Thomas Torrance's Mediations and Revelation

Titus Chung

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781409405702
• eBook ISBN: 9781351879019
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christianity

Could a work of revelation be justified as a viable theological project today, especially in light of some modern sceptics questioning its validity as a doctrinal discipline? Engaging with the work of theologians such as Karl Barth, Paul Tillich and Colin Gunton, Chung explores and justifies revelation and mediation in the theology of T.F.Torrance and argues that Torrance's distinctiveness is able to contribute significantly to current debate and bring a fresh perspective to the theological landscape.

PART I

Chapter 1

The Mediation of Christ

As Part I of the book, Chapter 1 aims at Torrance’s thought on Jesus Christ as the revelation and mediation of God. The task here is twofold. First, it attempts to examine Torrance’s claim that Jesus Christ is the sole Mediator of God, and it is in and through him that one locates the fulfilment of divine revelation and mediation. We will begin our analysis first by discussing the mediation of Israel. We intend to argue that as Israel to Torrance is the womb of the incarnation, it is through her the normative pattern of divine revelation and mediation is grounded before its final fulfilment in the coming of the Son of God. We will proceed to discuss Torrance’s understanding of the nature of the Word made flesh. We attempt to demonstrate that the concept of hypostatic union becomes for Torrance the undergirding principle to articulate Christ as the epitome of the union and communion of divine and human action, and in him the two-way movement of the normative pattern of revelation and mediation finds its fulfilment. Second, in our analysis of the mediation of Israel we would argue that Torrance indeed possesses a rich understanding of multiple mediations. The argument is meant to be an anticipation of a fuller study especially when we come to Chapters 5 and 6 of the book. It nevertheless serves to prepare the stage and demonstrate the theological thrust of Torrance with regard to the importance of multiple mediations and the indispensability of the media of divine revelation.

The Mediation of Israel

Frederick the Great of Germany once asked his private doctor this question. ‘Zimmermann, can you give me a single proof of the existence of God?’ Dr. Zimmermann replied, ‘Your Majesty, the Jews!’¹ To Torrance the reply is not merely about the proof of God’s existence, more importantly it is about the great mystery of God especially in relation to his wonderful providence in the world. The persistent existence of the Jews testifies to the intent and act of God in the world. It is God’s deliberate work to set ‘the Jews before us even to-day in order to teach us something that we cannot learn in any other way.’² To Torrance the selection of Israel by God underlines the singular purpose of mediating God’s selfrevelation in the world in order that the salvation of humanity is made possible through the later coming of the incarnate Son of God, Jesus Christ. Torrance says, ‘In his desire to reveal himself and make himself knowable to mankind, he selected one small race out of the whole mass of humanity, and subjected it to intensive interaction and dialogue with him in such a way that he might mould and shape this people in the service of his self-revelation,’³ and ‘out of the womb of Israel, Jesus—the Jew from Nazareth.’⁴ If God may be known through the Jews, the question inevitably is how could it be possible? The question essentially is about the nature of mediation; about the characteristic of Israel being the medium of God’s self-disclosure in human history. To answer the question, Torrance uses ‘tool’ as an analogy. He asks, ‘What are the tools we need in order to grasp the content of divine revelation?’⁵ Torrance continues,

What I have in mind here are not physical or electronic tools but conceptual tools. Really to get to know something we need to find the appropriate way in which to grasp it and shape what we grasp in mind—that is to say, what we need are adequate modes of thought and speech. The need for conceptual tools of this kind is particularly pressing when we have to do with something radically new which we cannot understand by assimilating it into the framework of what we already know, and for which old patterns of thought and speech are not only inadequate but can prove quite false. Quite new disclosures of nature require new modes of thought and speech to match them. That is why again and again as scientific inquiry opens up new ground and quite unanticipated discoveries are made, it has to forge new mental instruments and invent new symbolic languages, and why if they are really matched to the hitherto unknown aspects of nature they open out the possibility of still further discovery.⁶

And,

I believe that this applies no less to our knowledge of God. If we are to know him and speak about him in a way that is appropriate to him, we need to have fitting modes of thought and speech, adequate conceptual forms and structures …. Let us consider God’s historical relations with the people of Israel in just this light.⁷

