Fully Human in Christ: The Incarnation as the End of Christian Ethics

Thomas F. Torrances theology included a thoroughgoing albeit implicit ethic of reconciliation. It focused on the personalizing and humanizing mediation of Christ in all realms of life--including not only a supposed private dimension of human life but also the social historical and political structures of human society and even of the cosmos itself. This book builds upon that vision of a Christian ethic radically rooted in Gods grace which encompasses sustains and transforms the entire human and created order. A trinitarian-incarnational social ethic does not begin with our human causes projects and agendas however noble they might be but with witness to the reconciling person and work of Jesus Christ for us. Todd Speidells book Fully Human in Christ is a wise and winsome account of how Thomas F. Torrances Trinitarian and Christocentric theology is inextricably connected to a profound Christian ethic including a social ethic as well. His work is a cathartic antidote to the many criticisms that Torrances theology lacks a robust ethical dimension. Speidells clever subtitle The Incarnation as the End of Ethics encapsulates his central thesis that Christs vicarious humanity ends all ours attempts to do good or be good apart from who Christ is and what Christ has done on our behalf and in our place. In place of every autonomous ethic is a radically new and different gracious ethical participation in Christs vicarious humanity. This participation does in no way negate or replace our humanity but rather frees personalizes humanizes and reconciles us in all our relations with God and others overcoming all bigotry hatred and every other barrier we create and maintain to secure and justify ourselves and people like us in alienation from God and others. Having grown up amidst the violence injustice and urban unrest in Paterson NJ during the 1960s and 70s Speidells penetrating sustained and captivating thinking of ethics in dialogue with Torrance is a profound joyous and hopeful account of what a Christian ethic really is. Scholars pastors students and others interested in Christian theology and ethics will be challenged and encouraged by Speidells contributions in this book. --Elmer M. Colyer Professor of Systematic Theology Stanley Professor of Wesley Studies University of Dubuque Theological Seminary Todd Speidell has written a wonderful book not simply about T. F. Torrances overlooked contributions to thinking theologically about ethics but more broadly about the reality of reconciliation and the triune Gods unwavering commitment to redeem creation. Speaking with great insight and candor Speidell sets the record on Torrance straight helping us to see that Christ is the end of ethics thereby abolishing our attempts at self-justification and autonomous ethics in favor of His vicarious humanity in our place and on our behalf. Students and teachers of Christian doctrine and ethics are very well-served by this clear judicious and compelling account and appropriation of one of the most important English-speaking theologians of the twentieth century. --Christopher R. J. Holmes Senior Lecturer in Theology University of Otago Relying on the thinking of Karl Barth Thomas F. Torrance James B. Torrance Dietrich Bonhoeffer Ray S. Anderson and others Todd Speidell thoughtfully and skillfully challenges readers to focus on who Jesus was and is as the incarnate revealer and reconciler to understand the true meaning of Christian ethics and liberation in a way that upholds rather than negates a properly functioning social ethic. Along the way he offers helpful analysis and critique of various views that tend toward a Pelagian vision of grace or some version of conditional salvation and thus obscure what it means to participate in Christs vicarious humanity and therefore in the new creation. His discussion of Torrances theological ethics offers a particularly convincing