T. F. Torrance and Eastern Orthodoxy

Theology in Reconciliation

Matthew Baker, Todd Speidell, Matthew Baker, Todd Speidell

• Publisher: Wipf and Stock
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN:
  9781498208130
  9781498208154
• eBook ISBN:
  9781498208147
• Topic: Theologie & Religion
• Subtopic: Christliche Kirche

A properly ecumenical theology, T. F. Torrance believed, points the church to Christ as the only source and reality of its own unity. Its only hope for unity must be discovered in him and unveiled to the church, rather than pieced together and manufactured through ecumenical slogans and well-meaning intentions. Acting on this belief, Torrance initiated an international dialogue of Reformed and Orthodox Churches, which culminated when the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Orthodox Church issued a groundbreaking joint statement of agreement concerning the Trinity in 1991, a move beyond the filioque controversy that has divided East and West for a millennium. The current volume on T. F. Torrance and Eastern Orthodoxy continues the theological and ecclesial work of the reintegration of Western and Eastern traditions on a classical patristic foundation.

Part I

Historical Background

and Memoirs

Chapter 1

Interview with Protopresbyter George Dion. Dragas regarding T. F. Torrance

Matthew Baker [hereafter MB]: Father George, I’ve been blessed to have known you for a number of years now, during which time we have enjoyed many conversations together about a common interest: your beloved friend and teacher, Thomas Torrance. Please tell our readers a little about yourself, where you’re from, and when and how you came to know Professor Thomas Torrance.

GDD: Matthew, thank you for facilitating this interview, which is very important for me, because Professor Torrance, of blessed memory, has been much more than a friend and teacher to me. He was a mentor, a guide, a supporter, a caring father, a key person in my life and career, whose memory is always alive in my heart and mind and to whom I owe a great deal for what I am today. If I write my memoirs or biography, as students and friends have been urging me to do, T. F. Torrance will be shown to be my great companion and benefactor in many pivotal circumstances and events. I will restrain myself in answering this interview in a detailed fashion, as I would have liked, and stick to your questions, answering them succinctly and focusing on Torrance himself and his extraordinary person and work, rather than on what he means to me personally.

As regards myself, I was born and raised in Athens, Greece, where I received my first education in science, and developed my theological interests and aspirations. At a crucial moment in my life I went to Scotland, basically to learn English, which I had found impossible to learn in Greece. But thanks to a scholarship I received, through the support of an unexpected (really, God-sent) philhellene friend, Principal Norman Porteous, Professor of Old Testament, Hebrew and Semitic languages, I ended up not only learning English, but also earning a theology degree from Edinburgh University. It was there at this university that I first heard of and met with Professor Torrance, and it was Principal Porteous who urged me to become acquainted with him. Torrance was one of my professors, to whom I was greatly attracted from the beginning, and who embraced me and became my supporter, mentor and guide for many years long after. There were at that time, in the 1960s, a very noticeable number of international students from all over the world that attended his lectures, many of whom had come to do research under him.

MB: As a young theology student in a foreign country, what were your first impressions of Torrance? How did he conduct himself – in personal interactions, in the classroom? What kinds of things did you learn from him then?

GDD: Having spent a year in the philosophy department, learning English and studying philosophy, I passed the Hellenicum (Higher Greek) and the Hebraicum (Higher Hebrew) and acquired the Attestation of Academic Fitness (the Scottish equivalent to the English GCE – a prerequisite for enrolling in the University) by sitting Higher exams (in Greek and Science), I entered the first year of Theology – thanks to my first benefactor, Professor Porteous, who guided me in my first year in Scotland. Professor Torrance taught Christian Dogmatics in the second year, but his name, along with that of Karl Barth, resounded in the corridors of New College and in the Student’s Residence annexed to it, especially at meals. It was precisely this constant talk of “TFT,” – as students called him – that made me venture a secret entry into one of his introductory lectures. This was the first time I saw him and heard him speak. Having entered the classroom on the second floor, I was surprised to see a Greek Archimandrite sitting among the students. I approached him, asked for a blessing and introduced myself to him. He was Fr. Cornelius from the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulcher in the Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem (now Geron Metropolitan Cornelius of Petra). He told me that Torrance was a brilliant professor and that he had been sent there just to follow his lectures. I learned from him that there was also another Greek student, an assistant to Professor Panagiotes Trempelas of Dogmatics in the School of Theology of the University of Athens, Constantine Dratsellas, who had also been sent there to do a doctorate under Torrance’s guidance on St. Cyril of Alexandria’s Soteriology.1 Torrance lectured on Christology and Soteriology. He spoke freely, but he also passed out lengthy lectures in typed form. I still have them all and treasure them as a great heirloom, although most of them have now been published: my fellow-student and friend Robert Walker, a nephew of Torrance, has recently edited them in two impressive volumes on the Incarnation and the Atonement.2

