierarchy. Likewise, there never comes a day when the only begotten Son becomes the Father, or somehow the Father changes roles and becomes the only begotten Son. Equality and indeed mutual love and respect do not in any way necessarily rule out an ordering of relationships, or even functional subordination in such relationships either in the Godhead, or in Christian community. I am afraid that what has affected and infected this discussion is secular notions of equality that assume that equal must mean ‘the same’ in all respects, or ‘the same’ in all functions. But this is not what the Bible either says or suggests.

But, by all means, read the entire review the review for yourself.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 6th, 2008 at 7:59 am and is filed under Book Reviews, Church Life, Pastoral, Theology.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.