Thomas F. Torrance and the Church Fathers

A Reformed, Evangelical, and Ecumenical Reconstruction of the Patristic Tradition

Radcliff

• Publisher: Pickwick Publications
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781498227544
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

In this volume, Jason Radcliff examines 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"). This book 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 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 constructive achievements, both of which contribute to his ongoing ecumenical relevance.

Chapter 1

The Consensus Patrum

An Historical Overview

In the catholic church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all. For that is truly and properly universal, which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally.

Vincent of Lérins, Commonitory, 2.6.

Introduction

Theologians throughout the centuries have long considered the notion of the existence of some sort of consensual tradition existing amongst the church fathers. From the earliest centuries, The Fathers themselves sought to prove that their theological views were in line with antiquity.1 Tertullian pointed to the Rule of Faith.2 Basil the Great referred to an “unwritten tradition.”3 Athanasius of Alexandria defended the doctrine of the Trinity as “preserved by The Fathers.”4 Eventually, the church began to formulate creeds to encapsulate their view.5 Then, in their polemics, The Fathers began to compile florigelium in their works, in order to portray their viewpoint as in line with the Consensus Patrum.6 Finally, upon the dawn of the Reformation in the Western church, the Reformers sought to prove that they were in line with The Fathers and that the medieval Catholics were not.7

By the time of the Reformation Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants each viewed themselves as the community truly faithful to the classic patristic tradition. Accordingly, each group viewed The Fathers through the lens that they were the faithful continuation of the early church and read the patristic tradition in light of their current ecclesiastical situation, viewing their community as the faithful continuation of ancient Christianity. The Eastern churches tended to read the Consensus Patrum through the developments in Byzantine theology (especially Gregory Palamas). The Western churches, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, tended to emphasize Augustinian theological themes. Whereas the Protestant communities have continued emphasizing Augustine, the Roman Catholics filter Augustine through Aquinas.

This approach continued in Protestantism following the Reformation until nineteenth-century Protestant liberal theology.8 Following the time of Protestant liberalism, Protestants, whether liberal or evangelical, tended towards the view propagated by liberalism: that Protestantism bypassed the patristic era and returned to true, biblical Christianity. The ensuing neglect of not only patristic scholarship but also allowing The Fathers to undergird dogmatic theology was a denial of the way of the Reformers and it opened the door towards twentieth-century Protestant “retrievals” of The Fathers.9 Torrance, a Protestant in the Reformed and evangelical tradition, has much to offer as an excellent example of a largely successful retrieval.

This chapter will explore the different approaches to the Consensus Patrum within historical Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, and Protestantism by looking at the vision of various figures and their ideas in order to put Torrance’s project in its historical and ecclesiastical context. The most detailed analysis will be upon Protestantism because Torrance emerged out of this group and, indeed, was most faithful to the Protestant, especially Reformed and evangelical, approach to The Fathers. This chapter will argue that each group had its own lens through which they viewed The Fathers. The conclusion will be that Torrance’s notion of the consensus and the lens through which he views it emerges out of his own Protestant tradition, sharing many core traits and convictions with it, although there are substantial points of contact between Torrance and other figures as well.

The Consensus Patrum in Roman Catholicism

There have been a variety of components contributing to Roman Catholic readings of the consensus. However, three fundamentals have dominated their reading throughout history: (1) their conception of the consensus as quantitative, (2) their tendency to interpret The Fathers through Augustine and, eventually, Thomas Aquinas, and (3) their conception of the consensus as developing.

In the theology of Counter-Reformation, Roman Catholicism turned to the famous adage of Vincent of Lérins that:

In the catholic church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere (ubique), always (semper), by all (ab omnibus). For that is truly (vere) and properly (proprieque) universal (catholicum), which, as the name itself and the reason of the thing declare, comprehends all universally. This rule we shall observe if we follow universality, antiquity, consent. We shall follow universality if we confess that one faith to be true, which the whole church throughout the world confesses; antiquity, if we in no wise depart from those interpretations which it is manifest were notoriously held by our holy ancestors and fathers; consent, in like manner, if in antiquity itself we adhere to the consentient definitions and determinations of all, or at the least of almost all priests and doctors.10

For the Roman Catholics, the key to Vincent’s c...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: The Consensus Patrum
• Chapter 2: Protestant Evangelical “Discoveries” of The Fathers
• Chapter 3: T. F. Torrance’s Consensus Patrum: Catholic Themes
• Chapter 4: T. F. Torrance’s Consensus Patrum: Catholic Streams
• Chapter 5: The Ecumenical Relevance of T. F. Torrance’s Consensus Patrum
• Conclusion: An Assessment and Proposed Adoption of Torrance
• Bibliography
• Appendix: Patristic Sources Cited in Trinitarian Faith