RamistThomist
Puritanboard Clerk
Torrance, Thomas F. The Trinitarian Faith. T & T Clark. 1986.
In this unofficial commentary on the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, Thomas Torrance uses Athanasius's theology, particularly the concept of homoousion, to demonstrate God's self-revelation in Jesus Christ as the foundation of the Gospel and our knowledge of God.
Rather than giving a chapter by chapter commentary, I will focus on some of Torrance's key points.
Knowledge and God's Self-Communication
We know the Father through his Son. The Nicene theology moved from in-turned human reason (epinoia) to a centre in god’s revealing activity in the incarnation of the Logos (Torrance 19). In the Incarnation God does not tell us some fact about himself, but he gives us his very self. By Jesus’s coming to us as man, his humanity reveals the very nature of God (56). The father and the son have a mutual relation of knowing. Only the Son can know the Father and reveal him. Therefore, a mutual relation of knowing entails a mutual relation of being. This gives us direct access to the closed circle of divine knowing. Our knowledge of God is rooted in the eternal being of God himself (59).
Vicarious Humanity
The humanity of Christ is the arche of all of God’s works. It is a vicarious humanity: the controlling principle by which all of our knowledge of God is tested. The mediation of Christ involved a twofold movement: man to God::God to man. Only God can save, but he saves as man. Christ ministers the things of God to man and the things of man to God. (This is a quote from Athanasius's Contra Arianos Book 1).
Ousia and Being
Since there is no likeness between God’s being and the created being, God can only be known from himself. Word and activity are intrinsic to the very being of God (enousios logos and enousios energia).The Logos is not an abstract cosmological principle. The Logos inheres in the very being of God. The inner being of God is always an eloquent, speaking being.
Homoousios safeguards God’s Revelation. If Christ were not homoousios toi patri, then he could not reveal God to us. There is no interval of time, being, or knowledge in the Godhead. The Father/Son relationship falls within the one being of God (Torrance 119). What God is toward us and in the midst of us is what God really is in himself (130). “ousia” now means more than simply “being.” It means “being” in its inward reference. hupastasis means being in its outward reference (or at least it did for Athanasius). The Being of God is never static. The doctrine of enousios energeia means that being is dynamic.
Conclusion
This is dense reading and each page is heavily footnoted with the fathers. The above review is only a fraction of what the book contains (I left out the best chapter of the book--The Eternal Spirit). The heavy repetition of some ideas is my only criticism.
In this unofficial commentary on the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, Thomas Torrance uses Athanasius's theology, particularly the concept of homoousion, to demonstrate God's self-revelation in Jesus Christ as the foundation of the Gospel and our knowledge of God.
Rather than giving a chapter by chapter commentary, I will focus on some of Torrance's key points.
Knowledge and God's Self-Communication
We know the Father through his Son. The Nicene theology moved from in-turned human reason (epinoia) to a centre in god’s revealing activity in the incarnation of the Logos (Torrance 19). In the Incarnation God does not tell us some fact about himself, but he gives us his very self. By Jesus’s coming to us as man, his humanity reveals the very nature of God (56). The father and the son have a mutual relation of knowing. Only the Son can know the Father and reveal him. Therefore, a mutual relation of knowing entails a mutual relation of being. This gives us direct access to the closed circle of divine knowing. Our knowledge of God is rooted in the eternal being of God himself (59).
Vicarious Humanity
The humanity of Christ is the arche of all of God’s works. It is a vicarious humanity: the controlling principle by which all of our knowledge of God is tested. The mediation of Christ involved a twofold movement: man to God::God to man. Only God can save, but he saves as man. Christ ministers the things of God to man and the things of man to God. (This is a quote from Athanasius's Contra Arianos Book 1).
Ousia and Being
Since there is no likeness between God’s being and the created being, God can only be known from himself. Word and activity are intrinsic to the very being of God (enousios logos and enousios energia).The Logos is not an abstract cosmological principle. The Logos inheres in the very being of God. The inner being of God is always an eloquent, speaking being.
Homoousios safeguards God’s Revelation. If Christ were not homoousios toi patri, then he could not reveal God to us. There is no interval of time, being, or knowledge in the Godhead. The Father/Son relationship falls within the one being of God (Torrance 119). What God is toward us and in the midst of us is what God really is in himself (130). “ousia” now means more than simply “being.” It means “being” in its inward reference. hupastasis means being in its outward reference (or at least it did for Athanasius). The Being of God is never static. The doctrine of enousios energeia means that being is dynamic.
Conclusion
This is dense reading and each page is heavily footnoted with the fathers. The above review is only a fraction of what the book contains (I left out the best chapter of the book--The Eternal Spirit). The heavy repetition of some ideas is my only criticism.
