Thomas F. Torrance and the Church Fathers

An analysis of Scottish theologian T.F. Torrance’s understanding of the teachings of the Church Fathers and how they intersect with the Reformed tradition. In this examination of T.F. Torrance’s reading of the Church Fathers, Radcliff explores how Torrance reconstructs the patristic tradition, producing a Reformed, evangelical, and ecumenical version of the Consensus Patrum (“Consensus of The Fathers”). Thomas F. Torrance and the Church Fathers investigates how Torrance uniquely understands the Fathers and the Reformers to be mutually informing and how, as such, his approach involves significant changes to both standard readings of the Fathers and to Torrance’s own Reformed Evangelical tradition. Torrance’s approach is distinctive in its Christocentric rootedness in the primary theme of the Nicene homoousion (“of one essence [with the Father]”) and its champion, Athanasius of Alexandria. The book explores Torrance’s inherently broad ecclesiology and his constructive achievements, both of which contribute to his ongoing ecumenical relevance.