Theological Triage: A Proposal

Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. is the ninth president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary–the flagship school of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and one of the largest seminaries in the world. Dr. Mohler hosts two podcasts: “The Briefing” ("a daily analysis of news and events from a Christian worldview") and “Thinking in Public” ("a series of conversations with the day’s leading thinkers"). Dr. Mohler also serves as the Centennial Professor of Christian Theology at Southern Seminary, as the editor-in-chief of The Southern Baptist Journal of Theology, and the editor of WORLD Opinions. He has contributed to over 100 other published works.

[The above paragraph was adapted from the author's bio in He Is Not Silent: Preaching in A Postmodern World and from https://albertmohler.com/about/.]

One unique contribution that Dr. Mohler has made to theological discourse is coining the term "theological triage". Over the years, Dr. Mohler has explained this term in several places. For example in his 2008 book He Is Not Silent: Preaching in A Postmodern World, Dr. Mohler wrote:

As anyone who visits a hospital emergency room is aware, a triage nurse is customarily in place to make a first-stage evaluation of which patients are most in need of care. A patient with a gunshot wound is cared for ahead of a sprained ankle. This makes perfect sense, and indeed to ignore this sense of priority would amount to medical malpractice! In a similar manner, the pastor [/theologian] must learn to discern different levels of theological importance. I identify three distinct orders of doctrine in terms of importance.

Summary

Dr. Mohler writes that first-order doctrines are those "essential to the Christian faith"–denial of these doctrines will place a person outside of Christianity. Second-order doctrines are those "necessary for the ordering of the local church"–disagreement on these doctrines will make it "impossible to function together in a single local congregation". Third-order doctrines are "those that may be the ground for fruitful theological discussion or debate, but that do not threaten the fellowship of a local congregation or denomination."

More recently, Gavin Ortlund of Truth Unites has written Finding the Right Hills to Die On: The Case for Theological Triage (2020). Ortlund is explicitly indebted to Dr. Mohler's triage metaphor and categories, but he lists them a bit differently. He writes: 

First-rank doctrines are essential to the gospel itself. 

Second-rank doctrines are urgent for the health and practice of the church, such that they frequently cause Christians to separate at the level of local church, denomination, and/or ministry.

Third-rank doctrines are important to Christian theology, but not enough to justify separation or division among Christians.

Fourth-rank doctrines are unimportant to our gospel witness and ministry collaboration.

Ortlund's explanation of first-rank and second-rank doctrines tracks exactly with Dr. Mohler's first-order and second-order doctrines. Ortlund divides Dr. Mohler's third-order doctrines into two 'ranks'. Ortlund's motivation in this division seems to be ministry-driven; as a public theologian, Ortlund regularly engages in theological discussions and debates, so by categorizing some doctrines as "fourth-rank," he is able to better focus on first through third rank doctrines, while avoiding distractions by (at least relatively) unimportant doctrines.

Proposal

It may be the case that an additional "order" or "rank" is needed in this rubric of theological triage. In both Dr. Mohler's and Gavin Ortlund's explanations of second-order or second-rank doctrines, there seems to be the assumption that differences among these doctrines will cause Christians to separate into both different congregations and different denominations. However, it may be the case that some doctrines would cause Christians to separate into different congregations, while still allowing for denominational cooperation.

For example, 9Marks has published several articles and podcast episodes arguing against multi-site churches, or even against churches holding multiple parallel services on a weekend for congregants to choose from. (They argue that churches planting churches is the ecclesiologically healthier model.) There are many churches in the SBC that are influenced by 9Marks and that agree with the critique of the multi-site church model; however, there are other churches in the SBC which utilize the multi-site model or which have multiple parallel services on the weekend. Whereas a person with a conviction against multi-site churches could not become a member of a site in such a network, it seems that the SBC has been able to promote friendly cooperation between multi-site churches and those who object to the multi-site model. Therefore, it may be the case that among second-rank doctrines, there are some that are so serious as to distinguish different denominations and some that would distinguish different congregations within the denomination.

IF this division of second-rank doctrines is NOT valid (if every doctrinal distinction that would distinguish one congregation from another should also distinguish one denomination from another, and vice-versa), then there are several doctrines (like multi-site churches and the ordination of female deacons, to give another example) that the SBC needs to address at the denominational level.

Conclave: Some Evangelical Thoughts

Conclave. Directed by Edward Berger. Screenplay by Peter Straughan. Based on the novel by Robert Harris. Focus Features: 2024. 

Edward Berger was born on March 6, 1970 in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, Germany. He is married to Nele Mueller-Stöfen. Before directing Conclave, which was nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, Berger gained international fame for writing and directing All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), which was also nominated for the Best Picture Oscar.

Peter Straughan was born on August 1, 1968 in Gateshead, Durham, England, UK. He was married to Bridget O'Connor until her death by cancer on September 22, 2010. Before writing the screenplay for Conclave, which won the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar, Staughan gained international fame for co-writing the screenplay for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which was nominated for the Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar.