The tools Torrance refers to are the matrix of ideas, concepts, categories, linguistic patterns, forms, structures and the whole of other human facilities that could be appropriated to articulate the radically new encounter with God.⁸ To Torrance the uniqueness of Israel is that the matter of forging the appropriate tools does not fall solely on her although her participation is crucial and constitutive in the process. It lies fully and finally in God who moulds out of Israel an appropriate matrix of articulation and expression that would serve the cause. Using Jeremiah’s analogy to underline the necessary moulding process, Torrance says that it is like the potter at work with his clay.⁹ Torrance attempts to bring forth two points from the analogy. He wants to underline the fact that human thought by its sinful nature is unusable for the purpose of mediating divine revelation, and the moulding process is painfully unavoidable if it is to become an appropriate medium of God’s revelation. He says that through the historical struggles with God, ‘Israel teaches us, then, that divine revelation cuts against the grain of our naturalistic existence and calls into question the naturalistic pattern of human thought.’¹⁰ However, the painstaking process of transformation is not in itself the end to Torrance. What is important at the end of the moulding is the emerging of divinely ordained structures of thought and speech through which God could mediate his self-revelation in human history. Torrance says, ‘Among these permanent structures let me refer to the Word and Name of God, to revelation, mercy, truth, holiness, to messiah, saviour, to prophet, priest and king, father, son, servant, to covenant, sacrifice, forgiveness, reconciliation, redemption, atonement, and those basic patterns of worship which we find set out in the ancient liturgy or in the Psalms.’¹¹ Torrance underlines that these structures of articulation and expression take incipient form in the course of the history of Israel. They ‘constitute the essential furniture of our knowledge of God even in and through Jesus.’¹² Without them the significance of the incarnation of the Word ‘could not have been grasped—Jesus himself would have remained a bewildering enigma.’¹³ Torrance says,

It was just because Jesus, born from above as he was, was nevertheless produced through the womb of Israel, mediated to us through the matrix of those conceptual and linguistic patterns, that he could be recognised as Son of God and Saviour and his crucifixion could be interpreted as atoning sacrifice for sin. It was because God mediated his revelation to mankind in that patient, informing way through the history of Israel and within the interpretative framework of its relation with God in salvation and worship, that people were able in that context to know God in Jesus and enter into communion with him, and to proclaim him to the world.¹⁴

The importance of the mediatory patterns of articulation and expression, or the appropriate tools, which God has forged in Israel, cannot be undermined. Torrance asserts that they play a crucial role in our understanding of God’s self-revelation in Jesus. In order to substantiate his argument, Torrance draws our attention to some modern theology that fails to recognise the important mediatorial role these authoritative patterns play. Torrance remarks,

We have tried to understand Jesus within the patterns of our own various cultures so that in the West and the East we have steadily gentilised our image of Jesus. We have tended to abstract Jesus from his setting in the context of Israel and its vicarious mission in regard to divine revelation …. That is to say, we detach patterns of thought from their embodiment in Israel as they presented in the Old Testament Scriptures, or even the New Testament, and then schematise them to our own culture …. It is not difficult, as Albert Schweitzer found, to show that, when we seek to interpret Jesus like that within the conditioning of our European culture, we inevitably lose him.¹⁵

Torrance’s point is basic but important. He is sounding a caution that in our attempt to make Jesus relevant to modern ways of thought, we are in fact obscuring him because the tools that we use are not of God’s choice.¹⁶ The truism to Torrance is, there are no other ways except the media which God has ordained—the authoritative conceptual and linguistic structures forged in the history of Israel—if our understanding of God’s self-revelation is to be authentic.

The importance of appropriating the right tools of conceptual articulation and linguistic structure is manifest in Torrance’s thought. If the ‘tools’ could be said to be the form, the being to Torrance is as important a matter in mediating divine revelation. The crux is that the whole enterprise of revelation and mediation is not merely a business of cognition; it also involves, affects and transforms the whole life and being of Israel. Torrance says that it ‘penetrated human existence in the particular life and history of one people elected as the instrument for the actualisation of God’s revelation in humanity and separated as a holy nation in whose midst God dwelt in an intimated way through the presence of His Word.’¹⁷ In this regard, we would suggest the form and being in Torrance’s mind are intrinsically related to one another, and they constitute the totality of mediation. In order to have a better grasp of Torrance’s thought, the issue has to be looked at within the framework of covenantal relation between God and Israel. As the current section concerns primarily the mediation of Israel, the limited compass forbids an exhaustive account of Torrance’s concept of covenant, except to briefly touch on the essential elements that are related to the discussion.

Torrance accentuates that the covenant established between God and Israel testifies to the grace of God.¹⁸ Although the tedious process of forging the appropriate tools is an act of union and communion between divine initiation and Israel’s responsive participation, it is carried out within the sphere of covenantal relation that indubitably points to the grace of God. The covenant is ‘the intimate structure of family relations’ of which God may ‘increasingly imprint himself upon the generations of Israel in such a way that it could become the instrument of his great purpose of revelation.’¹⁹ However, the selection and shaping of Israel within the covenantal relation is not the end in itself. The intent of God is far from being restricted to the people of Israel. To Torrance the covenantal relation between God and Israel is ‘the one covenant of grace which embraced the whole of creation and constituted its inner bond and ground, and therefore carried in it the promise of a final universalisation of God’s revelation in which His Word would bring light and salvation to all the peoples of mankind and indeed a new earth.’²⁰ That is to say, within the covenantal framework, ‘[God] took Israel into his hands in this unique way in order to provide the actual means, a whole set of spiritual tools, appropriate forms of understanding, worship and expression, through which apprehension of God could be made accessible to human beings and knowledge of God could take root in the soil of humanity.’²¹ Thus, when becoming aware of the covenantal responsibility, Torrance claims that Israel constitutes a worshipping community and opens herself towards God. Torrance underlines that the same Word who is the Creator of all things is at work in Israel to create ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Abbreviations
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• PART I
• PART II
• Conclusion
• Index