Torrance’s ecclesiology is implicitly a doctrine of communal deification: the church is the Spirit‑constituted body in which believers participate together in Christ’s sanctified, glorified humanity and thus in the Triune life.[1][2]
## Church as communal participation in Christ
– Torrance holds that there is only one union with Christ, wrought out in the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, and the church is the community brought to share in this union by the Spirit.[1]
– The church is thus not merely a voluntary society or witness‑club but the concrete historical form of humanity’s participation in Christ’s reconciled and deified humanity.[3][1]
## Carnal and spiritual union ecclesiologically
– He retrieves the Scottish “carnal/spiritual union” distinction: in Christ’s incarnation there is an objective, carnal solidarity with all humanity, and by the Spirit believers come to share spiritual union with him.[4][1]
– Ecclesiology is built on this: the church is the assembly of those who, by Spirit‑given faith, participate spiritually in the one carnal union and so share, together, in Christ’s filial relation to the Father.[5][1]
## Deification as shape of church life
– Myk Habets argues that Torrance’s ecclesiology is a “theotic communion ecclesiology”: the church exists to be the sphere where the Spirit actualizes theosis—our transformation into Christ‑conformed sons and daughters.[6][3]
– Preaching, sacraments, and communal prayer are the means by which believers are continually directed back into Christ’s vicarious humanity and so furthered in participation in the divine life.[7][3]
## Sacraments as communal theosis
– Baptism and Eucharist are corporate acts where the church, as a body, participates in Christ’s death–resurrection and feeds on his sanctified humanity; Habets notes these as “central ecclesial acts in which theosis occurs.”[3][7]
– Thus ecclesial existence itself—the gathered body around Word and sacrament—is an ongoing event of deification, not merely an organizational wrapper around individual salvation.[2][7]
If you want, I can sketch a compact table: classic Reformed marks of the church vs. Torrance’s theotic reinterpretation for classroom use.
Sources
[1] T.F. Torrance: Union with Christ through the Communion of the Spirit http://www.scielo.org.za/
[2] Torrance on theosis – The Surprising God https://thesurprisinggodblog.
[3] Theosis in the Theology of Thomas Torrance | Myk Habets https://www.taylorfrancis.com/
[4] Thomas Torrance as an Evangelical Calvinist: Flesh-n-Bone, Christ … https://growrag.wordpress.com/
[5] Carnal union with Christ in the theology of T.F. Torrance – ERA https://era.ed.ac.uk/handle/
[6] Theosis in the Theology of Thomas Torrance https://cincinnatistate.
[7] Theosis in the Theology of Thomas Torrance: A Review | https://jasongoroncy.com/2010/
[8] T. F. Torrance on theosis and universal salvation https://www.cambridge.org/
[9] T. F. Torrance and the Latin Heresy – First Things https://firstthings.com/t-f-
[10] Neither Progress nor Regress: The Theological Substructure of T. F. … https://onlinelibrary.wiley.
[11] Theosis in the Theology of Thomas Torrance – 1st Edition – Myk Habets https://www.routledge.com/
[12] [PDF] T. F. Torrance on theosis and universal salvation https://research-repository.
[13] Apocalypse and Ecclesia – 2008 TF Torrance Lectures in Aberdeen https://theologyforum.
[14] T.F. Torrance: Union with Christ through the Communion of the Spirit https://indieskriflig.org.za/
[15] Torrance: a scientific theology – The Surprising God https://thesurprisinggodblog.
