T. F. Torrance as an Interpreter of St. Athanasius

The aim of this article is to elaborate on T. F. Torrance’s reception of Athanasius of Alexandria. The article is structured in accordance to the threefold division of God’s Incarnation present in the seventh-century monk Maximus the Confessor, that is: incarnation of God in the created order, incarnation of God in the letters of the Holy Scripture, and finally, the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ. The main reason for this structure is the similarity of Torrance’s reading of Athanasius with the Maximian ontological framework. One may notice the corresponding order of progression in all three realms of the divine incarnation. It always begins with reason (logos) and faith (pistis) and progresses in accordance with the nature (kata physin) of the things toward the divine realities expressed as truth (aletheia). The final result and the purpose of the incarnation is deification or theopoieses that includes the introduction of the deified in the centre of the divine life, the loving relationship between the Father and the Son.