The concept of the vicarious humanity of Christ in the theology of Thomas Forsyth Torrance
This study is an attempt to show that the heart of Torrance's theology is the vicarious humanity of Jesus Christ. It is this vicarious humanity understood in the light of the incarnation of the Word that prescribes to Christian theology ~both its matter and its content~. Because God in his lordly freedom has chosen the way of the incarnation, Jesus Christ the incarnate Word is the one and only ontological ground of our being reconciled to God, our knowing of him, and our response to him. Against the dualist framework of much of modern christology which tries to distinguish between a Chirst of faith and a Jesus of history, Torrance emphasises a unitary approach which takes together both the theological Jesus and the historical Jesus in order that we may truly understand' him out of his own intrinsic significance. This unitary approach is indebted to the Judaeo-Christian tradition of the Scriptures. Indeed, any understanding of Jesus Christ is bound to be a distortion when severed from the witness of the Jews and of the apostles. Above all, Israel the Jews constitute the pre-history of the incarnation and Christ the Jew their Texos, Furthermore, the unitary approach implies that we have to take the very-God
Kang, Phee Seng
Philosophy
The concept of the vicarious humanity of Christ in the theology of Thomas Forsyth Torrance. This study is an attempt to show that the heart of Torrance's theology is the vicarious humanity of Jesus Christ. It is this vicarious humanity understood in the light of the incarnation of the Word that prescribes to Christian theology ~both its matter and its content~. Because God in his lordly freedom has chosen the way of the incarnation, Jesus Christ the incarnate Word is the one and only ontological ground of our being reconciled to God, our knowing of him, and our response to him. Against the dualist framework of much of modern christology which tries to distinguish between a Chirst of faith and a Jesus of history, Torrance emphasises a unitary approach which takes together both the theological Jesus and the historical Jesus in order that we may truly understand' him out of his own intrinsic significance. This unitary approach is indebted to the Judaeo-Christian tradition of the Scriptures. Indeed, any understanding of Jesus Christ is bound to be a distortion when severed from the witness of the Jews and of the apostles. Above all, Israel the Jews constitute the pre-history of the incarnation and Christ the Jew their Texos, Furthermore, the unitary approach implies that we have to take the very-God
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