Trinitarian Grace and Participation

Geordie W. Ziegler offers an exploration of the concept of grace in the thought of T. F. Torrance, and what it means for understanding the Christian life as participation in Christ’s ongoing humanity. He clarifies Torrance’s claim that Christ’s vicarious humanity intensifies, rather than lessens, the necessity of human response to God in sacrificial and Christ-like service. Specifically, Ziegler demonstrates the centrality of Torrance’s concept of grace across the dogmatic spectrum and argues that grace, for Torrance, is a downward, twofold movement from and to the Father, through the Son in the Spirit. This understanding of grace distinctly defines the Christian life as the gift of sharing in the Son’s relation with the Father through the Spirit. Part One considers grace as a movement of the Trinity, expressed in the economy of salvation. Part Two applies this understanding of grace to the human person. It traces the way in which human beings, through the Holy Spirit, participate in Christ’s Sonship within the three concentric levels of anthropology, ecclesiology, and personal formation in Christ.