The Centrality of the Trinity in the Theology of Thomas F. Torrance

This article illustrates why, for Thomas F. Torrance, the doctrine of the Trinity was the central doctrine that shaped all of his dogmatic thinking. What makes Torrance’s trinitarian theology especially compelling is that it is patristically grounded and consistently bears the mark of his belief that the doctrine of the Trinity is the basic ground and grammar of theological discourse. As such the doctrine informs our understanding of creation, incarnation, reconciliation and redemption in ways that illuminate the deep meaning of those doctrines. Interestingly, it is Torrance’s understanding of the resurrection that allows him to argue consistently and effectively that we human beings not only cannot, but must not, attempt to leave the sphere of space, time and conceptuality to know the transcendent God. Although for Torrance there is nothing within our concepts themselves that enables us to know the triune God, we can really know God in and through our limited concepts and within the space and time of his creation only because God himself has become incarnate and reconciled us to himself; thus it is in his incarnate Word and through his Spirit that God includes us in his own self-­knowledge and love through his Word and Spirit and thereby enables a true knowledge of the transcendent God that not only respects our limited human being, nature and freedom but enables us to be the creatures God intended us to be.