Journal: Journal of Ministry and Theology
Volume: JMAT 27:1 (Spring 2023)
Article: The Overlooked Importance Of Dispensational Hermeneutics In Modern Trinitarian Scholarship
Author: Jesse Randolph

JMAT 27:1 (Spring 2023) p. 131

The Overlooked Importance Of Dispensational Hermeneutics In Modern Trinitarian Scholarship

Jesse Randolph1

Key Words: Dispensationalism, Hermeneutics, Nicaea, Theological Method, Trinity

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Introduction

A regularly encountered phrase in the landscape of modern Trinitarian scholarship is that of “theological retrieval,” or “Trinitarian retrieval.” Especially in recent years, there has been resurgence of interest in connecting what we know about the living God from the pages of Scripture—specifically, what we know about his triunity—to what our Nicene-era forefathers taught on these matters. The aim of this process of “theological retrieval,” it is said, is to extract the purest possible form of Nicene orthodoxy by bringing into progressively sharper focus those Trinitarian truths which were settled upon at the Council of Nicaea of AD 325 and the Council of Constantinople in AD 381.

The aim of this movement—that of “theological retrieval,” or “Trinitarian retrieval”—is a noble one. Getting the Trinity right is, of course, a matter of paramount significance. In the constellation of doctrines which Christians have debated (and fought about) over the centuries, the doctrine of the Trinity is and always has been a matter of first importance. This matter of “Trinitarian retrieval,” then, is both understandable and needed.

JMAT 27:1 (Spring 2023) p. 132

To borrow from C. S. Lewis, the “clean sea breeze of the centuries”2 can have salutary effects—particularly in the area of challenging and directing Christians toward greater Trinitarian accuracy.

However, the path from today’s Trinitarianism back into the earliest centuries of church history as a means of “retrieving” a sound Nicene doctrine of the triunity of the Godhead has been a narrow one—at least in one sense. This narrowness is seen in the fact that both the published and popular (read “Twitterverse”) Trinitarian scholarship of our day overwhelmingly favors the Trinitarian writings of non-dispensational scholars over the Trinitarian writings of dispensational scholars. Though dispensational authors have written on the Trinity, and though their writings (rooted in their consistent hermeneutical commitments) should be a welcome addition to modern Trinitarian discussions, the voices of dispensational scholars have largely gone ignored in this ever-developing field of theological research.

The thesis of this article is threefold: (1) that there is, in fact, a latent bias in modern Trinitarian scholarship—specifically, that...