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Theological Science
By Thomas F. Torrance
368 pp. New York, Oxford University Press, 1969. $11.75.

Theological Science, a much expanded version of Torrance's Hewett Lectures delivered in 1959, is an important and powerful investigation of the character of theological reflection. Those acquainted with Torrance's thought will recognize in this book themes which were already evident in his introduction to The School of Faith, published in 1959 but completed the preceding year. In the intervening years, there has

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been no basic change in the orientation and direction of his approach to the method of theological inquiry. But he has developed, deepened, and refined his position so thoroughly that what was once a commentary on the catechisms of the Church of Scotland has now become a fundamental charter for the science of theology.

The word "science" may be misleading. It does not mean that Torrance, beguiled by the obvious success of the physical sciences in the modern world, has attempted yet another reconciliation between the findings of science and the findings of theology. Such an endeavor, which obviously rests on the uneasy feeling that theology is insecure and uncertain unless shown to be compatible with the framework of thought laid down by the scientific disciplines, is quite the opposite of what Torrance has in mind. His purpose is rather to investigate-and to stipulate-what it is that makes theology a science in its own right, a method of inquiry with its own appropriate procedures and processes of thought.

Basic to any science is a mode of operation which is genuinely appropriate to the object of its investigation in the sense that it treats the object as what it is and not as something else. It makes no sense, for instance, to ask about the psychic life of a rock formation, and the science of geology only emerges when it prunes such questions from its procedure and allows the actual character of its object to control its inquiry. To be objective, then, is to derive one's statements from and point them back towards the object or objects to which they refer; it is to bring the "logic" of one's discourse into line with the "logic" of the thing itself, its own inherent pattern or structure. Scientific discourse does not impose form on the world but derives form from the world.

The special object of theology is, of course, God himself, the God who has made himself known in Jesus Christ and who, in the human figure of Christ, has made himself available to human investigation. Torrance's concern is to show what it means for theological inquiry to be controlled by this unique object and to bring its "logic" into conformity with what he calls the "logic of God." Within this wider frame, two special problems dominate Torrance's work. The first has to do with the uniqueness of God himself who, although he has become the object of Christian theology by his own act, remains always the supreme subject, the supreme person, in his relation with men. Thus, theology is only truly objective insofar as, in the questions that it puts and the procedures that it follows, it respects God as the one who retains the initiative in disclosing himself to men. The second problem revolves around the tension, inevitable in any science but especially acute in theology, between the reference of a statement to its object and the coherence of a statement with other statements in ordered discourse. In

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theology, as in other disciplines, the temptation is always to allow the coherence of one statement with others to control the way in which it refers to its object, that is, to allow the patterns of ordered discourse to dictate the possibilities of accurate reference. But theology must resist this temptation and, while respecting and employing the forms of grammar and of formal logic, must subordinate them to the special "logic" of the object to which it refers. Only to the extent that its discourse is controlled by the "logic of God" is theology a genuine science, a mode of inquiry appropriate to the object of its investigation.

Theological Science is not an easy book, and the sketch that I have given only hints at the rich detail with which Torrance treats his theme. It is not a book that will satisfy those who are concerned with the meaning or the possibility of talk about God. It offers no help to those who wonder whether it makes sense to speak about the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Torrance does not seek to show that theology has an object for its inquiry or what its object is; he seeks only to show how theology is to be done under the control of its object. Even for those who cannot start where he starts, however, his book should at least raise this question, if theology cannot be done in this way, can it be done at all? In posing the question, I do not presume that the answer is "No." I do presume that the question is important and that Torrance compels us to meet it face to face.

William S. Babcock
Perkins School of Theology
Dallas, Texas