The T&T Clark Handbook of Thomas F. Torrance includes nineteen essays regarding perhaps the most significant Reformed theologian since Karl Barth. It is co-editor Paul Molnar's hope that these essays will encourage serious students to read Torrance for themselves and strengthen the future of Christian theology as a result (p. 8). Along the way, the Handbook also reveals something of the research interests and critical styles of the current generation of scholars engaging Torrance's thought, many of whom make up the TFT Theological Fellowship, founded in 2004 prior to Torrance's death in 2007.

The book is subdivided into two parts, ‘Contexts’ and ‘Dogmatics’. The former begins with a consideration of the question of Torrance's ongoing relevance (Ivor Davidson) and proceeds to examine the cultural background and breadth of intellectual investigations which gave a unique flavour to Torrance's extensive publications and areas of research. This section examines a series of relationships that shaped Torrance: his Scottish theological background (David Fergusson), his deeply engaged yet conflicted relationship to the ecumenical movement (Joel Scandrett), his mentoring by Karl Barth (Paul Molnar), and his mentoring, in turn, of the American theologian Ray Anderson (Todd Speidell). The section ends with studies of Torrance's relentless consideration of method, both in the study of historical theology (Jason Radcliff) and also his ground-breaking engagement with the natural sciences (Travis Stevick), which led to his receiving the Templeton Prize for progress in religion in 1978.

The larger second section, ‘Dogmatics’, is devoted to those central doctrines of Christian faith where Torrance initiated fresh investigation, ranging from the Trinity (Christopher Holmes), incarnation and atonement (Thomas Noble), revelation (John McDowell) and ecclesiology (Kate Tyler) to personal discipleship (Jerome Van Kuiken), preaching (Myk Habets) and eschatology (Andrew Purves). In addition, there are studies devoted to several technical theological terms which Torrance employed as (to use Michael Polanyi's language) open-ended cognitive tools, used to tacitly indwell the meaning of God's gracious self-revelation. These include onto-relations (Gary Deddo), an/en-hypostasis (Robert Walker) and the vicarious humanity of Christ, with its profound implications for our knowledge of God (Christian Kettler).

Reading these essays reminded me that one of Torrance's legacies is the stirring up of lively (and at times heated) conversations amongst Protestant, Orthodox and Roman Catholic theologians. His agenda was an ongoing Theology in Reconstruction (1965) as one title boldly advertised, challenging any number of theological formulations grown sacrosanct amongst various theologians and their followers. Over a decade after his death they continue to invite both Conflict and Agreement in the Church (1959–60) as the title of his two-volume ecumenical dialogue foreshadowed.

To encourage reading these essays carefully, I propose a taxonomy derived from C. S. Lewis, whose strategy both as reader and critic was descriptive criticism, that is, first and foremost, to receive, enjoy and participate in the arrangement of ideas and distinctive use of language quintessential to an author, without premature criticism.Footnote ¹ Having done this as receptively as possible, the reader then may tentatively raise critical questions, concerns and possible amendments or alterations to Torrance's reconstructions. Such a strategy best promotes direct involvement with the author's intentions. The alternative method may be called evaluative criticism, in which the reader spends the bulk of their energy generating judgements, whether of approval or more typically, disapproval, concerning Torrance's theological concepts, arguments and even the mood aroused in them by his choice of metaphors. The evaluative strategy often eclipses the intended subject by its focus on the critic's preferences and judgements, rendering a direct encounter with Torrance's theology unlikely, and while this Handbook largely reflects the descriptive approach, at times the scholar's all too human urge to routinely interject evaluative opinions is also evident. Yet only one essay strikes this reader as essentially evaluative, bringing to mind an amusing grumble from Lewis: ‘Who wants to hear a particular claret abused by a fanatical teetotaler?’Footnote ² Readers of course will make their own judgements whether the evaluative style fairly describes any particular essay.

That caveat noted, this collection is full of positive support for readers who wish to participate in Torrance's project, which was never to create magisterial concepts to rule over its subject matter but rather to articulate a theology of ‘amen’, summoning the reader to be caught up in the coming of God into our broken humanity through the freely given humanity of Jesus the Messiah for our sakes. And it is a summons in love, as Gary Deddo puts it, by which God invites us to a personalising response (p. 150).

One theme commented on by six of the authors exemplifies how Torrance's project of reconstruction generates both conflict and agreement, namely, Christ's vicarious humanity. The phrase has been contested, as if Christ's response on our behalf belittles all human response thereafter. Of course, no one suggests that Torrance intended to diminish human responsibility. Indeed, one of his primary passions was for the church to recover a joyful confidence in God's sheer loving faithfulness, which would free people from spiritual and mental habits that were exhaustingly or complacently self-preoccupied. So readers are left with a question: has Torrance contributed a clarifying articulation of the logic of grace in non-causal ways (as Robert Walker calls it on p. 191), or did he misrepresent Christ's active role in each and every human response? Not unlike Luther's signature formulation of sola gratia, which to his critics suggested solitaria gratia, Torrance has touched a raw nerve which still awaits ecumenical consensus.

One explanation for the resistance to this central theme in Torrance may be related to an unacknowledged dependence on visual/spatial modes of thought which implies, ‘If God is at work, then I am not’, and vice versa. Jeremy Begbie has proposed from music an auditory model as an alternative way of framing the relationship between divine and human agency. For in listening to music, we regularly hear two distinct notes sounding together in such a way that neither cancels out the other but join together in a greater harmony.Footnote ³ Thus, rather than conceive of Christ's human response for us in a coercive or competitive way as a kind of sheer replacement for our own agency, we may instead hear in his vicarious humanity a living word awakening us to Christ's accompanying presence – behind us, before us, beneath us and within us, as the ancient hymn of St Patrick proclaims. To the extent Torrance helps us attend to this liberating reality, we may well hope his contribution to the future of dogmatic theology will not be forgotten.