Incarnation: The Person and Life of Christ [Hardcover]

Thomas F. Torrance (Author), Robert T. Walker (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 31, 2008

The late Thomas F. Torrance has been called "the greatest Reformed theologian since Karl Barth" and "the greatest British theologian of the twentieth century" by prominent voices in the academy. His work has profoundly shaped contemporary theology in the English-speaking world. This first of two volumes comprises Thomas Torrance's lectures delivered to students in Christian Dogmatics on Christology at New College, Edinburgh, from 1952 to 1978 and amounts to the most comprehensive presentation of Torrance's understanding of the incarnation ever published. In eight chapters these expertly edited lectures highlight Torrance's distinctive belief that the object of our theological study--Jesus Christ--actively gives himself to us in order that we may know him, as well as unpack Torrance's well-developed understanding of our union with Christ and how it impacts the Christian life. Also included are his reflections on the in-breaking of Christ's kingdom and its intense conflict with and victory over evil. Decidedly readable and filled with some of Torrence's most influential thought, this will be an important volume for scholars, professors and students of Christian theology for decades to come.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"No more books by Thomas F. Torrance were needed to confirm his standing among English-speaking theologians, or to display his gifts as the most readable and challenging Scottish theologian of all time (not forgetting John Duns Scotus, for whom he had such esteem). None of the books that appeared in his lifetime bears in such a focused way on the person of Christ and his significance for salvation. With his almost unique command of the biblical as well as of the patristic sources, clarity of expression, passion for orthodoxy, and unmistakable (though unobtrusive) personal faith, Professor Torrance still has something new to teach us." (Fergus Kerr, OP, FRSE, Honorary Fellow, School of Divinity, University of Edinburgh)

"I salute with all my strength the publication of the late Professor T. F. Torrance's lectures on Christology. The doctrine of Christ is the heart of his far-reaching and unified theological teaching which has inspired so many theologians from all traditions, not least from the Orthodox East where he has been especially appreciated. Torrance is a Reformed theologian whose work builds on the classical, patristic foundations of Christian theology and articulates a truly ecumenical theology. His theological legacy is an inestimable treasure which lays the ground for ecumenical reconstruction and reconciliation. May his memory be eternal!" (George Dragas, professor of patrology, Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology, Massachusetts)

"The publication of T. F. Torrance's lectures on Christology is a welcome event that will make available to a wider public important material that impacted generations of students at New College, Edinburgh. This volume offers a clear and sustained account of the ecumenical Christology that Torrance defended so robustly in his teaching. We are much indebted to Robert Walker for his skill and dedication in carrying out extensive editorial work on the original typescript." (David Fergusson, Professor of Divinity, New College, University of Edinburgh)

"Nowhere else in T. F. Torrance's writings will you find the kind of synthesis of the entire sweep of his dogmatics as you will find in this volume and its companion volume, Atonement. Everyone concerned with constructive systematic theology in general, or with Torrance's theology in particular, will want to acquire and read these books. They reveal the heart and soul of Torrance's theological vision." (Elmer M. Colyer, Professor of Historical Theology, Stanley Professor of Wesley Studies, University of Dubuque Theological Seminary, and author of How to Read T. F. Torrance: Understanding His Trinitarian & Scientific Theology)

"No theologian in the latter half of the twentieth century devoted more attention to the mystery of the incarnation than T. F. Torrance. These magnificent posthumously published lectures give us the most sustained and rounded account of his views that we will ever have. In depth of learning, profundity of insight and purity of faith, nothing comparable has appeared from the pen of an English-speaking theologian since John Henry Newman. This is a towering work that deserves to be read throughout the ecumenical churches, to whose renewal and imperative reunion it promises to make a vital contribution." (George Hunsinger, Hazel Thompson McCord Professor of Systematic Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary)

