 Book Reviews Thomas F. Torrance: An Intellectual Biography By Alister E. McGrath Reviewed by Gerrit Scott Dawson May/June 2000 |
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It is a great gift to the Church that one of today’s most popular theologians has written the first biography of Thomas F. Torrance, the 20th century’s finest British theologian. Alister McGrath’s clear introduction to the work of T. F. Torrance can return to evangelicals one of their best allies. Throughout his long career, the prolific Torrance has gathered up the reflections of the Church through the centuries and presented its key doctrines with fresh urgency. He has probed the Incarnation, the Triunity of God, the nature of revelation and the relationship between science and theology as few others in any age. Such a passionate, informed and faithful voice is needed now more than ever as evangelicals struggle to articulate in contemporary language what the Church has always believed and proclaimed. In McGrath’s “intellectual biography” we meet briefly Torrance’s missionary parents, and glimpse photos of the family in China. McGrath introduces us to two shining figures in Torrance’s theological formation, H. R. Mackintosh and Karl Barth, touches on Torrance’s service as a military chaplain and parish minister, and shows us the path that led to his appointment as Professor of Christian Dogmatics at New College, University of Edinburgh. The second half of the book considers Torrance’s expansive body of writing, and McGrath focuses mainly on Torrance’s development of “scientific theology.” By this, Torrance means that all theology must begin not in human priorities or ideas but out of a center in God himself. Science is a response to the “givenness” of nature. Good science always approaches the object of its study with a certain degree of humility. So good theology approaches the object of its study, God, on the terms that are given – God’s self-revelation in Christ. Theological doctrines, then, are “to be seen as the proper outcome of scientific engagement with the reality of God, as God is disclosed in Christ,” and as Christ is mediated to us by the Holy Spirit through the Scriptures. I am deeply grateful for this book, yet, I have some reservations. McGrath’s style is clear but workman-like. He distills Torrance’s complex ideas to make them accessible, but in the process too much of Torrance’s passion and theological poetry are lost. While McGrath concedes the narrow focus of this biography and announces his plan for further volumes, I couldn’t help feeling that this first piece should have contained a more vigorous look at Torrance’s work on the Trinity and Incarnation. And, to understand a theologian who has recognized the relational nature of the Triune God as few others have, we really needed some allusion to the central role of family in the life of Tom Torrance. His parents, his wife, his children and his theologian brothers have all contributed to his insights. Readers wishing an introduction to Torrance’s theology would be well served to read first A Passion for Christ (Lenoir, N.C.: PLC Publications, 1999), both for theological and biographical information. The fire in Torrance’s writing is best caught through reading his own words. Then McGrath’s volume will be a welcome companion. Gerrit Scott Dawson is senior pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Lenoir, N.C. |
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