After a long while, I’m reading back again a book that was given to me by a Trinitarian theologian some 6 years ago. It’s fascinating to me that I’m learning a lot from great theologians both living and dead. It is exciting for me that I’m getting to know more and more about our Triune God and about our Lord Jesus Christ. It’s inspiring to know that God loves me, all of humanity and all of creation. It’s thrilling to know that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have already included me into their life and love and I can gladly join them for all eternity. It’s amazing for me to know that I can enjoy a loving relationship with the Triune God right now in this present life and onwards into the future, for all eternity! Isn’t that great? Who am I that the Triune God should be mindful of me? All I can say is, thank you Lord! Praise the Lord God Almighty!

I’m reading back again the book, Incarnation, a compilation of Thomas F. Torrance’s class lectures to his students from 1952 to 1978. I was not even born yet in 1952! Anyway, Robert T. Walker, nephew of Thomas F. Torrance compiled and edited these lectures and formed it into a book. And I’m learning a lot from it.

Here’s an excerpt that got my attention. In the Editor’s Introduction (pp.xxix-xxx), Robert T. Walker said that:

“Torrance’s theology is deeply biblical and like the bible his thought is unitary, combining head and heart. In the bible there is no separation between them and no such thing as knowledge simply with the mind or simply with the heart. The human person is a unity and the whole of the human person is involved in faith or knowledge, at once with the head and with the heart.

“For Torrance, theology is personal knowledge of God in which mind and heart together are equally involved. God is personal, or ‘personalizing person’ as Torrance used to say, the one who makes us personal and can only be known personally. One cannot therefore study theology without personal knowledge of God in faith. It can never be simply an academic exercise. Theology involves faith and worship and can only properly be done on one’s knees.”

It’s good to know that I’m not just doing some academic exercise but truly having a relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit as I get to know them more and more through our Lord Jesus Christ, the personalizing person.