Torrance relates the church as Christ’s body directly to the missio Dei by seeing the church’s very being (union‑in‑communion with Christ by the Spirit) as both the goal and instrument of God’s mission: the church participates in and embodies the Triune sending rather than adding a separate “program” on top.[1][2]
## Missio Dei grounded in Trinity and incarnation
– Torrance locates the missio Dei in the perichoretic life of the ontological Trinity and its economic outworking in the incarnation: the Father sends the Son and Spirit to bring humanity into union and communion with God.[3][1]
– He uses the triad prothesis (eternal purpose), mystērion (Christ’s incarnate mission), and koinōnia (communion of the church with God) to describe the missio Dei: the church’s communion is the intended *telos* of the divine mission.[1]
## Church as body participating in the missio Dei
– The church is “founded in Jesus Christ, indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and rooted in the Holy Trinity,” so its identity as the body of Christ is already an event of the missio Dei realized in history.[2]
– Because the church’s koinōnia with Christ is the goal of God’s sending, that same koinōnia becomes the medium through which the Triune God continues his mission to the world; the body participates in Christ’s ongoing priestly, reconciling mission.[2][1]
## Vertical participation → horizontal mission
– Torrance insists that “it is only through a vertical participation in Christ that the Church is horizontally a communion of love, a fellowship of reconciliation,” so the church’s body‑life and its mission are two sides of one participatory reality.[2]
– Participation is “a conjoint participation, a participation‑in‑communion”: as believers share together in Christ himself, they simultaneously share in his outreach to “restore alienated humanity to fellowship with the triune God.”[2]
## Spirit, body, and extension of Christ’s mission
– The Spirit, poured out on the church, “constitutes” it as a communion‑of‑participation and then sends it: the Spirit is poured “immediately only upon the Church, and yet through the Church it was destined for all men.”[2]
– Thus the church as Christ’s body is a reconciled community whose very existence and ministries of proclamation and reconciliation are participation in what Jesus is doing in the Spirit—the church’s mission *is* its embodied share in the missio Dei.[1][2]
Sources
[1] Thomas F. Torrance: Theology and mission in practice – In die Skriflig https://indieskriflig.org.za/
[2] Torrance on the church and its mission – The Surprising God https://thesurprisinggodblog.
[3] [PDF] T. F. Torrance as Missional Theologian – InterVarsity Press https://www.ivpress.com/Media/
[4] Missio Dei, Trinitarian Theology, and the Quest for a Post-Colonial … https://missiodeijournal.com/
[5] Thomas F. Torrance: Theology and mission in practice – Academia.edu https://www.academia.edu/
[6] Christmas Time, A ‘Theology Proper’ Holiday: The Missio Dei as a … https://growrag.wordpress.com/
[7] Thomas F. Torrance: Theology and mission in practice – In die Skriflig https://indieskriflig.org.za/
[8] A Trinitarian view of the mission of God – The Surprising God https://thesurprisinggodblog.
[9] Theology and mission in practice | Seed | In die Skriflig/In Luce Verbi https://indieskriflig.org.za/
[10] The Surprising God – Grace Communion International https://thesurprisinggodblog.
[11] The Theology of the Missio Dei – Inlibra https://www.inlibra.com/10.
[12] Theology – George Whitefield College – Academia.edu https://gwc.academia.edu/
[13] After Torrance | “There is no God Behind the Back of Jesus.” https://posttorrancean.
[14] Joseph H. Sherrard, T. F. Torrance as Missional Theologian: The … https://www.cambridge.org/
[15] In Skriflig (Online) – vol.51 número1 – SciELO South Africa https://scielo.org.za/scielo.
