Act and Being

<p><b>Irving offers a critical analysis of T.F. Torrance’s doctrine of God.</b> In particular, he focuses on the fundamental premise that the being of God inheres in the act of God and the act of God inheres in the being of God. He argues that Torrance presents a doctrine of God in which the self-communicative act by which God posits himself in relation to human being is not alien to the being of God as such, without suggesting that God is constituted by that self-communicative act.</p><p>Irving argues that Torrance describes such a theological ontology not primarily through metaphysical categories, but through Christological and trinitarian categories. This is worked out primarily in relation to Torrance's treatment of the doctrine of election, the relation of the hypostatic union to God's triune being and his distinctive account of the divine perfections. </p><p>In this way, Irving seeks to demonstrate that Torrance treats the economic act as proper to God in a non-constitutive way. It is argued that this offers a fresh approach to the question of the relationship between God as such and God for us and seeks to situate Torrance's contribution relative to this broader theological question.</p>