"Enough for any good Christian to believe": Jonathan Swift's 'Trinitarian minimalism'

Jonathan Swift's sermon for Trinity Sunday is another expression of the 'Trinitarian minimalism' evident in Anglican thought during the long 18th century. At the heart of the sermon is the conviction that the scriptural confession of the Trinity - "very short" - is sufficient "for any good Christian to believe":

... the great doctrine of the Trinity; which word is indeed not in Scripture, but was a term of art invented in the earlier times to express the doctrine by a single word, for the sake of brevity and convenience. The doctrine then as delivered in holy scripture, though not exactly in the same words, is very short, and amounts only to this; that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, are each of them God, and yet there is but One God ...

Therefore I shall again repeat the doctrine of the Trinity, as it is positively affirmed in Scripture: that God is there expressed in three different names, as Father, as Son, and as Holy Ghost; that each of these is God, and that there is but one God. But this union and distinction are a mystery utterly unknown to mankind ...

This is enough for any good Christian to believe on this great article, without ever inquiring any farther. And this can be contrary to no man's reason, although the knowledge of it is hid from him.

Beyond this, no speculation or searching is required:

This is enough for any good Christian to believe on this great article, without ever inquiring any farther. And this can be contrary to no man's reason, although the knowledge of it is hid from him ...

Against this, Swift critiques the speculative approach of the schools, unnecessarily complicating Trinitarian faith and provoking controversy:

several divines, in order to answer the cavils of those adversaries to truth and morality, began to find out farther explanations of this doctrine of the Trinity by rules of philosophy; which have multiplied controversies to such a degree, as to beget scruples that have perplexed the minds of many sober Christians, who otherwise could never have entertained them.

Not only are scholastic speculations about the Trinity unnecessary, they are attempts to probe that which is beyond the capacity of the human mind to comprehend:

It is highly probable, that if God should please to reveal unto us this great mystery of the Trinity, or some other mysteries in our holy religion, we should not be able to understand them, unless he would at the same time think fit to bestow on us some new powers or faculties of the mind, which we want at present, and are reserved till the day of resurrection to life eternal. "For now," as the apostle says, "we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face."

The sermon also gives expression to another aspect of Trinitarian minimalism. Referring to the Athanasian Creed - which, interestingly, is described as "this day read to you" (i.e. not said by the congregation) - Swift accords to this creed a restrained, modest significance:

This creed is now read at certain times in our churches, which although it is useful for edification to those who understand it, yet since it contains some nice and philosophical points which few people can comprehend, the bulk of mankind is obliged to believe no more than the scripture doctrine, as I have delivered it; because that creed was intended only as an answer to the Arians in their own way, who were very subtle disputers.

The sermon concludes with another exhortation against controversies which unnecessarily complicate the "short and plain" doctrine of the Trinity:

Since the world abounds with pestilent books particularly written against this doctrine of the Trinity; it is fit to inform you, that the authors of them proceed wholly upon a mistake: they would show how impossible it is, that three can be one, and one can be three; whereas the Scripture saith no such thing, at least in that manner they would make it: but only that there is some kind of unity and distinction in the divine nature, which mankind cannot possibly comprehend: thus the whole doctrine is short and plain, and in itself incapable of any controversy: since God himself hath pronounced the fact, but wholly concealed the manner. And therefore many divines, who thought fit to answer those wicked books, have been mistaken too by answering fools in their folly; and endeavouring to explain a mystery, which God intended to keep secret from us.

Swift's sermon exemplifies the wisdom of 'Trinitarian minimalism'. Above all, his insistence that the doctrine is "short and plain" explains the sermon's theological confidence and cohesion. There is no need for preaching on the doctrine of the Trinity to go beyond what is "enough for any good Christian to believe", "the doctrine ... as delivered in holy scripture". Swift's 'Trinitarian minimalism', in other words, can offer to contemporary Anglican preaching a reasonable, confident, meaningful approach to proclaiming and teaching faith in the Holy Trinity, not as a complicated scholastic formula, not as speculative proposals regarding the inner life of the Godhead, but as the "short and plain" doctrine of God revealed in holy Scripture.