Kevin Giles

Kevin Giles
Nationality Australian
Occupation Clergyman, author, speaker

Kevin Giles is an Australian pastor and Theologian. He is an ordained evangelical Anglican who was in parish ministry for over forty years. He and his family live in Melbourne, Australia. Giles studied at Moore Theological College in Sydney,[1] Durham University, England and Tubingen University, Germany. He has a Doctor of Theology degree from the Australian College of Theology.[2]

He has published widely on matters related to the health and growth of the church, some at a popular level and some at an academic level. He has scholarly books on church leadership,[3][4] the doctrine of the church,[5] the biblical case for gender equality,[6][7][8] the doctrine of the Trinity[9][10][11] and the doctrine of the eternal generation of the Son.[12] He has been prominent in the debate about the status and ministry of women and the way complementarians have until recently grounded women’s subordination in the Trinity.[13]

In a number of publications, Giles has argued that complementarians unwittingly have embraced the heresy of subordinationism by arguing that the Trinity is “hierarchically” ordered; specifically that the Son is necessarily and eternally subordinated in authority to the Father. Since his subordination is what irrevocably identifies him as the Son in distinction to the Father, a difference in being is implied. In his 2006 book, Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity, Giles argued that complementarians had "reinvented" the doctrine of the Trinity to support their views of men and women, adopting a heretical view similar to Arianism.[14] He has consistently argued that the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity, the creeds and confessions exclude any hierarchically ordering in the eternal or immanent Trinity and there is no correlation between a threefold divine relationship in heaven and a twofold, male-female-relationship on earth.

In response, Wayne Grudem has argued that the eternal subordination of the Son to the Father is a biblical doctrine,[15] while Dave Miller has argued that it is the historic doctrine of the Church.[16] One review of Giles' 2002 book, The Trinity and Subordinationism, argued that he "intentionally ignores the accepted distinction" between functional and ontological subordination, and that this negatively affects "his reading of modern evangelical writings on the subject."[17] What this criticism misses is that Giles does not argue that the temporal, functional subordination of the Son in the incarnation implies subordinationism and is thus heretical, but rather that the eternal functional subordination of the Son necessarily implies the ontological subordinationism and is thus heretical.

In June 2016, Giles found unexpected support when a number of well-respected, confessional Reformed theologians of gender complementarian conviction came out publicly, accusing the leaders of the complementarian movement, notably Wayne Grudem and Bruce Ware, of leading the evangelical world into “heresy” with their doctrine of a hierarchically ordered Trinity. “Civil war”[18] then broke out among complementarians and in a very short period of time they capitulated. They agreed the complementarian doctrine of a hierarchically ordered Trinity was not the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity as spelt out in the creeds and confessions of the church, and that no longer would complementarians be bound to this now discredited construal of the Trinity. Giles documents and comments on this debate in his book, The Rise and Fall of the Complementarian Doctrine of the Trinity[19]. More than anyone else, Giles is to be credited with re-establishing evangelical and Reformed commitment to creedal and confessional trinitarian orthodoxy and excluding any appeal to the Trinity in support for the subordination of women.

Books

  • Giles, Kevin (1977). Women & Their Ministry: a case for equal ministries in the church today. East Malvern, Victoria: Dove Communications. ISBN 978-0-859-24057-4. OCLC 5172623.
  • ——— (1989). Patterns of Ministry Among the First Christians. Melbourne, Australia: Collins Dove. ISBN 978-0-859-24729-0. OCLC 20924627.
  • ——— (1995). What on Earth is the Church?: An Exploration in New Testament Theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press,. ISBN 978-0-830-81868-6. OCLC 33243701.
  • ——— (2002). The Trinity & Subordinationism: the doctrine of God and the contemporary gender debate. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-830-82663-6. OCLC 48475643.
  • ——— (2006). Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity. Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-26664-8. OCLC 62509109.
  • ——— (2012). The Eternal Generation of the Son: maintaining orthodoxy in Trinitarian theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-830-83965-0. OCLC 759909803.

References

  1. ↑ Jensen, Michael P. (2012). Sydney Anglicanism: An Apology. Wipf and Stock. p. 131. Retrieved 26 April 2016.
  2. ↑ "Kevin Giles". IVP. Retrieved 25 April 2016.
  3. ↑ Giles, Kevin (1989). Patterns of Ministry Among the First Christians. Melbourne, Australia: Collins Dove. ISBN 978-0-859-24729-0.
  4. ↑ Giles, Kevin (2017). Patterns of Ministry Among the First Christians, Second Edition, Revised and Enlarged. Eugene, Or: Cascade. ISBN 978-1-62032-955-9.
  5. ↑ Giles, Kevin (1995). What on Earth is the Church? An Exploration in New Testament Theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-830-81868-6.
  6. ↑ Giles, Kevin (1977). Women and Their Ministry: a case for equal ministries in the church today. East Malvern, Victoria: Dove Communications. ISBN 978-0-859-24729-0.
  7. ↑ Giles, Kevin (1985). Created Woman. Canberra, Aust: Acorn. ISBN 0908284640.
  8. ↑ Giles, Kevin (2010). Better Together: Equality in Christ. Brunswick East, Aust: Acorn. ISBN 978-0-908284-85-6.
  9. ↑ Giles, Kevin (2002). The Trinity & Subordinationism: the doctrine of God and the contemporary gender debate. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-830-82663-6.
  10. ↑ Giles, Kevin (2006). Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity. Grand Rapids MI: Zondervan. ISBN 978-0-310-26664-8.
  11. ↑ Giles, Kevin (2017). The Rise and Fall of the Complementarian Doctrine of the Trinity. Eugene, Or: Cascade. ISBN 978-1-5326-1866-6.
  12. ↑ Giles, Kevin (2012). The Eternal Generation of the Son: maintaining orthodoxy in Trinitarian theology. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press. ISBN 978-0-830-83965-0.
  13. ↑ Zwartz, Barney (10 June 2010). "Men lead, women obey?". Sydney Morning Herald.
  14. ↑ Giles, Kevin, Jesus and the Father: Modern Evangelicals Reinvent the Doctrine of the Trinity, Zondervan, 2006
  15. ↑ Grudem, Wayne. "Biblical Evidence for the Eternal Submission of the Son to the Father" (PDF). Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  16. ↑ Miller, Dave. "The Eternal Subordination of the Son Is the Historic Doctrine of the Church". Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  17. ↑ "Review of The Trinity and Subordinationism". Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
  18. ↑ Lindgren, Caleb (June 16, 2016). "From Proxy War to Civil War". Christianity Today.
  19. ↑ Giles, Kevin (2017). The Rise and Fall of the Complementarian Doctrine of the Trinity. Oregon: Cascade. ISBN 978-1-5326-1866-6.
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