A collection of fifteen essays addressing the basic intellectual challenges to the contemporary Christian church. Professor Torrance deals with such topics as the centrality of Christology in scientific dogmatics, the Reformed and Roman Catholic doctrines of grace, theological education, the relation of theological statements to scientific methodology, the contemporary significance of some past theological giants, and the nature and significance of the Holy Spirit and of the church.
T.F. Torrance is widely recognized as one of our most important twentieth-century theologians. And scholars of Torrance suggest 'Reality & Scientific Theology' is one of his most accessible works. Torrance's insights on Christian epistemology are remarkably relevant in light of recent discussions on realism and antirealism in philosophy and theology. Torrance brilliantly sets forth no naive or even critical realism, but rather an evangelical realism - knowledge grounded in the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. He not only constructively argues the case for an evangelical realism but compares and contrasts theological knowledge with natural scientific knowledge, and shows how the Bible can function authoritatively in a fragmented church. This edition of 'Reality and Evangelical Theology' includes an in-depth foreword that contextualizes Torrance's seminal theological work in light of recent debates over postmodern and postcritical hermeneutics to Scripture. It will handsomely repay engagement (or reengagement) by theologians, philosophers, students and thoughtful pastors.
This companion volume to T. F. Torrance's Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ presents the material on the work of Christ, centered in the atonement, given originally in his lectures delivered to his students in Christian Dogmatics on Christology at New College, Edinburgh, from 1952-1978.
T.F. Torrance aims in this book to discover how and why there came about in the early history of the Christian Church the enormous difference that exists between the faith of the New Testament and that of the second and third centuries. He explores how the concept of grace is distinctively characteristic of every doctrine of the New Testament, and yet at the same time is the most sensitive to change.
With this book, Thomas Torrance purposes to gather together in a single volume all Catechisms officially authorized and employed by the Church of Scotland since the Reformation, so that they may be conveniently studied together.
The best writing is relevant for every age. C. S. Lewis reminded us that we must always read books from different eras, to avoid our own generation's blind spots. That is why these articles by Professor T. F. Torrance, Scotland's world famous theologian, merit reading. These particular articles focus on the topics of church and ministry in light of the gospel of Christ. They have been selected, first, because they illustrate how "TF" understood his work as an academic theologian to be the calling of an evangelist to the church and to the intellectual life of the day, and, second, because they are on the whole more accessible to the average reader. The Introduction by Jock Stein relates the different chapters to the overall work of "TF," the development of his thought, and to the events of his time.
This first of two volumes comprises Thomas F. Torrance's lectures delivered to students in Christian Dogmatics on Christology at New College, Edinburgh, from 1952 to 1978. In eight chapters these expertly edited lectures focus on the meaning and significance of the incarnation and the person of Christ.
When the Nicene Creed affirms that the eternal Son of God 'for us and for our salvation came down from heaven', it asserts that God Himself is actively present within the space and time of our world. The philosophical problems that this involves are bound up with Christian theology, and form the subject of this book. Professor Torrance begins with a critique of modern Protestant thinking, and proceeds to examine the place of spatial and temporal elements in basic theological concepts. He then offers a positive account of the relation of the incarnation to space and time. While related to the work of the great theologians of the past, this study is also supremely relevant to theological thinking in this age of science.
In this sequel to Space, Time and Incarnation, Thomas F. Torrance sets out the biblical approach to the Resurrection in terms of the intrinsic significance of the resurrected one, Jesus; and demonstrates that the Resurrection is entirely consistent with who Jesus was and what he did. The Resurrection is thus taken realistically, and treated as of the same nature, in the integration of physical and spiritual existence, as the death of Christ. All this is elucidated in the context of modern scientific thought, in such a way as to show that far from being frightened by modern science into a compromise of the New Testament's message of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ in body, it actually allows us to take its full measure. This classic volume from one of the premier English speaking theologian of the 20th century remains an important contribution to the field of systematic theology. For this Cornerstones edition, the preface is written by Paul D. Molnar.
In a culture increasingly secular in its pursuits and indifferent to the voice of the church, how may we ignite the fire for ministry that will bring the gospel to the world? How can weary pastors be sustained amidst a climate of doubt and resistance? For more than half a century, three remarkable brothers have offered a vision that has inspired thousands in churches and seminaries. Today, their message remains fresh and relevant as we enter a new millennium. And for one reason: The Brothers Torrance share a passion for Christ--the Christ of the Scriptures, the Christ of the historic Nicene faith. These essays distill the essence of their thought, and shine with the clarity of their shared vision. A Passion for Christ is a light of encouragement for ministers and lay people elsewhere.
