Torrance connects Trinity and soteriology by insisting that salvation is nothing less than participation in the communion of the Father, Son, and Spirit, accomplished by the incarnate Son and actualized by the Spirit.[1][2]
## Being–act: no “non‑saving” Trinity
– Following Barth, he holds that God’s **being** is inseparable from God’s **act**; the God who is in himself is the same God who saves us in Christ.[3][1]
– Therefore the Trinity is “the ground and grammar of theology,” and any doctrine of salvation that is not explicitly Trinitarian misrepresents who God is.[4][1]
## Distinct Trinitarian agencies in salvation
– The Father, Son, and Spirit work inseparably but with distinct roles: the Father purposes and sends, the Son incarnates and reconciles, the Spirit unites and perfects.[2][1]
– Torrance resists viewing salvation as a merely external transaction; instead it is the Triune God personally giving himself to us in these differentiated yet unified operations.[2]
## Union with Christ as Trinitarian center
– Salvation is “union with Christ through the communion of the Spirit,” a phrase Torrance uses to interpret classic Reformed teaching on the “communion of the Spirit.”[5][6]
– There is one union with Christ, objectively accomplished in the incarnate, crucified, and risen Son’s vicarious humanity, into which believers are brought subjectively by the Spirit.[6][5]
## Objective–subjective structure of salvation
– Objectively, in the hypostatic union, Christ assumes fallen humanity and, through his lifelong obedience, death, and resurrection, sanctifies and reconciles human nature to the Father.[5][6]
– Subjectively, the Spirit makes us participant in this finished reality—faith, justification, and sanctification are realized in us as we are drawn into the Son’s relationship with the Father.[6][5]
## Circular relation: Trinity is soteriological, soteriology is Trinitarian
– Scholars summarize Torrance’s project by saying his Trinitarian theology is explicitly soteriological and his soteriology explicitly Trinitarian; each doctrine presupposes and interprets the other.[1][3]
– For Torrance, to speak of the Trinity is to speak of the Triune God *with and for us* in Christ and the Spirit; to speak of salvation is to speak of entry into that Triune communion.[3][2]
Sources
[1] Communion with God: The Trinitarian Soteriology of Thomas F … https://research.manchester.
[2] A trinitarian doctrine of salvation – The Surprising God https://thesurprisinggodblog.
[3] [PDF] THE TRINITARIAN SOTERIOLOGY OF THOMAS F. TORRANCE A … https://pure.manchester.ac.uk/
[4] Communion with the Triune God: The Trinitarian Soteriology of T. F. … https://www.barnesandnoble.
[5] T.F. Torrance: Union with Christ through the Communion of the Spirit https://indieskriflig.org.za/
[6] T.F. Torrance: Union with Christ through the Communion of the Spirit http://www.scielo.org.za/
[7] Communion with the Triune God: The Trinitarian Soteriology of TF … https://www.jstor.org/stable/
[8] Communion with the Triune God: The Trinitarian Soteriology of T. F. … https://books.google.com/
[9] THE TRINITARIAN SOTERIOLOGY OF T.F. TORRANCE by Dick O … https://www.academia.edu/
[10] Communion with the Triune God: The Trinitarian Soteriology of T. F. … https://www.christianbook.com/
[11] Communion with the Triune God | 9781625640369, 9781630872991 https://www.vitalsource.com/
[12] Communion with the Triune God – Bookshop.org https://bookshop.org/a/21568/
[13] T.F. Torrance: Union with Christ through the Communion of the Spirit. https://go.gale.com/ps/i.do?
[14] The Trinitarian Soteriology of T. F. Torrance” by Dick O. Eugenio https://ojs.st-andrews.ac.uk/
[15] T. F. Torrance and Union with Christ in Scottish Theology https://growrag.wordpress.com/
