“Our task this evening is to go in pursuit of a mystery and its implications for how we believe and how we live our lives.”
It is with these words that Dr. John D. Rempel (BA 1966, PhD 1996) began his lecture, “An Impossible Task: Trinitarian Theology for a Radical Church?” in front of a packed audience at the Toronto Mennonite Theological Centre (TMTC). In his wide-ranging lecture, Rempel explored Trinitarian thinking from the 4th to the 20th century, noting the consistent challenges brought against it from “un-Trinitarian expressions of belief.”
Trinitarian thinking, according to Rempel, represents the church’s primal symbols and constitutes the foundational “grammar” or “first principles” of belief. That Western Christians often approach the gospel apart from such symbols and grammar constitutes a crisis in our time, said Rempel, a crisis of incoherence in the church’s witness to the God revealed in the Bible. An example of this incoherence, Rempel suggested, is put on display when considering a central ecclesial practice: the Eucharist or the Lord’s supper. Un-Trinitarian thinking results in an account of the drama of the Lord’s Supper that ultimately involves only one actor: us.
More than just a rich historical and theological analysis, the lecture was offered equally as admonition. Addressing the next generation, the speaker said:
"Take the torch, those of you who are in the generation that is now taking over. Meet us at the center-point of the gospel and then trace out faithful ways of thinking and living that speak out of and into your generation.”
Following the lecture, Dr. P. Travis Kroeker (McMaster University) responded. A robust and appreciative Q&A session followed. The full lecture is available on Grebel’s YouTube channel.