The essays which make up this volume arise out of the author's ongoing engagement with the tension between Christian theology and the general frame of thought that has dominated European culture for several hundred years. The early Christian Church set about not only to communicate the Gospel to the Greco-Roman world but also to transform the prevailing mode of thought and culture so that the Gospel could take deep root and develop within it. Therefore, in every age, says Thomas F. Torrance, Òthe Christian faith must be brought to bear transformingly upon the whole frame of human culture, science, and philosophy.Ó
It has been my attempt to lay bare Calvin's own thought and to present it as far as possible in his own way and in his own words. Traditional Calvinism I have studiously avoided, and have made no reference to works on Calvin, ancient or modern, so that this presentation might be free from the imputation of partisanship in any of the different schools, such as that of the Dutch Calvinists, or that of W. Niesel and the late Peter Barth. Consequently, the bulk of the book consists of citations gathered from all over Calvin's works, and arranged together with as little explanatory material of my own as was necessary. I am conscious that in the very arrangement of this material, as also in the exposition, interpretation has been unavoidable, but it is, I believe, in the direction in which Calvin's own thought moves as it is drawn out, particularly in its relevance to the modern theological debate."--Preface, page 7
In this book, the problem of the reality of salvation is addressed by T.F. Torrance's doctrine of "the vicarious humanity of Christ." Through this approach, salvation as humanization is affirmed, yet without the problems of anthropocentric theologies. This book is unique in that it offers both a survey of contemporary Christian thinking on salvation as well as a constructive alternative based on Torrance's doctrine, a significant yet neglected contribution to modern theology.
How do we react to the claim that physics must now be regarded as one of the liberal arts, for in its description of the universe it sets the stage for the drama of human life? If modern science has now become the dominant culture, how does Christianity look within it? What difference does the Christian idea of the contingence of nature make to science today? What difference does it make for Christian thought and culture to move away from the old idea of the world as a closed mechanical system of cause and effect into the new idea of the world as an open dynamic system configured by the behavior of light, the fastest messenger in the universe? These are some of the questions discussed in the light of James Clerk Maxwell's discoveries of the mathematical properties of light, and of Albert Einstein's generalization of the new understanding of light for a radically new and exciting view of nature that has made space travel possible and enabled us to trace the expansion of the universe back to conditions near its beginning. This is not a defensive book about science and religion in the usual vein. It is concerned rather with the deep mutual relation and respect of Christian and scientific thought for each other, and shows how this relationship throws new light upon basic Christian doctrines. This volume also warns against the dangers of a reactionary retreat from the rigors of scientific thought into fuzzy mythological interpretations of the incarnation, and calls for a deeper appreciation of the Nicene Creed upon which all Christendom rests.
The Christian Frame of Mind: Reason, Order, and Openness in Theology and Natural Science is an exhilarating exploration by one of this century's premier theologians of the relationship between science and theology. This collection of essays, which focuses on themes central to Thomas F. Torrance's lifelong work of integrating Judea-Christian theology and natural science, illuminates the distinctive contribution of the Christian frame of mind to human life and thought particularly in the rise of modern science. Arguing to close the gap between theological and natural science erroneously opened by "the narrow-minded rationalism of the Enlightenment," Dr. Torrance builds upon the work of scientists such as James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Einstein, and Michael Polanyi in promoting dialogue between the two disciplines. The resultant conversation is a brilliant and stirring analysis of common ground in scientific and theological inquiry. Torrance discards a dualist separation for a unitary understanding of reality, in which the invisible guides the interpretation of the visible as scientist and theologian alike adopt self critical openness and the auditive mode of inquiry in response to the pressing questions of their task. Dr. Torrance urges this unitary understanding of the intelligibility of the universe as a shared goal of science and theology. His vision of a foundational convergence between them, where the "boundary points" of contingent reality find their reference in the transcendent, uncreated reality of the Word of God is breathtaking in beauty and scope. The introduction by Dr. W Jim Neidhardt, physics professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology, provides a lucid summary of key themes in Torrance's lifelong integrative work.
By publishing these essays together for the first time, this collection widens access to a number of T. F. Torrance’s illuminating studies on the history of biblical hermeneutics. Moreover, by detailing Torrance’s extensive engagement with primary sources, which generally appear only in summary form across his writings, this collection reveals to readers how Torrance’s own theological hermeneutics were forged through deep fellowship with the communion of the saints.
Karl Barth (1886-1968), the Swiss Reformed professor and pastor, was once described by Pope Pius XII as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas. As principal author of The Barmen Declaration, he was the intellectual leader of the German Confessing Church--the Protestant group that resisted the Third Reich. Barth's teaching career spanned nearly five decades. Removed from his post at Bonn by the Nazis in late 1934, Barth moved to Basel where he taught until 1962. Among Barth's many books, sermons, and essays are The Epistle to the Romans, Humanity of God, Evangelical Theology, and Church Dogmatics.
In a new paperback edition of a classic work, T. F. Torrance aims to clarify understanding of that most profound article of the Christian faith, the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.Adopting a holistic approach, he explains the inter-relatedness of the three Persons--Father, Son and Holy Spirit--and their dynamic Communion with the Being and Nature of God.Combining immense academic range with new theological perspectives, Professor Torrance builds a significant theological bridge between ancient and modern, and Roman and Protestant theology.
