Ground and Grammar of Theology
Overview
Will the theologian ever be reconciled with the scientist? T. F. Torrance discusses the implications for Christian theology of a transition from two great dualist cosmologies of the past (the Ptolemic and the Copernican-Newtonian) to a non-dualist Einsteinian cosmology, which might seek to integrate the assumptions of science and religion by elucidating the unity of being and form, substance and structure. Torrance maintains that the continuing dialogue between theological and natural sciences will benefit both fields of study.
- Six Lectures on Science and Theology
- Defense of Creation.
- Argument for a theological view of science.
Top Highlights
“All this seems to say two things. First, this vast universe is the kind of universe it is because it is necessary for the existence of man: somehow man and the universe are profoundly bracketed together.” (Page 3)
“Thus it is finally in our understanding of the trinitarian relations in God himself that we have the ground and grammar of a realist theology.” (Page xi)
“The idea of the contingent rationality or intelligibility of the universe” (Page 53)
“If Jesus Christ is the one place in space and time where we may really know the Father, then God the Father made known to us through him cannot be some static, immutable, impassible Deity utterly remote from us, but the dynamic, living God, whose Being is inherent in his Word and Act and whose Word and Act are inherent in the unity of his Being, and who has locked himself with us in our being and destiny in Jesus Christ our Brother.” (Pages 40–41)
“The idea of the freedom of the universe, that is, its contingent freedom” (Page 57)
- Title: The Ground and Grammar of Theology
- Author: Thomas F. Torrance
- Publisher: T & T Clark
- Publication Date: 1980
- Pages: 192
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).
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Gary Deddo
6/17/2021
ClaytonH
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