Theological Triage Categories
**Note at the beginning, my goal is in no way to set out to rank or categorize theological tiers. This is about the methodology, and not any specific issues. The ranges I provided are also strictly my opinion, and are more to serve as examples rather than to make any sort of claim.**
I recently finished “Finding the Right Hills to die on” by Gavin Ortlund. (which I cannot recommend enough)
While I found the pastoral wisdom immense, and humbling. I couldn’t help notice a theme in this book that I’ve noticed elsewhere, which is that theological triage really struggles to be defined on a one axis sliding scale, pyramid, or concentric circles. (Which are the usual graphics)
I suggest that we may benefit from a 2-axis graph instead to help us better visualize these issues.
The vertical axis being spiritual implications (from 1-10), the horizontal being ecclesiological implications (from 1-10). This helps us better distinguish ideas that divide us based on risk to the soul, vs issues that may be more practical in nature.
I’ll give four examples from each corner of the graph to illustrate my point.
In the top left region (High spiritual impact, low ecclesiological impact) would be the Lord’s Supper/Eucharist. This issue is one that if a non-believer were to walk into a zwinglian non-denominational or a very high church setting, they may see minimal logistical difference, but the spiritual disagreement would be immense.
Continuing counter clockwise would be the lower left region (Low spiritual impact, low ecclesiological impact) would be something like creatology. This is going to have limited day to day impact either spirituality, or operationally in the life of a Christian.
Next would be the lower right region (Low spiritual impact, high ecclesiological impact) this would be something like vestments for clergy. You kind of need a stance on this operationally, but the spiritual implications are far lower here than sacramental theology. Issues in this quadrant often are going to divide denominations, but ministry to the poor and missions can and are often still be done as the church across these divides.
Finally the top right region (High spiritual impact, high ecclesiological impact). A great example here would be trinitarian disagreements. This example would be highly detrimental spiritually, as well as in practice. The words used to describe God just carry such dramatically different definitions, conversation becomes almost impossible.
I’d love to get feedback on this. I also welcome anyone to use this moving forward. I propose this as a way to better understand our differences and build unity where we can.
God bless :)