Robert Harris was born on March 7, 1957 in Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, England, UK. He is married to Gill Hornby. Before writing the novel Conclave, Harris gained international fame for his novels (known for heavily incorporating historical and political elements), and for working with Roman Polanski to adapt two of his novels–The Ghost Writer (2010) and An Officer and a Spy (2019)–into films.

[Some sentences from the above three paragraphs are taken directly from IMDB.]

The unique contribution of the film Conclave is its look behind the veil of papal politics, which–according to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor–was largely accurate its details. Conclave–a movie about the death of a pope and the election of a new pope–was released on October 25, 2024, and Pope Francis was admitted to the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic Hospital in Rome on February 14, 2025; this made Conclave seem particularly relevant at the 2025 Academy Awards (held on March 2). Conclave was released to streaming on April 22: the day after Pope Francis died.

Summary

According to the Focus Features official summary of the film:

Cardinal Lawrence (Ralph Fiennes) is tasked with running this covert process after the unexpected death of the beloved Pope. Once the Catholic Church's most powerful leaders have gathered from around the world and are locked together in the Vatican halls, Lawrence uncovers a trail of deep secrets left in the dead Pope's wake–secrets which could shake the foundations of the Church.

Some reviewers used the term "mystery" or "murder mystery" to describe the film, but these terms are misleading. The inciting incident (the death of the Pope) is not a mystery to be solved. The filmmakers do maintain a tension similar to a mystery film, and there are some surprises, but these are mostly political in nature.

Critical Evaluation

In a response to Conclave on twitter.com, Denny Burk noted:

Conclave aims to drive home one point: Doubt is a virtue, and certainty is a vice. The good guys are the liberals who always learn but never come to know the truth. The bad guys are the conservatives who think they know what is true.

Dr. Burk's point is certainly correct. In fact, the film does not even argue the 'one point' as much as it assumes that point and seeks to reinforce it through caricatures of conservatives. The filmmakers seem to assume that their audience will already agree with theological liberalism.

[Spoilers follow.]

The climactic plot point of Conclave, illustrating that "doubt is a virtue, and certainty is a vice" is the revelation that the ascendent pope is intersex: Cardinal Benitez (presented as a sympathetic, humble, and convictional person) is revealed to have been born with male external organs and internal female sex organs, with XX chromosomes. This is a highly unlikely scenario, as the presence of external male organs usually requires an XY chromosome structure, even in situations where other intersex features are present. However, there is an exceedingly rare condition called 'de la Chapelle Syndrome' that could result in symptoms such as those described by the fictional Cardinal Benitez.

In Conclave, the intersex condition is presented as allowing Cardinal Benitez to embody and live out the theme that "doubt is a virtue, and certainty is a vice" in a unique way. However, it is interesting to note that Cardinal Benitez's gender identity is not merely presented as a matter of personal feeling and choice. Benitez decides to forego having surgery to remove the internal female sex organs, stating, "I am what God made me," and Benitez seeks the counsel of the pope. The will of God and the authority of the head of the church are crucial in thinking through an unusual, complicated situation.

Conclusion

Thinking outside of the liberal Roman Catholic context presented by the filmmakers of Conclave, how should Evangelicals think through the theme and situation presented in the film?

Evangelicals believe that we have certainty concerning crucial matters of belief and life, not based on our own opinions, but based on God's revelation in the Bible. Because we live in a fallen creation, there are complicated situations that arise. We should not throw our hands in the air and conclude, 'There is no objective truth,' with life just being governed by our own individual feelings and choices. Instead, we should seek the will of God, as He has revealed it in the Bible. Evangelicals do not believe that there is any head of the church other than the risen Christ, so when we face unusual, complicated situations, we should seek the counsel of the gathered congregation of believers, praying to Christ and searching the Bible together.

To consider a point analogous to that presented in Conclave: say that in an evangelical church, there were an individual with an intersex condition, and that intersex individual was deciding whether the pursuit of pastoral ministry is appropriate. How should that intersex individual think through the issue? The most fundamental issue one must keep in mind is that what we are is defined by our Creator: "So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them" (Genesis 1:27 ESV). Moreover, God defines leadership in the church; concerning pastoral ministry in the church, the Bible says, "I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man" (1 Timothy 2:12a ESV). Even in light of the complicated situation presented by an unusual intersex condition, church members should not reject the basic gender binary, nor should they reject the idea that only qualified men should be accepted for pastoral ministry.

Given these principles, an intersex individual who is trying to decide whether to pursue pastoral ministry would want to have as much information as possible. Chromosome testing, if available–to provide additional objective evidence, informing the perception of one's identity–may be useful. An intersex individual, like anyone else, would seek answers from the Bible. Since many intersex conditions–like 'de la Chapelle Syndrome'–result in the individual being sterile, passages such as Matthew 19:11-12, in which Jesus discusses those who are 'eunuchs from birth,' may be relevant. Finally, an intersex individual should seek counsel from other Bible-believing brothers and sisters in Christ, looking for help within a spiritually healthy local church, in order to discern the will of Christ.