Journal: Journal of the Institute of Reformed Baptist Studies
Volume: JIRBS 09:1 (NA 2024)
Article: Nice And Hot Disputes "The Doctrine Of The Trinity In The Seventeenth Century", By Philip Dixon A Review Article
Author: Ashley J. Charles

JIRBS 9 (2024) p. 97

Nice And Hot Disputes
The Doctrine Of The Trinity In The Seventeenth Century, By Philip Dixon A Review Article

Ashley J. Charles*

*Ashley J. Charles is a member of Maidenbower Baptist Church, Crawley, UK, and student at International Reformed Baptist Seminary, Mansfield, TX.

For all the work that has gone into recovering the doctrine of the Trinity in recent decades, there has been little to no attention given to studying its decline. Though most historians have recognized that the doctrine had fallen upon hard times by the 1690s, there has been little enquiry as to why this was the case and very little has been said on what happened in the interval between the medieval scholastics and Friedrich Schleiermacher. But has this been an oversight? As J.V. Fesko so helpfully points out in his book The Covenant of Works: The Origins, Development, and Reception of the Doctrine, doctrines are not created “ex nihilo” but “each period of history gives birth to the next in such a way that its birth pangs precede its arrival.”1 This observation is really useful because it helps to explain why Philip Dixon has chosen to pay more attention to the period of history that preceded the decline, rather than the period of history after it had already happened

JIRBS 9 (2024) p. 98

in his book, Nice and Hot Disputes.2 Unlike many historians who just look at the Idealism, Materialism, and Unitarianism of the eighteenth century and simply just recognize that these things were problems, Dixon instead examines the circumstances, disputes, and events which preceded all these things, to show how these problems came to be.

And this is not all. For Dixon does not just show that the doctrine declined or even why it did, but he also shows how these disputes are able to shed light on the doctrine itself. History testifies to the fact that those engaged in dispute are often forced to think about what they are arguing more clearly. Whether it be Sabellius and Tertullian, or Arius and Athanasius, or Nestorius and Cyril of Alexandria, it is clear to see that rather than cloud our understanding of the triune God, these disputes have often illuminated it. And this is what the book does. It takes the reader on what on the face of it seems to be a perilous journey through a dense thicket of heterodoxies, but a journey that also takes the reader to a place where they are able to see the radiance of the doctrine’s beauty and majesty break forth.

Chapter One: Bones To Philosophy, But Milke To Faith

In chapter one, Dixon shows how the doctrine of the Trinity was the thread that bound p...