Cutting across the divide between East and West and between Catholic and Evangelical, Thomas F. Torrance illuminates our understanding of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Torrance combines here the Gospel and a theology shaped by Karl Barth and the Church Fathers, and offers his readers a unique synthesis of the Nicene Creed. This volume remains a tremendously helpful resource on the doctrine of the Trinity and the Nicene Creed. The new introduction for this Cornerstones edition is written by Myk Habets, the leading Thomas F. Torrance scholar today.
This book examines the implications of the Judaeo-Christian claim for our understanding of the universe that it is contingent: freely created by God out of nothing, and having an existence, freedom, and rtional order of its own while still dependent on him. Professor Torrance argues that this claim made possible the development of western empirical science, but that Newtonian physics obscured the connection between the rational order of nature and the Christian doctrine of creation. He shows how modern relativity and quantum theories have once againd rawn attention to the significance of contingence, and imply that the universe is found to be consistently rational only if it is dependent on a creative rationality beyond it. He considers finally the disorderly elements in the universe, both physical and moral, and argues that the doctrine of incarnation as well as of creation is necessary to deal with the intellectual problems which they raise.
ÒIt is one of the principle tasks of the theologian in each generation to bring the preaching of the church to the bar of the word of God and to test its adequacy as a faithful presentation of the message and teaching of the New Testament . . . If this book can help evangelists to rethink the content of their proclamation in order to let the Word of God have free course in their ministry . . . it will amply serve the purpose of its publication.Ó - From the author's Preface
Written by one of the twentieth-century's foremost modern Trinitarian theologians The Christian Doctrine of God remains a classic ground work for scholars and students alike. In the book Thomas F. Torrance offers a detailed study of the most profound article of the Christian faith - the Holy Trinity. Torrance adopts a holistic approach when examining the inter-relatedness of the three persons - Father, son, and Holy Spirit - and their dynamic Communion with the Being and Nature of God. Combining immense academic range with his characteristically fresh theological perspectives, Torrance builds a significant theological bridge between ancient and modern, as well as between the Roman and Protestant theology; he engages deeply with the Church Fathers and discusses the ontological nature of God. Here Torrance conveys a simple message - the doctrine of the Trinity is the doctrine of God. This Cornerstones edition includes a new introduction written by Professor Paul D. Molnar, in which Molnar sets Torrance's classic work in its modern context and considers how it continues to influence the way we think about the Trinity today.
The futures seems to be full of promise and excitement. Certainly at no time for nearly a millenium and a half has the opportunity for genuine theology been greater, since the ground has been cleared in the remarkable way of the old dualist and atomistic modes of thought that have plagued theology for centuries. It is, therefore, up to us as theologians to develop theology on its own proper ground in this scientific context, if only because this is the kind of life and culture, and the kind of theology that can support the message of the Gospel to mankind, as, in touch with the advances of natural science, theology comes closer and closer to a real understanding of the creation as it came from the hand of God.
The doctrine of the Trinity has become the focal point of theological discussion and has immense implications for our knowledge of God. Professor Torrance shows that God is not a remote, unknowable deity but is free to go outside of himself in order to share with us the Communion of Love which he is himself. Throughout this study, Professor Torrance brings out the existing ecumenical consensus between Roman and Protestant Churches and the recent agreement between Orthodox and Reformed Churches. In the exploration of this theme and, through the examination of critical issues in the history of thought, he points a way toward doctrinal agreement.
Examines the importance of the Nicene Faith for Christian theology, cutting across the divide between East and West and between Catholic and Evangelical, illuminating our understanding of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity.
This book challenges jurists and parliamentarians to reconsider the foundations of the legal and political institutions in Britain, which are shown to be seriously wanting as judicial decisions in favor of justice are set aside by appeal to statutory enactments of Parliament slanted by party-political prejudice.
Dealing with the issue of church unity and the ecumenical movement, Professor Torrance reminds Christians in a collection of essays that any theology which is faithful to the gospel must be a theology of reconciliation.
Cutting across the divide between East and West and between Catholic and Evangelical, Thomas F. Torrance illuminates our understanding of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity. Torrance combines here the Gospel and a theology shaped by Karl Barth and the Church Fathers, and offers his readers a unique synthesis of the Nicene Creed. This volume remains a tremendously helpful resource on the doctrine of the Trinity and the Nicene Creed. The new introduction for this Cornerstones edition is written by Myk Habets, the leading Thomas F. Torrance scholar today."--Bloomsbury Publishing.
A collection of essays, articles, and article reviews that arise directly or indirectly out of Torrance's involvement in the ecumenical movement. ÒOurs must be the task of learning together again how to confess, like the early Church, faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and God in all its breadth and length and height and depth, and therefore in the overflowing love of God. Only in glorification of God the Son and in actual encouragement of the Gospel can we produce, as a paragon, a doctrine of the Church in which our differences are lost sight of because they are destroyed from behind by a masterful faith in the Saviour of men.Ó - From the Introduction
An up-to-date ecumenical understanding of the Church and its ministry that cuts across divisions between Catholic and Evangelical, Anglican and Reformed, and includes the ministry of both men and women.
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