Trinitarian Doxology: T. F and J. B. Torrance's Theology of Worship as Participation by the Spirit in the Son's Communion with the Father Paperback – October 29, 2020

Reading Trinitarian Doxology is like a breath of fresh air. Kevin Navarro skillfully leads the reader in the conversation of worship as participation. This book is a much-needed correction to anthropocentric philosophies of worship, and I a grateful for the work that Kevin has done here.Thomas F. Torrance is not the easiest conversation partner, but Kevin Navarro takes the wisdom of Torrance and makes it accessible to the non-academic, allowing those outside the academy to encounter profound truths about the nature of the mediation of Christ.Too many understandings of worship rest squarely on the feeble and failing faith of those on stages and in pews. Such worship places an unbearably heavy weight on the people of God. The need to offer a sacrifice to God that is acceptable to him and yet attractive to our churches.For too long, many of us in protestant churches have emphasized the vicarious humanity of Christ as it relates only to our atonement. This is a profoundly shortsighted understanding. The mediation of Christ involves his entire vicarious humanity from birth, life, death, resurrection, and ascension. As Kevin Navarro states, worship is accomplished in Christ Jesus. Not just in what Jesus has done, but in what Jesus is continuing to do in his ascended humanity.Music and the arts are not the means of our worship, rather, our Union with Christ is the means and music as a physical expression of our worship. The implications are profound for the worship leader or pastor. Our worship is the liturgical amen to the worship of Christ. He is the one mediator, and our worship today is perfect because of who you are in Christ. In Christ, we see the perfect Word of God spoken to man and the perfect word of man spoken to God.This book is a call to a high Christology. A Christology that recognizes and honors the mediation of Christ and humbly finds our lives in Christ. A Christology that allows for participation by virtue of inclusion in the life of Christ and his relationship with the Father in the Spirit. A Christology that places our worshiping response in the proper place of a great “amen” to the worship offered by Christ.

Kevin Navarro shows how the theological corrections emphasized by the Torrence brothers serve as correctives in the realms of worship today. Along the way, he demonstrates how the avoidance of one error historically lead into an equal, opposite error, overemphasizing or neglecting important vital aspects of our faith. In this case, the avoidance of the Arian heresy can lead towards the Apollinarian, where the mediation of Christ is ignored in the effort to focus on, defend or proclaim the full deity of Christ.The full incarnation of the Son in Jesus reveals the true nature of the Triune God, which makes possible our union with Christ by the Spirit, so that we may participate in Christ’s perfect worship of the Father, by the same Spirit. However, the Church of the ages has often simply added Jesus-content to Old Testaments concepts of God and the practice of worship. Navarro points out that the advent of the Son of God accomplishes the fulfillment and perfection, not only of the law, but of the worship of God.Jesus’ vicarious humanity accomplishes the perfect worship of God, which we join in union with Him. Just as the work of Christ accomplishes a salvation we could not earn, the person of Christ accomplishes a filial worship of God that we could not attain apart from Him. So Christ is the Priestly Mediator through whom we worship, such that His worship echos and resounds through and in our response, as we participate in His filial worship of the Father.The reader is led into the depths of the revelation of the Trinitarian mystery, but is left to discover how to enter this distinctively Christian reality, how to pursue and deepen union with Christ, so as to authentically embody and express distinctively Christian worship.

Navarro's book is a welcome (and valuable) addition to the body of literature addressing the incarnational Trinitarian theology of the Torrance brothers (Thomas F. and James B. in particular, with occasional references to David W.). Trinitarian Doxology serves as a wonderful compendium of the writings of the Torrance literature (and other related authors) as it pertains to the topic of a Trinitarian vision that sees our worship of God as our participation in Jesus' worship of the Father in the Spirit. In the course of exploring this literature, Navarro drills down on specific aspects of the worship of the church, including the Sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. Navarro also addresses several critiques of Torrance theology--I found these to be particularly helpful.