Response and Responsibility - Chapter 1 of The Feeling Intellect: Reading the Bible with C.S. Lewis

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin\u27s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, Greetings, favored one! The Lord is with you. But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David ... Mary said to the angel, How can this be, since I am a virgin? The angel said to her, The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called the Son of God. And now your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. For nothing will be impossible with God:\u27 Then Mary said, Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word:\u27 Then the angel departed from her (Luke 1:26-38)

Against the Stream, How Karl Barth Reframed Church-State Relations (Chapter 3 of Keine Gewalt! No Violence!)

Excerpt: Defenders of the Barmen Declaration\u27s apolitical tone remind us that it was never intended to establish a program of political protest, that Karl Barth and the others were pastors not politicians; that the goal was to reassert the integrity of the gospel in the face of the attempted subversion by the German Christians. On the one hand, the soundness of this interpretation is self-evident. And yet it should surprise no one that an apolitical strategy would have little political impact on the German state. It is also true that Barth\u27s views on church and state relations changed after Barmen; that afterward he expressed remorse over his own sins of omission. If we explore Barth\u27s writings over a twenty-year period, the change will become evident and so also his impact on the emerging political theology in Eastern Europe. The next two chapters will chronicle this development

Participation and Atonement

How does the victory of Christ over sin and death impinge on my life nearly two thousand years later, so that, as Professor Torrance bas described it, his death becomes my death and his resurrection my resurrection? I will respond to this question by briefly discussing two \u27subject-centred appropriation\u27 models and concluding with an \u27object-centred participation\u27 model. The meaning of these phrases will be unpacked as the discussion progresses. However, at the outset it is important to note that the object-centred model is based on a more radical understanding of the incarnation which has been advocated by Professor Torrance and which has ancient roots in certain Greek Fathers, that is, understanding Christ\u27s incarnation as a putting on of our fallen, sinful humanity. This understanding of the humanity of God in Christ will reinforce our decision to replace an appropriation-centred model with an object-centred participation in the life and death of Christ

The Stuttgart Declaration of 1945: A Casy Study of Guilt, Forgiveness and Foreign Policy - Chapter 15 from Trinity and Transformation: J. B. Torrance\u27s Vision of Worship, Mission, and Society

J. B. Torrance was one of the few theologians of our era whose exposition of fundamental Christian theology spoke prophetically to the church’s social and political witness to the Gospel. This essay examines how Torrance’s analysis of forgiveness casts fresh light on the process whereby relations between the Protestant churches of Europe and America were restored in the chaotic aftermath of postwar Germany. The essay argues that the result of their meeting for reconciliation, the Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt, prepared the way for the Allies to set aside policies of collective punishment in favor of policies which supported reconciliation and restoration of relationships

Torrance, Thomas Forsyth (b. 1913)

As active in the church as in the academy, Torrance has diligently served the ecumenical movement, especially in relations and discussions with the Anglican and the Orthodox communions. His many honours include appointment as moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1976 and being awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion in 1979