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Thomas F. Torrance

Protestant theologian (1913–2007)

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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 1, 2026
Entity authorityQ2567521 ↗
Source-derived summary

Thomas Forsyth Torrance (30 August 1913 – 2 December 2007), commonly referred to as T. F. Torrance, was a Scottish Protestant theologian and Presbyterian minister. He was a member of the famed Torrance family of theologians. Torrance served for 27 years as a professor of Christian dogmatics at New College, at the University of Edinburgh. He is best known for his pioneering work in the study of science and theology, but he is equally respected for his work in systematic theology.

In addition to writing many of his own books and articles, he also edited the translation of several hundred theological writings into English, including the thirteen-volume, six-million-word Church Dogmatics of Swiss theologian Karl Barth, as well as John Calvin's New Testament Commentaries.

Torrance has been acknowledged as one of the most significant English-speaking theologians of the 20th century. In 1978, he received the Templeton Foundation Prize for Progress in Religion. Torrance remained a dedicated churchman throughout his life, serving as an ordained minister in the Church of Scotland. He was instrumental in the development of the historic agreement between the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Eastern Orthodox Church churches on the doctrine of the Trinity, who released a joint statement of agreement on 13 March 1991.

After retiring from the University of Edinburgh in 1979, he continued to lecture and publish extensively, including several influential books on the Trinity: The Trinitarian Faith: The Evangelical Theology of the Ancient Catholic Church (1988); Trinitarian Perspectives: Toward Doctrinal Agreement (1994); and The Christian Doctrine of God, One Being Three Persons (1996).

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Thomas F. Torrance” as protestant theologian (1913–2007). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1913, 2007, 1978, 1991—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1913-08-30. The account is most persuasive where Thomas, Torrance and Protestant can be independently traced.
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The subject matters to the general reference register because the source frames it as protestant theologian (1913–2007). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2567521. VIAF identifies the subject as 56649839. The Library of Congress control number is n81126162. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1913, 2007, 1978 and 1991.

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This entry incorporates text from “Thomas F. Torrance” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.