By Micah H.
I have recently come across Miroslav Volf’s book Allah: A Christian Response and by way of this book the archbishop of Canterbury’s letter concerning the same subject. In both cases I admire the intent of the authors and believe with them that it is necessary for Christians and Muslims alike to lay aside caricatures of one another. I also respect Volf’s position that to “use” religion to divide and attack the Other should be untenable to all who claim to be followers of Christ. With this being said both the book and the letter have left me with a great deal of unease. I feel that both authors demonstrate by their attempts to make Christian Trinitarian theology palatable to Islam a betrayal of Orthodox Trinitarian Theology. I am sure you might have noticed that the “O” is capitalized. I have purposefully done this because I believe that what the authors say about the Trinity is in no way compatible with the Orthodox Church’s teachings on the Holy Trinity. At the same time I believe that what they consider “orthodox” Trinitarian theology is compatible with Islam. Volf actually says, “I reject the idea that Muslim monotheism is incompatible with the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.”
These posts will attempt to demonstrate the incompatibility of Eastern Trinitarian theology with Western Trinitarian Theology as presented in the above mentioned documents. These posts will deal with Islam only in so far as it is brought up in the two documents.
I will provide several quotations under the following headings which I believe refute or at least call into question Volf’s teachings on “orthodox” Trinitarianism.
1) Hypostatic Priority & Monarchy of the Father
2) Love: Mode of being or Attribute?
3) The “En-hypostatic” attributes of God
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