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Incarnation: the person and life of ChristGod become ManINCARNATION T.F. Torrance (1913-2007) was Professor of Christian Dogmatics at New College, University of Edinburgh, from 1952-1979. He wrote prolifically for a quarter of a century thereafter. His contributions on the trinity, epistemology, and the interaction of theology and science can hardly be exaggerated. He was among the most important theologians of the 20th century and probably the most significant in the English-speaking world. Torrance is often considered a Barthian, but was too powerful a theologian to be labelled by another man’s theology. Karl Barth, under whom Torrance did his doctorate, undoubtedly had a strong impact on him, but so did he on Barth, while Athanasius and Cyril, together with Calvin, have at least as much claim to have impacted him. Rebutting liberalismThis book is a carefully and expertly edited edition of Torrance’s lectures on Christology. These are matters central to Torrance’s heart. Those familiar with his other work may be surprised to find how strongly he based his thought on biblical exegesis. The lectures are full of discussions of the presentation of Jesus in the Gospels and the letters of Paul, and the Old Testament background that Torrance rightly considers indispensable to Christology and redemption. Torrance is clear and strong in his rebuttal of liberalism and his assertion of the historicity of the gospel records. His treatment of the virgin birth is by far the best short statement I have read, the connection to the resurrection clear and helpful, both seen as signalling the movement of the Son of God into our world, the sovereign action of God to redeem lost sinners. Torrance allows the ecumenical councils their proper place, and his treatment of the twin dogmas of anhypostasis and enhypostasis is masterly. Big problemsTorrance’s discussion here is at times thrilling and always worth reading. However, the influence of Cyril and Barth is evident in his maintaining that the Son assumed into union a fallen human nature, sanctifying it and healing it so as to deliver us from where we actually are. In saying this, Torrance implicitly opposes Reformed covenant theology. The latter holds that a fallen nature entails the inheritance of the guilt of Adam’s sin, and if Christ was implicated in ‘the entail of consequence’ incurred by Adam he could not save us since he would have needed a saviour himself. Moreover, following Cyril, the fulcrum of salvation for Torrance is the incarnation. The atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross is to be seen in that light. CorrectiveIn this, Torrance brings a healthy corrective to much of Western, and evangelical, thought, which has too readily abstracted the cross from the wider context of the threefold office of Christ, worked out in his incarnate life and ministry. On the other hand, with this commitment Torrance was hostile to the satisfaction and penal substitutionary doctrines worked out in Western Christianity, which he termed ‘the Latin heresy’. These brilliant lectures will be of immense value to all with sharp theological and critical antennae, who are equipped intellectually to appreciate and to defend the historic Reformed faith. The book is not for the general reader. Robert Letham, © Evangelicals Now - June 2009 |