communicable attributes
Communicable attributes are divine perfections that creatures can reflect in limited ways, such as love, justice, and wisdom.
At a glance
Definition: Communicable attributes are divine perfections that creatures can reflect in limited ways, such as love, justice, and wisdom. This doctrine should be read from the passages that establish it and kept distinct from nearby theological claims.
- Communicable attributes should be defined from the biblical texts that establish it rather than from slogan-level shorthand alone.
- It belongs within the larger witness of Scripture and the history of redemption, so related doctrines must be distinguished carefully.
- A sound account states what this doctrine affirms, what it does not require, and why it matters for the church's teaching, worship, and discipleship.
Simple explanation
In Christian theology, communicable attributes means that Communicable attributes are divine perfections that creatures can reflect in limited ways, such as love, justice, and wisdom.
Academic explanation
Communicable attributes are divine perfections that creatures can reflect in limited ways, such as love, justice, and wisdom. As a doctrine, it should be stated from the passages that establish it and distinguished carefully from adjacent theological claims.
Extended academic explanation
Communicable attributes are divine perfections that creatures can reflect in limited ways, such as love, justice, and wisdom. This doctrine should be defined from the passages that establish it, located within the larger storyline of Scripture, and stated with care in relation to nearby doctrines. Responsible use clarifies what the term affirms, what limits belong to it, and why it matters for the church's teaching, worship, and discipleship.
Biblical context
communicable attributes belongs to Scripture's presentation of the living God and should be read from God's own self-revelation rather than as a merely philosophical abstraction. Its background lies in Scripture's own presentation of God through his names, acts, covenant speech, and self-revelation as Creator and Lord, so the doctrine comes into focus as God's perfections are displayed in history and redemption.
Historical context
Historically, discussion of communicable attributes grew where exegesis of creation and providence met philosophical reflection on being, order, causation, and the dependence of creatures upon God. Patristic and medieval theology, followed by Reformation scholasticism and modern dogmatics, used the term to clarify how the world relates to divine agency without collapsing the integrity of created realities.
Key texts
- Ps. 145:8-9
- Jer. 31:3
- Eph. 3:17-19
- Hos. 11:1-4
- John 3:16
Secondary texts
- Tit. 3:4-7
- Eph. 2:4-5
- Ps. 136:1-26
- Jude 21
Theological significance
communicable attributes matters because doctrinal precision in this area protects the church’s speech about God, the gospel, the church, or the last things and helps prevent distortions that spill into neighboring doctrines.
Philosophical explanation
At the conceptual level, Communicable attributes presses theology to explain how divine transcendence and intelligibility can be described in creaturely language. The key issues are essence and relation, analogy and univocity, necessity and contingency, and the disciplined use of metaphysical language in service of doctrine. Its philosophical value lies in stabilizing doctrinal speech while refusing to let abstract system-building outrun Scripture.
Interpretive cautions
Do not use communicable attributes as a catch-all doctrinal label that settles questions the relevant texts still require you to argue carefully. Read the doctrine through the church's scriptural and theological distinctions about divine unity, persons, attributes, and works, preserving mystery without turning revealed language into speculation or philosophical reduction. State the doctrine at the level of what Scripture and responsible historical theology can warrant, and name secondary disputes as secondary rather than turning them into tests the text itself does not impose.
Major views note
Communicable attributes is usually handled within the bounds of Nicene orthodoxy and classical theism, but traditions differ over how its conceptual grammar should be stated and how heavily it should be pressed in dogmatics. The main points of disagreement concern how strongly to deploy classical terminology, how to relate biblical language to metaphysical formulation, and how this teaching connects to God's attributes and acts.
Doctrinal boundaries
Communicable attributes should be governed by God's self-revelation, preserving transcendence, intelligibility, and reverence without making creaturely categories the measure of deity. It must resist both speculative overreach and empty agnosticism, using analogical language in service of confession, worship, and obedient reasoning. It should preserve divine perfection without forcing God into univocal creaturely categories. Properly handled, communicable attributes stabilizes God-talk as a ministerial grammar for theology rather than a speculative system detached from Scripture.
Practical significance
Practically, communicable attributes matters in daily ministry because what the church confesses here will eventually shape worship, hope, and obedience. It trains prayer, preaching, and praise to begin with who God is instead of with human preference, which humbles pride and strengthens confidence. In practice, that teaches believers to adore God for who He is, not merely for what they hope to receive from Him.