"No other book I know in English does what this superb volume does in presenting with absolute clarity the full classical doctrine of the universal church on the person and work of Christ, bringing together biblical, patristic and Reformation perspectives in a rich harmony. And, as those who heard these lectures for themselves testify, the effect of this exposition is a deepened love of the incarnate Son and thanksgiving for his inexpressible gift. This book is a wonderful legacy from one of the very greatest of English-language systematic theologians." (Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury)

"T. F. Torrance stands as one of the finest English-speaking theologians of modern times. Here we have the nearest thing to the systematic theology he had always hoped to write. Scripturally rooted, philosophically acute and always alert to the theological issues that really matter, this book cannot fail to inspire anyone who cares about constructive Christian thought in our day." (Jeremy Begbie, Thomas Langford Research Professor of Theology, Duke University)

Review

"Nowhere else in T. F. Torrance's writings will you find the kind of synthesis of the entire sweep of his dogmatics as you will find in this volume and its companion volume, Atonement. Everyone concerned with constructive systematic theology in general, or with Torrance's theology in particular, will want to acquire and read these books. They reveal the heart and soul of Torrance's theological vision."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 371 pages
• Publisher: IVP Academic (October 31, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830828915
• ISBN-13: 978-0830828913
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #272,649 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Torrance brings Reformed Theology to Life September 21, 2009

By Joel L. Watts VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

The book was completed posthumously by the author's nephew, but includes an Author's Introduction, perhaps Torrance's last written word to the world. In it, he describes in humble language his resume, but it is noticeable, however, his closeness to his mentor, Karl Barth.

The editor gives a forward, an outline of the book, and an introduction in which he gives you general topics, focusing on Torrance's theology and methods. In describing Torrance's view of the importance of the deity of Christ, Walker writes,

"Because Jesus Christ is God, he not only makes God known but what he does is the word of God. his word and deed is the word and deed of God. His love and compassion is the love and compassion of the Father. When he forgives that is the very forgiveness of God. This is likewise a point on which Torrance lays immense stress, the identity between the act of Jesus and the act of the Father. What he does is what God does. Torrance would often say, `There is no God behind the back of Jesus.' In other words, there is no other God than the we see in Jesus and no act of God other than the act of Jesus. The word and act of Jesus and of the Father are identical. The deity of Jesus is therefore the guarantee that the reconciliation we see and receive in him is the reconciliation of God himself."

This is the premise of Torrance's work, the summary of his lecture. For Torrance, everything must start and end with this first precept. It is how the Gospels begin and end, and for him, the point of it all. The editor does a masterful job of summarizing the outline of Torrance's work, finishing his introduction with a brief note on his adaptation of the author's lectures and handouts to book form....

Moving into the first chapter, we encounter Torrance through his own words, and with little imagination, we are able to hear him as he speaks to his students a generation ago. His delivery style is less that ivory tower scholar, more so pastor, preacher, teacher and believer. He is not harsh, but determined to enforce that it is only through Christ that we can start to examine the Scriptures. Torrance is deeply respectful of the subject, speaking not just to students of the ministry, but to the lay person who has a rich love of the doctrine of the Incarnation - of course, if you do not already have the love of the Incarnation, it is quite possible that you will after reading this book.) It is lectures, as I mentioned, and hand outs given to students:

"Faith would be better described then as the kind of perception appropriate to perceiving a divine act in history, an eternal act in time. So that faith is appropriate both to the true perception of historical facts, and also to the true perception of God's action in history. Nor is it the perception of history by itself, divorced from revelation, but it is the way we are given within history to perceive God's acts in History, and that means that faith is the obedience of our minds to the mystery of Christ, who is God and man in the historical Jesus. What is clearly of paramount importance here is the holding together of the historical and the theological in our relation to Christ."

