T.F. Torrance and the Consensus Patrum: a reformed, evangelical, and ecumenical reconstruction of the Church Fathers
Date
26/11/2013Author
Radcliff, Jason Robert
Metadata
Abstract
This thesis offers a constructive engagement with T.F. Torrance’s theological
reading of the patristic tradition. It argues that Torrance reconstructs the Fathers
into a Consensus Patrum, or “Consensus of the Fathers” consisting of
catholic/ecumenical themes and figures. Torrance’s consensus is a creative attempt
to produce a Reformed and evangelical version of the consensus which involves
significant changes to both standard readings of the Fathers in other approaches to
the consensus and Torrance’s own Reformed evangelical tradition. It is unique
among other interpreters of the Fathers and ecumenically relevant, offering much
to contemporary theology in both substance and method. In order to view
Torrance’s project in historical context this thesis examines the notion of the
consensus as found in historical Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and Protestant
theology. Each tradition has a lens through which they view the Fathers: Aquinas
for the Roman Catholics, Palamas for the Orthodox, Augustinian themes for the
Reformers, and “de‐Hellenization” for liberal Protestants. This thesis places
Torrance’s project within other contemporary retrievals of the church Fathers
arguing for its uniqueness as a distinctively Reformed evangelical approach to the
Fathers on their own terms. It inspects the Torrancian consensus exploring its
consistence of a Reformed and evangelical approach to patristic themes and
figures, rooted in the primary theme of the Nicene ὁμοούσιον and the primary
figure of Athanasius of Alexandria. It examines Torrance’s creative reconstruction
of the Fathers into a Reformed evangelical consensus and points to his constructive
achievements demonstrating that Torrance’s approach is ecumenically relevant, as
seen particularly in his work in the Reformed‐Orthodox Dialogue. A critical
adoption of the Torrancian consensus is proposed in conclusion.