EMQ » April–June 2023 » Volume 59 Issue 2
T. F. Torrance as Missional Theologian: The Ascended Christ and the Ministry of the Church*
By Joseph H. Sherrard
New Explorations in Theology
Intervarsity Press, 2021
256 pages
US$40.00
*As an Amazon Associate Missio Nexus earns from qualifying purchases.
Reviewed by Ryan Gimple, assistant professor, Charleston Southern University. Prior to his current role teaching missions and church planting, Ryan served as a missionary in Asia for 19 years.
It is not infrequent to come across missionaries who seem allergic to deeper theological discussions. I hate to admit that I have previously suffered from seasonal theological sniffles. The unfortunate dualism that pulls missionaries and theologians apart, dividing theory from practice, is an epistemological problem that T. F. Torrance challenges in many of his writings. T.F. Torrance has been at the top of my list of theologians whom I’ve wanted to study, and Joseph Sherrard’s book provided me a perfect entry point to launch into the study of Torrance’s missional theology.
Sherrard describes Torrance’s theological engagement with the church’s mission. The first chapter begins with the doctrine of God, with his chief concern circulating around the homoousion (“of one substance”), showing that the Son gives us real knowledge of God. Torrance uses the homoousion to challenge dualism.
The second chapter looks at Torrance’s Christology through the lens of Jesus as the king, priest, and prophet. The third chapter highlights the connection of theology to mission, exploring Torrance’s conception of the nature and mission of the church as the body of Christ. The church’s being is grounded in Christ and in the love of God. The church is sent to suffer and serve in real participation with Christ’s ministry and must therefore also serve “in places of distress and need” (119). The church is on a path of growth into the fullness of Christ.
Torrance’s pneumatology is centered on Christ, and the work of the Spirit is primarily in and through the Church and its proclamation of Christ. The Church is formed by the “deposit of faith” given by the apostles and Jesus Christ. The ascension of Jesus binds us to the Jesus in the Gospels. Chapters four and five examine how the Church participates with Jesus as king, priest, and prophet by serving Jesus and echoing Jesus in the world. The church is not equivalent to Jesus, and a one-to-one correspondence is problematic. However, we do echo Jesus as we serve him, and we have real participation with the ascended Christ in ministry through the church.
The author engages critically with Torrance’s theology and acknowledges areas of weakness. He also brings Torrance into conversation with Lesslie Newbigin, John Flett, and Todd Billings. As I read Sherrard’s description of and interaction with Torrance, I frequently had ah-ha moments of discovery that cultivated my desire to further understand Torrance’s theology. There is a fertility and fruitfulness here that will help missionaries to properly relate the mission of God to the mission of the church.
Sherrard draws from a variety of Torrance’s writings, which will help me as I decide what to read next. The book assumes its readers are already familiar with theological concepts, such as the homousion, hypostasis, and the munus triplex, and may therefore be difficult to follow for readers who have had little exposure to theological writings. Nevertheless, we all must begin somewhere, and Sherrard’s book should spur missionaries to interact with Torrance’s theology.
For Further Reading
Theology and Practice of Mission: God, the Church, and the Nations, edited by Bruce Riley Ashford (B&H Academic, 2011)
Union with Christ: Reframing Theology and Ministry for the Church, by J. Todd Billings (Baker Academic, 2011)
EMQ, Volume 59, Issue 2. Copyright © 2023 by Missio Nexus. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced or copied in any form without written permission from Missio Nexus. Email: EMQ@MissioNexus.org.
