If the Torrance brothers stand for anything, it is the mediation of Christ. T.F. Torrance’s book by that title is labeled as a “devotional theology” on account of its scant academic apparatus, but it remains an extremely dense and thoroughly argued presentation of Christ’s mediatorial role between God and Man as the core of Reformed theology, specifically in Calvin and Barth. For those who may find that gem a bit too daunting, Worship, Community & the Triune God of Grace by his brother James Torrance would be a great place to start.
It presents many of the same ideas in a much more accessible manner, with concrete applications for worship, anthropology, and human speech about God.
For Torrance, it is the mediation of Christ that compels us to speak of all the practices in the life of the church in a trinitarian fashion. That Christ is simultaneously both the complete and representative human and very God as the second member of the Trinity means that our worship in the church is a participation in the Triune life, mediated through Christ. Where there is Unitarian theology, there is a God whom we must appease through our self-wrought offerings. But where there is Trinitarian theology, there is a God who has already offered to himself what we could not offer. Thus the constant distinction Torrance draws throughout this book between being cast back upon our own spiritual efforts and being invited to participate in grace. The grace in which we participate is the life of faithfulness that Jesus lived towards the Father, so that where we do not know how to pray, he prays for us; where we betray God, he remains faithful even unto death.
Another essential insight drawn in the book is the impact that the Trinity has on our anthropology. It is only the image of a Unitarian God that the modern myth of man as the individual endowed with rights and so forth could have arisen. Torrance does a wonderful job of demonstrating how the existential, personal encounter with Christ sort of worship that this anthropology engenders is absolutely antagonistic towards that of a Trinitarian theology. In the image of the Triune God, humans are not individuals, but rather persons in communion, who find their greatest joy and fulfillment in community, and can only worship a triune God properly there.
A few notes of criticism for this book that I nevertheless highly recommend. One, it is extremely repetitive. This can be a good thing if you are as yet unfamiliar with the ideas in it – repetition can be a good way of grasping how concepts are used. If this is not the case, though, you will find yourself occasionally frustrated, wishing that he would press the implications of his insights further, rather than just stating them again. Also, Torrance is so absolutely stoked to be Reformed that, even though he presents a very “compassionate Calvinism,” I’m worried that an audience that wasn’t disposed to thinking in such traditions (as I am) would be a bit put off and disregard the crucial revival of trinitarian theology across denomination boundaries that Torrance is a part of. Third, Torrance’s final chapter on “Gender, Sexuality & The Trinity” is somewhat weak. Although it has some good things to say, namely in cautioning us from projecting earthly, gendered conceptions of fatherhood onto God, it is, in my view, far too optimistic about our capacity to void language of its patriarchal connotations.
I felt the same way about the last chapter. Given the complexity of the issue, I felt that Torrance essentially punted at the last minute before having to really delve deeply into the mess that he was stepping into.
I would say, however, that his optimism regarding our ability to avoid “patriarchal connotations” is founded inasmuch as he maintains his framework to the end. I’m not convinced that the difficulties lay in the actual naming of God but rather in the deployment of such terminology in other contexts. God seems to be implicated by similarity, not congruity. Whether or not our language can be void of patriarchal connotations doesn’t seem to be what he’s getting at as much as he’s alerting h readers to the tendency to use such language to [re/op/sup]press women. That God is named is unaviodable. That such naming polarizes people against each other (liberal/fundamentalist, men/women, etc.) ought to make us wary.
But, I do feel it was weak. nonetheless. His argumentation needed to be less anecdotal and more straight forward to make his case. To invoke the “Sophia” worship story in Minnesota only seems to reinforce the same sorts of things that he’s seeking to resolve, namely the polarization of groups against each other due to muddy semantic waters and the tendency to leverage this confusion for personal/social gain.
Overall, I think we’re on the same page. It’s a very accessible book, something that came almost never be said about Trinitarian theology. I mean, Zizioulas comes right out in the first line of the introduction, saying, “The Church is not simply an institution. She is a ‘mode of existence,’ a way of being.”
Not quite easing you in…
Sorry Adam that I’m just now seeing this review. ” I’m worried that an audience that wasn’t disposed to thinking in such traditions (as I am) would be a bit put off and disregard the crucial revival of trinitarian theology across denomination boundaries that Torrance is a part of” is something I also share.
I like your review & am linking it to a post I put up today. I’ll have to add u to my blogroll & look for u on twitter.
John Paul Todd
e4unity.wordpress.com