The Surprising God

This post continues our look at Dick Eugenio's book,  Communion with the Triune God . This time we'll see how T.F. Torrance addresses the "how" of salvation. F or the other posts in this series, click on a number:  1 ,  2 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ,  7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  10 ,  11 . Baptism of Christ by Francesco Albani Wikimedia Commons: Public Domain As Eugenio notes, Thomas F. (TF) Torrance's favored word for salvation is  reconciliation. Rather than being about forensic justice, TF sees salvation as about the restoration of relationship--an end result that has it's genesis in God's own tri-personal being. As TF is fond of saying, God does what God is. In his view, to correctly understand salvation we must begin with God's being  before considering his doing (including how God saves). This theological discipline helps us grasp a stunning truth---God saves, not in an external, mechanical way, but in an intimate, personal way...

This is the second of 11 posts, for the other posts in this series, click on a number: 1 , 3 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 ,  7 ,  8 ,  9 ,  10 ,  11 . Dick Eugenio, in  Communion with the Triune God, the Trinitarian Soteriology of T.F. Torrance ,  highlight's Thomas F. (T.F.) Torrance's understanding that  what God does for our salvation is grounded in and flows from who  God is in the person of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ. For Torrance, it's vital that our doctrine of salvation (soteriology) begin with the being of God in Christ before we address the doing (act) of God in Christ.   This theological discipline is vital because a common mistake is to conclude that salvation is merely an instrumental action that Christ accomplished apart from his intrinsic being. In battling this dualism, which splits God's being from his doing, T.F. emphasized that "the identify of the Savior as God-man is essential in und...

Last time we looked at T.F. Torrance's trinitarian doctrine of salvation (soteriology) as summarized and analyzed by Dick Eugenio. This time we'll look at a summary of GCI's Trinitarian, incarnational theology (with its perspective on soteriology) by Michael Morrison who serves as Dean of Faculty and a professor at Grace Communion Seminary , and as an editor for GCI publications. This post reproduces an article posted on GCI's website . I. Introduction: why we need to learn this A. Stating the topic We say that we have a “Trinitarian theology.” However, lots of churches accept the doctrine of the Trinity, and their theology is at least somewhat Trinitarian, but we emphasize the Trinity more than most churches do. Sometimes we say that we have a Trinitarian Incarnational theology, or a Trinitarian Christ-centered theology. None of these are completely distinctive terms, but they do mention some of the emphases that we have. We call our theology Trinitarian...

This is the first of 11 posts, for the other posts in this series, click on a number: 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 . In the book Communion with the Triune God , Dick Eugenio examines T.F. Torrance's trinitarian perspective on the doctrine of salvation (soteriology). Though Torrance never wrote systematically on this topic, he addressed it frequently and Eugenio has helpfully compiled and analyzed that material. When addressing soteriology, Torrance carefully connected the doctrine of salvation with that of the Trinity. For Torrance, failing to do so would be tantamount to separating God's doing (act) from God's being, thus setting up a dualism that leads to what Torrance called the "Latin heresy" (click here  and here  for related articles). This dualism leads to the false view that salvation is merely something God does (through an external transaction), not what God is. Angels at Mamre (Holy Trinity) by Adrie Rublev (1360 to 1430) Wikiped...

Is the theory of evolution hopelessly at odds with the biblical teaching that humankind bears God's image (Genesis 1:27)? Many creationists think so. "How," they ask, "could the Image of God have been acquired by humanity through evolution, which involves the survival of the fittest---a process that seems so at odds with the nature of God revealed in Jesus Christ?" This is a fair question, because the image of God placed by God upon the human family seems directly related to God's nature as an eternal, triune communion of love, cooperation and mutual indwelling. How is that nature imaged in humanity if humanity evolved through ruthless "dog-eat-dog" competition? Again, a good question. But there is a problem with these questions, namely that they reflect a common misunderstanding of the nature of evolution as it has come to be understood by evolutionary science. In  God and Evolution? the Implications of Darwin's theory for fundamentali...

This is the 8th and concluding post in a series exploring Gerald Rau's book  Mapping the Origins Debate . For other posts in the series, click a number:  1 ,  2 ,  3 ,  4 ,  5 ,  6 , 7 . The nature of science and a call for humility Rau concludes his book by reminding us that we all approach the origins debate with deeply held presuppositions, particularly in how we view science. Though we might assume widespread agreement on the definition of "science," the reality is otherwise. The definition has changed over the years and continues to do so. As a result, the parties in the origins debate often disagree on this fundamental issue. Resolving the disagreement will take a large dose of humility on all sides. In the 20th century, science typically was defined as pertaining nearly exclusively to the gathering and interpretation of empirical evidence. But today many acknowledge that science is not (and, indeed, cannot) be entirely empirical (objec...