In making his introduction (the first chapter is entitled, Introduction to Christology), he rarely quotes from others, but focuses instead on Scripture, first, and the logic of theology, second. Accompanied by brief footnotes and solid end notes, Torrance does not deviate from his goal of introducing his students, and us, to Christology as the primary goal of his theology. It is in the end notes, however, in which we see the teacher in Torrance give away to the professor, moving from an insistence on the holiness of the witnesses to allowing for certain improvements of collective memory. It is also in the end notes that Torrance mentions his opponents, including von Harnack, Weiss, A. Schweitzer, and Bultmann. These end notes move the generality of the lectures to the specialist tongue. Even in the end notes, however, as Torrance confronts various 2oth century views of criticism, meeting them, and offering criticism of his own - approaching it scientifically instead of theologically, he is able to maintain a satisfactory hold on the central story of the New Testament.

Reading through the book, one must notice the near absence of secondary suppor of his positions. He doesn't appeal to the Fathers nor the Reformers, nor does he do exegesis of the original text. To be sure, he does quote from various people, and explain central words from the original languages, but that is the extent of his specialization. He presents a clear and concise, a biblical expounding of the biblical doctrine of the Incarnation, relying on the text and the witnesses through that text, itself.

In chapter 2, the author handles the most important doctrine of the Christian faith, that of the Incarnation, with a 'scientific dogmatic' style which found it's genesis among the Reformers. It does the same with the Virgin Birth in chapter 3. In both chapters, he doesn't out of hand dismiss arguments against them, but shows that a purely scientific approach to these doctrines, especially the latter, does a violent injustice to them. As a new explorer of Reformed theology, I found his drive to connect Israel and the Incarnation as one which does justice to the Incarnation in ways few have achieved. In chapter 3, while explaining both the Election of Christ and that of Mary, Torrance finds a way to face head on the doctrine of eternal pre-destination, not by great scriptural exegesis, but through the examples of Christ and Mary.

In the fourth chapter, Torrance examines masterfully the continuous union in the historical life and obedience of Jesus. He speaks/writes about the mediatorship, and the eternal election of Christ to this position, dealing only slightly with the substitutory atoning work of the Cross. (He will, I assume, bring about a full examination of the doctrine of Atonement in his second and final volume.) The author then moves to discuss both the life and faithfulness of the Son towards the father and towards humanity. In closing this chapter, he focuses on bringing, methodically, the kingdom and the atonement through the violence of the Apostles and thus the Church. Here, Torrance leaves the dry field of biblical studies and theology to take the adventurous path to the Church through grand and powerful story (re)telling.

In chapter 5, Torrance meets head-on the mystery of the union of God and man in the person of Christ. He does make room, throughout this book, that Christ was not always seen as the Son of God, even by the Gospel Witnesses. Torrance writes,

Jesus himself kept his messianic secret as God and man until the very end, unfolding it only in his actions as he advanced to the completion of his mission from the Father, but once his actions were complete, the Spirit was given in fullness and through him all that he had hitherto declared in a form necessarily veiled, shone out in its unveiled significance."

He then spends much of the chapter speaking about mysterion, prothesis, and koinonia explaining them as revealed in doctrine by New Testament standards.

In chapter 6, after discussing the hypostatic union, Torrance moves on the Patristic Doctrine of Christ (to be followed by the Doctrine of Christ as found in the Reformers). Here, he provides fodder for his Patristic readers as he discusses the differing strands of theology found among the early church. He is not fearful to criticize Tradition, finding faults and stating the solution. It is also here that we find the reason for his two-volume work,

"But whenever incarnation (this work) and atonement (his next volume) are not properly and fully related, there is an inevitable tendency toward a conception of the two natures of Christ in which the two natures are not seen in their unity in the one mediator."

He does offer a critique of Chalcedon which (re)places the emphasis of that Council on the birth of Christ with the biblical emphasis on the entire Incarnation. He finishes this section continuing the critique of the Council in 451, ending with a very critical statement on the logos Christianity, began by Justin and formulated and practiced until the Reformation, which removes the emphasis on the historical Jesus. He sites and credits, Irenaeus, Melito, Athanasius and Cyril as keeping, at least somewhat, emphasis on the historical Jesus. He then moves to a brief description of how it was safeguarded for future generations.

