Resurrection, Apocalypse, and the Kingdom of Christ. Stanley S. MacLean

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      We then (chapters 2 and 3) trace the development of his eschatology through his sermons at Alyth and Beechgrove. Grounded on the resurrection and ascension of Christ, this eschatology is practical and apocalyptic as well as personal and historical. Yet we find that same tension between the present realization of the kingdom and its future consummation, between the revelation of the new creation and the hiddeness of it. This tension is established by the actualization of the kingdom through the cross of Christ, which, in Torrance’s words, is “still in the field.”

      Next, we examine Torrance’s eschatology in the context of the ecumenical movement (chapters 4 and 5), as it takes shape through his work (1948–63) for the Commission of Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches. Here eschatology is vital to the nature of the church as the Body of Christ in time and space. Once again, we find a tension between the present, hidden realization of the kingdom and its future, full manifestation. The church is caught in the middle of this tension, for it represents the new creation and the new humanity. Its true nature (holiness and unity), however, is hidden in Christ, waiting to be revealed with his final parousia. There is an eschatological fulfillment of the Body through the resurrection of Christ and, correlative to the ascension, a teleological growth of the Body towards fullness (pleroma) in Christ. The church’s eschatological reality is manifested in her sacraments, her ministry, and mission.

      The book concludes with an overview of the results of this study, a look at the lasting significance of Torrance’s eschatology, as well as some critical observations of it.

      This book will show that Torrance’s early theology is an imaginative attempt at recapturing the eschatological orientation of the early church. This means eschatology is not viewed as an appendix to the Christian faith. Instead every element of this faith is given an eschatological cast. The key is Torrance’s Christology. Eschatology is a component of this Christology. Eschatology, he can say, is about the parousia (coming-

       presence) of Jesus Christ. For Torrance, there is no “delay of the parousia,” since the parousia includes Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascension, and second advent as “one extended event.” Eschatology is central to the church because, as the Body of Christ, it participates in Christ’s death, resurrection, and movement toward fulfillment. The church is really the new humanity in concentrated form.

      At the same time, one should not expect to find a comprehensive, systematic treatment of Torrance’s eschatology in the following pages. We must bear in mind that Torrance did not leave us with a full-fledged eschatology. Much of his thinking on the subject was occasional; much of it was inchoate.

This study is more historical-descriptive than analytical-descriptive. Its primary aim is to demonstrate that Torrance was a first-rate eschatologist, a point that has scarcely been recognized.16 A secondary aim is to show that Torrance’s eschatology has been shaped—though not determined—by Torrance’s historical context.

It is time to say a word about my method. I heeded Bruce McCormack’s advice at the end of his intellectual biography on Barth. There he states that, “the most pressing need in contemporary theology is a historical one.”17 This is certainly true in regard to Torrance’s eschatology, since it is occasioned by some of the greatest events of the century.

      Rankin’s study, “Carnal Union in Christ,” is the first attempt to understand Torrance’s theology in terms of its historical background. The great benefit of this work is that it helps us to see the role that Barth, Calvin, and Athanasius played in the genetic development of Torrance’s concept of “carnal union.” However, Rankin’s thesis falls short in giving us a clear picture of the historical context of Torrance’s theology. It gives too much attention to the theologian’s unpublished papers (many of which have been published), while giving too little to his historical context. Lastly—and sadly—“Carnal Union in Christ” completely ignores Torrance’s eschatology.

      Alister McGrath’s book T. F. Torrance: An Intellectual Biography (Edinburgh, 1999) represents the second attempt to understand Torrance’s theology in its historical context. McGrath’s book shed much needed light on Torrance’s early career. However, his research in this area is far more biographical than theological, and far from complete. He fails even to mention Torrance’s wartime sermons, which constitute The Apocalypse Today (1960). His treatment of Torrance’s ecumenical work in the 1950s is spotty; though to his credit he does explain that a major part of this work involved the recovery of the eschatological element in the church.

      Historical research on Torrance involves a broad range of sources, including unpublished articles, lectures, sermons, correspondence, and memoirs. The complete works of T. F. Torrance, along with his personal library, are now part of Special Collections (archives) at Princeton Theological Seminary. This collection includes all of Torrance’s sermons from his years as a Church of Scotland minister at the Barony Parish Church in Alyth and at the Beechgrove Parish Church, Aberdeen. These sermons are the bases for chapter 2 and parts of chapter 3.

1. To this class we can add the unpublished dissertations of Bryan Gray, “Theology as Science: An Examination of the Theological Methodology of Thomas F. Torrance”; Dennis Sansom, “Scientific Theology: An Examination of the Methodology of Thomas Forsyth Torrance”; Douglas Trook, “The Unified Christocentric Field: Toward a Time-Eternity Relativity Model for Theological Hermeneutics in the Onto-Relational Theology of Thomas F. Torrance”; F. Leron Shults, “An Open Systems Model for Adult Learning in Theological Inquiry”; Jason Hing-Kau Yeung, “Being and Knowing: An Examination of T. F. Torrance’s Christological Science”; Kurt Richardson, “Trinitarian Reality: The Interrelation of Uncreated and Created Being in the Thought of Thomas F. Torrance.”

2. Lee, Living in Union with Christ, 308.

3. Orr, The Progress of Doctrine, 345.

4. Hodgson and King, Christian Theology, 275.

5. Moltmann, The Theology Hope, 16.

6. For a broad survey of Christian eschatology, see Hebblethwaite’s The Christian Hope. A helpful guide to modern eschatology, including Roman Catholic forms, is La Due’s The Trinity Guide to Eschatology. Moltmann’s The Coming of God contains a trenchant, though tendentious, survey of German eschatology in the first half of the twentieth century, 3–22. For the latter half of the century, and for a sample of Dutch eschatology, see Runia, “Eschatology in the Second Half of the Twentieth Century,” 105–35. The only author from this group, however, that even mentions Torrance is Brian Hebblethwaite.

7. Johannes Weiss, Jesus’ Proclamation of the Kingdom of God; Albert Schweitzer, The Quest of the Historical Jesus.

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