Torrance reads Athanasius as the key patristic source for re‑defining *monarchy* as **the whole triune Godhead**, and he uses that Athanasian move, together with perichoresis, to argue for a *triune* (not merely paternal) monarchy.[1][2][3][4]
## Athanasius on monarchy as triune
– Torrance argues that for Athanasius “the *Monē Archē* or *Monarchia* is identical with the Trinity, the *Monas* with the *Trias*,” so the one source/monarchy is “essentially and intrinsically trinitarian in the inner relations of God’s eternal *ousia*.”[2][3]
– Athanasius certainly speaks of the Father as *Archē*, but, as Torrance reads him, “since the whole Godhead is in the Son and the Spirit, they must be included with the Father in the one originless Source or *Archē* of the Holy Trinity,” rejecting any view where only the Father is the principle of unity.[3][2]
## Torrance’s “triune monarchy”
– Against Barth’s (and some Cappadocian) formulations that assign monarchy to the Father alone, Torrance “follows Athanasius in assigning monarchy to the Trinity as a whole,” defining it as “**the one ultimate principle of Godhead, in which all three divine Persons share equally, for the whole indivisible Being of God belongs to each of them as it belongs to all of them.**”[5][1]
– Perichoresis (mutual indwelling) is decisive: it “set the doctrine of the Trinity back again on the basis laid by Athanasius in terms of coinherent relations and undivided wholeness in which each Person is a ‘whole of a whole’,” ruling out a “before and after” or “degrees of Deity.”[6][7]
## Ecumenical use of the Athanasian–triune monarchy
– Torrance’s Athanasian reading undergirds his role in the *Agreed Statement on the Trinity* (Reformed–Orthodox dialogue): the Statement stresses “the monarchy of God… ‘the one ultimate principle of Godhead, in which all three divine Persons share equally’,” so that monarchy refers to “the one triune Godhead,” not to one person over others.[1][3]
– This Athanasian–perichoretic monarchy lets him affirm both inviolable distinctions and absolute equality: “real distinctions within the Trinity without a hierarchical ordering,” avoiding any subordination of Son or Spirit to the Father in being.[4][6][1]
So, in Torrance’s reading, Athanasius supplies the patristic basis for saying: *the* Monarchia is the one triune God—Father, Son, and Spirit in perichoretic coinherence—rather than the Father as a solitary “source” from whom the others derive a lesser deity.[2][3][4][1]
Sources
[1] A Triune Monarchy: T.F. Torrance’s Correction of Karl Barth’s … https://theologiansinc.
[2] The Christian Doctrine of God (part 4) – The Surprising God https://thesurprisinggodblog.
[3] [PDF] Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity – Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth https://rdtwot.wordpress.com/
[4] Thomas F. Torrance and the Church Fathers: A Reformed … https://www.
[5] Torrance – Theologians, Inc. https://theologiansinc.
[6] The Holy Trinity in Intrarelation as the Divine Monarchia https://growrag.wordpress.com/
[7] T. F. Torrance on Perichoresis (Mutual Indwelling of Persons within … https://krisispraxis.com/
[8] Structure in the Trinity – WesleyanTheology.com http://www.wesleyantheology.
[9] [PDF] THE TRINITARIAN SOTERIOLOGY OF THOMAS F. TORRANCE A … https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/
[10] Three Persons, One Being (by T.F. Torrance) – The Surprising God https://thesurprisinggodblog.
[11] dogmatics – Theologians, Inc. https://theologiansinc.
[12] There is no single, exclusive Monarchy of the Father … – Facebook https://www.facebook.com/
[13] Christian Doctrine of God: One Being, Three Persons (Torrance) https://puritanboard.com/
[14] T. F. Torrance and the New Trinitarians – Christian Universalism https://www.
[15] The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God in the Theology of T. F. … https://www.cambridge.org/
[16] The Doctrine of The Holy Trinity According To St. Athanasius – Scribd https://www.scribd.com/doc/
