It’s a saying that has been attributed to many people – “all theology ends in doxology.” My guess is that it is a common refrain of people who have read Romans 7 through 11.  Paul struggles for the theology of gentile inclusion, Jewish seeming exclusion and what comes to be called the doctrine of election. And his entire struggle ends with “O, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God…for from him and through him and to him are all things.”

Trinity Sunday always brings that thought back to me because Trinity Sunday is the most dogmatic day in the church year. It is a day given over to the culmination of a theological project.  “Whoever desires to be saved must, above all, hold the catholic faith…and the catholic faith is this.” The first 300 years post the apostles was the church struggling to define its belief. It had faith.  That is the gift of the Holy Spirit.  But it also desired some understanding, faith seeking understanding. That is the theological project. That is the point of doctrine. This is what we believe, teach and confess. We live or maybe I should say have lived in a time the has devalued theology.  It has done that in two ways. Crudely it has often just dismissed doctrine as unnecessary divisions.  “Deeds not creeds” which ultimately turns the faith in ethics. That is the long path toward Mohammed, or Paul would have said the Judaizers.  Both will tell you the law as a means of salvation.  There has also been a more subtle form of devaluing theology.  Using it not as faith seeking to understand the God from whom we came, in whom we exists and to whom we shall return. But using theology as a means of power or maybe I should say anti-power as in our day it has been used to deconstruct and destroy order. This is the path to nihilism.  The law won’t save you and nothing will save you. You are alone in the universe.

The entire purpose of theology as properly understood has been to understand the narrow way between those two conclusions – salvation by the law or meaninglessness.  Now giving due to the nihilists, all theology is trying to put into words what is ultimately transcendent. It is an impossible task. It is a walking on Holy Ground. And as Moses was told about walking on Holy Ground, take your shoes off.  Keep the dirt and grass of creation next to your skin.  Because all understanding of God in words is by analogy.  And all analogy fails at some point.  The better analogies are those you can feel.  That Athanasian creed uses analogies like majesty, infinite and eternal. If you have three majesties, you don’t really have one.  The Godhead is majesty coeternal. There is only one eternal.  Mathematicians can discern larger and smaller infinities, but looking at the night sky gives you one.

Also giving due to the legalists, if you don’t require something you don’t really know anything. The unknown God is a terrible monster. You don’t know if He is there is kill and devour you, or to save you.  And any God who makes himself known reveals something about his ways.  And if they are the ways of God, they should also be the ways of His creations. The Athanasian creed moves on from the majesty, infinite and eternal – all of which could be an unknown God.  Aristotle comes to some similar conclusions without knowing God.  The Athanasian creed also tells us “it is also necessary for everlasting salvation that one faithfully believe the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God has revealed himself in man.  And not just man in general, but a man, a particular man – Jesus. The ways of God are revealed to us in Jesus “who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, and rose again the third day from the dead.” The God we worship is one who saves by grace, one who suffers, and one who works by death and resurrection. You don’t get more gritty dirt than a grave, or one who comes out of it.

The theology is necessary because the Spirit does lead us into truth, and the theology is the record of that. The errors never really go away.  They always come back and the church can take out the record and say “you are here.” But the theology also at some point get put down and join the choir. “Praise God from whom all blessings flow…”