In the third part of this chapter, Torrance states, and then qualifies that statement, that the Reformers turned past the medieval, scholastic, understanding and formulation of the Godhead and the words used to describe it, to a more early Patristic understanding. He writes/speaks,

"With the Reformation there took place a decided change in the whole doctrine of God, in a move away from the Latin stoic conception of God as deus sive natura to the living God of the biblical revelation, who actively intervenes in history, who confronts us directly in Jesus Christ through his Word and Spirit, and who acts upon us personally."

He spends the rest of the section discussing the differences between the Lutherans and the Calvinists during the Reformation, showing the weaknesses and strengths of both positions.

In chapter 7, Torrance spends a brief time on the human situation as revealed by Christ through the Incarnation. This chapter, as recommended by the Editor, must stand as a completion of sorts to chapter 4. In this chapter, he examines the entrenchment and confrontation of Evil.

As an addendum, the Editor gives us a work from early in Torrance's career dealing exclusively with Eschatology. He notes that it is often coarse and harsh, and a bit more technical that the preceding lectures, but one which the editor felt would fit well with the end notes.

I have to wonder why this book did not make more of an impact among the Reformed in the blogosphere. I am not Reformed, but find such a measure of the strength of truth in Torrance's words that I wonder why people - or perhaps Americans - have either not discovered or forgotten altogether, this Reformed author's work. Read more ›

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book Which Will Become A Classic November 12, 2009

By A. Morgan

Format:Hardcover

This is volume (and the companion volume on the Atonement) is made up from the notes of the late Thomas Torrance, comprising of over 25 years of lectures given to students in Christology at New College Edinburgh.

Edited into the final book form by Robert Walker (and Torrance's nephew) it reveals the deep and rich thinking of this great modern theologian. Through this book you encounter a level of interaction with the topic of the personhood and life of Christ rarely seen. Lecturers can (and most do) just regurgitate other scholars views and thinking giving overviews and comparisons, peppered with a little of their own thoughts. Reading this book, you realize that this was not Torrance's method of teaching. He lectured from the depth of his own thinking and study, which makes him original. Yet it is not `original' thinking in the sense of new, or divergent ideas that take you on strange and unfamiliar paths. No, it is rooted in scripture and orthodoxy and ultimately in Christ himself, God who became man. And so, on another level it is not original thinking. Torrance's skill is to draw you into the ancient, established and eternal truths of Christ, but he does it in such a griping way as he weaves through each topic and chapter like a master weaver. A very simple and brief example of this is seen when Torrance writes:

"Any Christological approach that starts from the man Jesus, from the historical Jesus, and tries to pass over to God and so to link human nature to God, is utterly impossible. In fact it is essentially a wrong act: for it runs directly counter to God's act of grace which has joined God to humanity in Christ.... All attempts to understand Jesus Christ by starting off with the historical Jesus utterly fail; they are unable to pass from man to God and moreover to pass from man to God in such a way as not to leave man behind altogether, and in so doing they deny the humanity of Jesus."

It's almost poetry!

This is not a book for beginners. It is definitely hard going and it's a book that you need to work at. It will stretch your thinking and your brain. But, if you are willing to make the investment of time and energy, you will reap a wonderful return in terms of understanding the person and life of Christ and the incarnation. Read more ›

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Must read for serious Christians December 28, 2010

By Emily Joan Schmidt

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Robert T Walker's understanding and editing of Torrance's lectures made his book exciting and easy to read and understand. I look forward to reading the book on Atonement.

0 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book Fast service February 12, 2010

By DUANE D. WATTS

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

Great book. Unique treatise on the Trinity, and scripture.
Good fast service. Book arrived in new condition.