Torrance uses perichoresis to *define* a specifically **triune** monarchy: God’s one “principle of Godhead” is the perichoretic communion of Father, Son, and Spirit, not the Father alone.[1][2][3][4]
## Monarchy belongs to the whole Trinity
– Torrance rejects a Cappadocian‑style “monarchy of the Father” if it is taken to mean that the Father alone is the principle of unity in a way that introduces derivation and subordination.[2][1]
– He redefines monarchy 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**.”[1]
## Role of perichoresis
– Perichoresis, for him, is the key to this triune monarchy: “**a perichoresis where the Father, Son and Holy Spirit mutually permeate and actively pass into one another** rules out… any conception of a unity deriving from the underived Person of the Father.”[2]
– It “safeguards the equality of the Persons of the Trinity and rules out any notion of a ‘before’ and an ‘after’ or of ‘degrees of Deity’,” thereby excluding any built‑in subordination in the Godhead.[2]
## Unity and distinctions together
– Torrance says the one triune Being of God is “**an intensely personal Communion, an ever‑living, ever‑loving Being, the Being‑for‑Others which the three divine Persons have in common**,” known only “as a whole” in their mutual indwelling.[3][2]
– Perichoresis lets him affirm “real distinctions between the divine Persons in their hypostatic relations with one another” while grounding unity in their shared, coinherent being, not in a pre‑personal essence or a solitary monarch.[4][1][2]
Sources
[1] A Triune Monarchy: T.F. Torrance’s Correction of Karl Barth’s … https://theologiansinc.
[2] T. F. Torrance on Perichoresis (Mutual Indwelling of Persons within … https://krisispraxis.com/
[3] Three Persons, One Being (by T.F. Torrance) – The Surprising God https://thesurprisinggodblog.
[4] [PDF] The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons [review … https://digitalcommons.
[5] [PDF] Theologies of Robert Jenson and John Calvin https://theoluniv.ub.rug.nl/
[6] Person and Being: Conversation with T.F. Torrance about the … https://onlinelibrary.wiley.
[7] Table 3 – T. F. Torrance’s Ecumenical Trinitarianism: – Academia.edu https://www.academia.edu/
[8] Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons. | PDF – Scribd https://www.scribd.com/
[9] The Christian Doctrine of God: One Being Three Persons https://www.rick.wadholm.com/
[10] Cutting behind the “Latin Heresy” in Augustine’s Trinitarian Theology https://search.proquest.com/
[11] Torrance – Theologians, Inc. https://theologiansinc.
[12] Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons – Google Books https://books.google.com/
[13] Torrance argues that the Trinity reveals the inner being of God. The … https://www.facebook.com/
[14] About – Perichoresis https://perichoresis.org/
[15] The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons – Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/en/
