Journal: Westminster Theological Journal
Volume: WTJ 75:2 (Fall 2013)
Article: "Imitatio Trinitatis": How Should We Imitate The Trinity?
Author: Keith E. Johnson

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WTJ 75:2 (Fall 2013) p. 317

Imitatio Trinitatis:
How Should We Imitate The Trinity?

Keith E. Johnson

Keith E. Johnson (Ph.D., Duke University) serves as the National Director of Theological Education for Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ) and Guest Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary (Orlando).

Introduction

Immanuel Kant once quipped that the doctrine of the Trinity “has no practical relevance.”1 Kant would be hard-pressed to make this criticism stick today. Contemporary theologians are attempting to relate this foundational Christian doctrine to a wide range of issues. One popular approach to the relevance of the Trinity involves an imitatio trinitatis in which Christians are directed to imitate the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in marriage, family, church, politics, and society. Many contemporary proposals for imitating the Trinity follow a similar pattern: specific aspects of the inner life of the triune God (e.g., the equality of the divine persons) are presented as a model for human beings to emulate.

Although Holy Scripture exhorts Christians to imitate the triune God, the approach to imitation commended in Scripture differs substantively from the strategy outlined above. In this article, I will contend that Scripture does not call us to imitate the way the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to one another in their inner life (immanent Trinity) and that construing imitation of the Trinity in this fashion generates a host of problems. Instead, I will argue that Scripture invites us to imitate the way the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to us in the economy of salvation—particularly as displayed through the incarnate Son, Jesus Christ.

My discussion is divided into four sections. In the first section, I will survey several contemporary proposals commending the immanent Trinity as the focus of human imitation. In the second section, I will explore five methodological problems that arise from attempts to imitate the inner life of the Trinity. In the third section, I will outline an alternative approach focusing on three ways Scripture directs us to imitate the divine persons. In the final section, I will show how imitation is rooted in the redemptive work of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

WTJ 75:2 (Fall 2013) p. 318

I. Imitating God’s Inner Life: Contemporary Examples

Since the patristic period Christian theologians have drawn an important distinction between God in himself and God for us.2 For patristic theologians this distinction was explained in terms of theologia and oikonomia.

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