This is a quote in On Classical Trinitarianism edited by Matthew Barrett and Todd Billings.
“Consider, for instance, the predictably heretical perspective of many evangelicals concerning the Trinity. Evangelical understandings are improving, but a recent poll reported online in Christianity Today found 78 percent of evangelical respondents agreeing with Arius, though they had no idea they were doing so. Jesus, most answered to carefully worded survey questions, was an exalted creature, but not God incarnate. Arius would have nodded his head in agreement.[1]
There are two problems with this statement that jump out immediately. First, we should be alert to the already loaded and unsupported charge that comes out of nowhere where the author talks about the “predictably heretical perspective of many evangelicals…! It is both surprising and concerning to see such a pejorative comment make it through the editing process in a book marketed as essentially an academic level work.
Secondly, the claim about the poll data comes without a footnote (at least in the kindle edition), so working out exactly where the claim has come from and whether it is accurate proves a little challenging. We can, with a bit of look trace the claim back to the Lifeway State of Theology survey which is conducted bi-annually. The most recent edition of that survey publicly available is the 2022 one.
Here is the problem, in the top level discussion, the report looks at the proposition “Jesus was a great teacher but he was not Son of God.” The result among Evangelical respondents was 50/5 strongly disagree (down from 62% in 2020) and 38% strong agreeing, a concerning trend within Evangelicalism but there may be reasons behind that and significantly different to the question and answer cited above.[2]
There is also a question in the detailed report about whether or not Jesus was the first created being. 40% of respondents strongly agreed to this. That’s still a long way short of 78% and from what I can tell, this seems to be a reference to the general populace, rather than the Evangelical population in the US.
So, I’ve still got questions about where the data has come from and whether it has correctly been understood. It is possible that this is based on a report of the 2024 survey but that would suggest a substantial change both from the wider picture in 2022 and the Evangelical picture in 2022.
This matters because it is in a chapter in a book challenging us on how we read Scripture and read church history but once again I’m left with questions about how the authors are interpreting data from the 21st Century never mind the 4th century.
[1] Christopher Hall, “The Nicene Creed” in Barrett, Matthew; Billings, Todd. On Classical Trinitarianism: Retrieving the Nicene Doctrine of the Triune God (pp. 21-22). InterVarsity Press. Kindle Edition. “
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