That important doctrine… whatever it is

I was reading an article on the Trinity by Phillip Cary, and was struck by this passage, at the start of his paper.

When I was growing up in the faith, I heard a lot about the doctrine of the Trinity, but never learned what the doctrine was. In high school and college I worshiped at faithful, Biblical churches in which pastors often affirmed the importance of the Trinity, even preached whole sermons on how important it was, yet never told us what the doctrine actually said. To find that out I had to go to graduate school and read the Church Fathers. (“The Logic of Trinitarian Doctrine (Part 1),” Religious and Theological Studies Fellowship Bulletin, Sept-Oct 1995, 2-7, emphasis added)

That was my experience growing up as well, except I don’t remember hearing the doctrine (ever!) mentioned in church – only in apologetics contexts, in the denunciation of its various dastardly deniers, such as Mormons and Jehovah’s witnesses. I even managed to get through an evangelical college without really thinking about it, and part of the way through grad school.

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