Theological triage.
It’s a term that any seminary student becomes familiar with in their first year.
Simply put, theology matters. Knowing what we believe matters. But not all doctrines carry the same weight. Some are open to debate while others are not. When a church community is triaging their doctrines well, there’s a healthy balance between theological fidelity and constructive disagreement. When they aren’t, it can create any number of problems.
If you’re in a seminary classroom, you’re typically taught that all doctrines fall into one of three categories.
The Primary
Primary doctrines are considered those that separate Christian from non-Christian. These include things like the Trinity, the deity/humanity of Christ, and the inspiration of Scripture. If you can’t affirm these, you are out of step with thousands of years of Christian theology, along with the Bible itself. These are the doctrines we strive to maintain and cannot waiver on.
The Secondary
Secondary doctrines are important enough to cause divisions within a church community, but don’t separate believer from nonbeliever. Personally, I am a Baptist. While this means a lot of things, one important belief we hold is that baptism is an ordinance of the church, designated for those who have given their lives to Christ. It is not for babies and it’s meant to be practiced by immersion. Many Presbyterians, who I love and agree with on a host of other issues, would disagree with me on this. They wouldn’t join my church and I wouldn’t join theirs. But I still consider them brothers and sisters in Christ and still have deep respect for them.
The Tertiary
These are doctrines that make for fun debates but should not cause division within the church. They often involve theological concepts where the Bible is less clear or issues about how doctrine is practiced within the church. You can read about them and develop informed opinions, but you’ll still find that even the brightest theological minds disagree with each other. These doctrines often include how your church approaches its worship services or your beliefs about how the end times might unfold.
The Two Errors
As in all things, moderation is key when it comes to our theological triage and everyone is prone to pull too hard in one direction or the other. Some Christians err toward including more doctrines in the primary camp than is necessary. Others err toward putting too many doctrines in the other camps. In an unhealthy state, one focuses on purity to the determent of unity, while the other focuses on unity to the determent of purity.
The balance point is protecting doctrinal purity while maintaining unity. Some hills are worth dying on while others are not. Some doctrines must be protected at all costs. In others, there can be healthy disagreement as we spur one another on.
I encourage you to think about it for yourself. Which doctrines fall into which camps? How would you categorize them and why? Engage your pastors or elders at your church and get their feedback. How would they answer the same questions?
This is a key building block to theological maturity.
