Reality and Scientific Theology
Overview
In this book, T. F. Torrance argues for a rigorous scientific theology under the double constraint of the reality of God and the reality of the world of space and time. Careful attention is given to the common commitment of theological and natural science to objective knowledge, and the deeply natural relation between knowledge of God the Creator and knowledge of the world he has made. He stresses the stratified structure of theology and the need for a radical simplification and unification of Christian doctrine. Is theology the “science of God”, and is it concerned with objective knowledge like natural science? Is there a natural theology and how is it related to knowledge of God through divine relation? How is the community of faith within which dogmatic theology arises related to the social coefficient of scientific inquiry? What is the place of mysticism and of art in theology? Does theology have a special notion of truth, and does it have its own inner logic and structure? These are some of the main questions which this book seeks to answer.
- Title: Reality and Scientific Theology
- Author: Thomas F. Torrance
- Publisher: Wipf and Stock
- Print Publication Date: 2001
- Logos Release Date: 2018
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subject: Religion and science
- ISBNs: 9781579108168, 1579108164
- Resource ID: LLS:RLTYSCNTFCTH
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T02:44:26Z
Thomas F. Torrance (August 30,1913–December 2, 2007) was a Protestant Christian theologian and professor of Christian dogmatics for 27 years at the University of Edinburgh. Torrance was influential in the dialogue between science and theology.
He began studying in Edinburgh in 1931, focusing on classics and philosophy. At that time his own realist views of philosophy, theology, and morality started to develop, and they continued to do so as he moved to the study of theology at the Faculty of Divinity in 1934. From 1939 to 1940 Torrance studied at Oriel College, Oxford. He was ordained as minister on March 20, 1940.
He has authored several works, including Divine and Contingent Order, Ground and Grammar of Theology, and The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons. Besides writing many books and articles, Torrance also translated several hundred theological writings into English from other languages, including the thirteen-volume, six-million-word Church Dogmatics of the Swiss theologian Karl Barth (co-edited with G.W. Bromiley).