I was captivated by that first lecture to the extent that I ran to his office afterwards to introduce myself to him and to seek his permission to attend his classes, although I was at this time only a first year student. This was my first full encounter with him, which I cherish as a momentous event because he gave me the starting point to my studies. He let me into his office expressed his happiness that I was a Greek and then, showing me an icon of St. Athanasius,3 which was placed in the center of his room, he told me that this was “the theologian” that I should make my primary mentor. The emphasis on St. Athanasius had already emerged in the lecture that I had attended. I clearly remember his statement, that if we wish to become theologians we must read and absorb three great books: Athanasius’ De Incarnatione, Anselm’s Cur Deus Homo and Kierkegaard’s Philosophical Fragments. These books, he said, bring us face to face with the basis of Christian Dogmatics, the event of the Incarnation, the fact that God has become man. Without this basis we could not really understand Christian doctrine.

With regard to Torrance’s interaction in class, I would say that it was overpowering. He taught with tremendous conviction and profound erudition. He sounded like a prophet who communicated the word of God that was coming down from heaven into the class. Sometimes I felt that his lectures were like attending a Liturgy. It was word, imbued with sacramental quality. It was like a full river that moved constantly and consistently. But at the same time there was gentleness to it all, which came out in his answers to all sorts of questions raised by keen, confused, or even disagreeable students. On the whole, students’ reactions to him were positive, but there were also some negative or lukewarm. I consider myself one of his luckiest undergraduates, because on numerous occasions he invited me to have lunch with him at a small Chinese restaurant behind New College, where we discussed the theological questions that I constantly raised. He had no other free time to address my questions and chose this option because he did not want to disappoint me. He also invited me to accompany him to several important debates and special lectures in the University and on one occasion he enrolled me in the Edinburgh University philosophical society, in the David Hume Tower, and encouraged me to participate in the open debates that were conducted there involving students and professors. There were, of course, other students who enjoyed the same kindness, but I always thought that I did better, because of my keenness to raise questions and clarify the profound points of his teaching.

MB: If I recall correctly, your first publication was a translation into Greek of one of Torrance’s articles. Which article was that and where was it published? How did this all come about?

GDD: The article I translated into Greek was “The Implications of Oikonomia for Knowledge and Speech of God in Early Christian Theology,” which was originally published in Hamburg-Bergstedt, Germany (1967) in a volume dedicated to Oscar Cullmann on his 65th Birthday.4 My translation into Greek was published in the Journal of the Patriarchate of Alexandria Ekklesiastikos Pharos, which was reactivated at that time by Archbishop Methodios (Fouyas) of Aksum.5 As to how this came about, I recall that I was given an offprint of this article by Iain Torrance, TFT’s son, and I was so fascinated in reading it that I translated it into Greek with the intention to publish it. The opportunity for publishing it arose in Edinburgh when I met with Archbishop Methodios for the first time. He had come to Edinburgh with Patriarch Nikolaos VI of Alexandria and Archbishop Athenagoras (Kokkinakis) of Thyateira and Great Britain to receive honorary Doctorates at the University – an event prompted by Torrance. The article was reprinted in a revised form much later (1995) in Torrance’s volume on patristic hermeneutics entitled Divine Meaning – a volume which Tom very lovingly dedicated to my wife Ina and me. What fascinated me about this article was the constructive theological and epistemological character of Tom’s reading of patristic hermeneutics. I should add that hermeneutics is one of Torrance’s special contributions – an amazing contribution that fully flourishes in his books Divine Meaning and Theological Science.

MB: After finishing your BD at Edinburgh, you did a Masters at Princeton Theological Seminary. Torrance was at that point a visiting scholar in Princeton, and Georges Florovsky was also teaching there. If memory serves me right, you had the unique benefit of having them both as readers for your Masters thesis. How did all this work out? What was your topic? And what was the relationship like between Torrance and Florovsky?

GDD: At my graduation in 1970, Torrance gave me a letter, written to him by the external examiner Eric Mascall of King’s College London, which placed me at the top of the finalists in Dogmatics and suggested that I should be encouraged to pursue further studies. As a result of this, Torrance called me and suggested to me that I consider going to Princeton to work with Florovsky on Athanasius. He also suggested that I concentrate on the disputed authorship of Athanasius’ two treatises Against Apollinaris. In his view, these two treatises were genuine Athanasian works, but had been characterized as pseudepigrapha because they were an obvious obstacle to a 19th century scholarly casuistry that saw a latent Apollinarianism in Athanasius’ Christology – a point that had been and still is adopted in the general manuals of Dogmengeschichte. Torrance praised Florovsky as the only theologian who would make him think twice if he disagreed with what he proposed or wrote, and advised me that it would be an excellent opportunity for me to get into the great Athanasius...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• The Contributors
• Part I: Historical Background and Memoirs
• Part II: Essays Patristic and Constructive
• Part III: Primary Sources