Thomas Forsyth Torrance: Self-Revealing God

Knowledge of the Self-Revealing God in the Thought of Thomas Forsyth Torrance
Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Sep 1999 by Flett, Eric G


Knowledge of the Self-Revealing God in the Thought of Thomas Forsyth Torrance. By John Douglas Morrison. Issues in Systematic Theology Vol. 2. New York: Peter Lang, 1997, 386 pp., n.p.

Titles are getting cumbersome of late, but don't let this one put you off. Morrison's work is a well-organized and clear exposition of Professor Torrance's theological epistemology.

Morrison's fundamental concern is that Torrance's efforts to eliminate dualist thought from his own theological project have fallen prey to an internal inconsistency. Torrance has his theological mentors (Kierkegaard and Barth) to blame for a transcendentalism which "has forced a schism within his theological thinking so that a gulf is found finally to exist between divine and human at the point of space-time relation in the world" (p. 319). As a result the only meeting point where divine and human knowing may coincide is through an "existential Word-event." This Wordevent is a timeless encounter where "the knowing subject's historical existence and very humanity [are] finally lost or reduced as one is lifted up to the Word transcendentally beyond the historical domain of the existing self" (p. 317). Kierkegaard, Barth and Torrance's conception of "the way, the place, the mode, and the nature of the Word of God in our history" (p. 317) is in need of re-thinking. Their conception carries with it an implicit imperative that God can only be known directly and personally via a supra-historical event-encounter with God.

Morrison finds this to be inconsistent with Torrance's stated objective to offer a unitary and realist theological paradigm and offers a corrective of his own, drawing on the thought of John Calvin and, to a lesser extent, Hans Frei.

Taking an important cue from the research of Ray S. Anderson, conducted twentythree years ago under Torrance's supervision, he draws in the idea of "historical transcendence" and ties it to Calvin's understanding of Scripture. Scripture is the 'inspired' interaction, response, witness and interpretation" of the eternal Word's incarnate reality (p. 330) and as such participates onotologically, through the ministry of the Spirit, in the movement of divine disclosure. Contra Torrance, whose position forces him to understand Scripture as a "disposable conduit," Morrison wants to expand the Barthian understanding of revelation as Being-Act and Act-Being to incorporate Scripture. The result would be Being-Act-Interpretation (Scripture). This upholds the transcendence of God while still providing a concrete point in human history for the divine-human relation. Like the Word made flesh, Scripture should be understood analogically and functionally as "kenotic" (p. 332). Torrance's tendency to downplay Scripture as the conduit of revelation is then drawn alongside Hans Frei's concern to pay close attention to the actual textuality of Scripture as a revelatory structure.

Morrison is fundamentally concerned that Torrance "arbitrarily limits the historical Word to the incarnation" (p. 337). This "limitation" is not as arbitrary as it might seem, if attention were turned to the theological personalism that underlies all of Torrance's thought (as well as Barth's) as opposed to the realist/objectivist category that is often employed. This would nudge interpreters of Torrance to look to his anthropological, ecclesiological and sacramental thought for the "historical transcendence" that Morrison grounds in Scripture. A consideration of what Torrance means when he comments that the church is "the earthly-historical form of [Christ's] presence" as well as being Christ's body would be especially helpful. These things cannot be said of Scripture (even though Scripture plays a vital role in the self-understanding of the Church) for reasons that substantiate Torrance's personalism and hence his thought regarding Scripture. The Church, not Scripture, is truly "kenotic," for without the Church Scripture would also have no historical context or contemporaniety.

Morrison's work does point out an important concern that needs attention, and his proposal here seeks to address it: the mediation of the Word in human history. Colin Gunton has taken up this theme as well in his book A Brief Theology of Revelation (T & T Clark, 1995), proposing that a "deficient pneumatology" is to blame for proposals that do not take historical mediation seriously. Much work needs to be done in this area and Morrison furthers the conversation by drawing the thought of Torrance into constructive use. Morrison's exposition of Torrance's thought is clear and cogent, and he has mastered a great deal of material from diverse fields of inquiry. This is a valuable gift to those who continue to draw upon the thought of Professor Torrance for their own theological work. Morrison has also pointed out a weakness in Torrance's epistemology that needs to be taken seriously, but it does not justify the claim that a restoration of the role of Scripture as a historical embodiment of God's eternal Word will heal the dualism he has pointed out.


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