The Doctrine of Election in Evangelical Calvinism: T. F. Torrance as a Case Study

Representing what may be termed `evangelical Calvinism,' Thomas Forsyth Torrance's doctrine of election is, with critical modifications, recommended as a model worthy of contemporary acceptance. Torrance follows Barth's christologically conditioned doctrine of election closely, but no...

Full description

Saved in:  
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Habets, Myk 1971- (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Check availability: HBZ Gateway
Journals Online & Print:
Drawer...
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Published: Sage 2008
In: Irish theological quarterly
Year: 2008, Volume: 73, Issue: 3/4, Pages: 334-354
Further subjects:B Karl Barth
B Christology
B John Calvin
B Election
B Union
B Thomas Forsyth Torrance
Online Access: Volltext (lizenzpflichtig)
Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:Representing what may be termed `evangelical Calvinism,' Thomas Forsyth Torrance's doctrine of election is, with critical modifications, recommended as a model worthy of contemporary acceptance. Torrance follows Barth's christologically conditioned doctrine of election closely, but not slavishly, and presents a view of universal atonement and even universal pardon, but not universal salvation. Torrance contends that the word `predestination' emphasizes the sovereign freedom of grace and so the `pre-' in predestination refers neither to a temporal nor to a logical prius, but simply to God Himself, the Eternal. For God, election is not an event of the past but rather an action internal to God (a se). Because Christ is the ground of election, and Christ came in space—time, election took on a temporal component. Election derives from the Divine initiative of grace and Torrance is highly critical of Arminian theology at this point, accusing it of being semi-Pelagian; he is equally critical of Roman Catholicism which, according to Torrance, is also semi-Pelagian if not Pelagian outright.
ISSN:1752-4989
Contains:Enthalten in: Irish theological quarterly
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1177/0021140008095442