Forthcoming Dissertations and Theses

Please send us a title or description of your dissertation or thesis project to post here, along with a link to your professional website.  The Fellowship aims to assist student members whose dissertation or thesis projects utilize the works of the Torrance brothers in any significant way (not necessarily about the Torrances per se).

In progress:

  • Simon Russell-Brown. The significance of ‘science’ in the theological method of T. F. Torrance: an exploration and critique (Charles Sturt University in Canberra, Australia). Supervisors: Ockert Meyer and David Neville.
      

Recently completed: (Congratulations!)

Graduates: Please update us when the project is published in monograph or article form to be added to the Studies bibliography.

  • Completed 2024:
    • Tiffany Christine Robinson. "Redeeming Space: A Spatial Articulation of the Doctrines of God, Christ and the Church." A Thesis submitted to the Faculty of St. Michael’s College and the Graduate Centre for Theological Studies of the Toronto School of Theology. In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Theology awarded by the University of St. Michael's College. Link.
  • Completed 2023:
    • Dalton T. Fowler. "Torrance, Fallen Flesh, and the Will of Christ: Exploring the Coherence of the Human Will of Christ." Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  2023. 30487493. Defended April 19, 2023. Supervisor: Steven McKinion. Link.
    • Jenny Richards, Acting Justly? Exploring an Holistic Criminal Justice Response to Family Violence against Christian Women in Australia (Ph.D., Flinders University). Supervisors: Lorna Hallahan and Hossein Esmaeili.
      My thesis explores the potential contribution of the theological work of JB and TF to the response of church leaders assisting Christian women who are experiencing domestic violence. I will argue that their work on concepts such as critical realism, covenant, mediation, personhood forgiveness, repentance and justice can be used as a theologically sound framework from which to develop a shared language between church leaders and the criminal justice system. This in turn can be used to better assist in the provision of a holistic response to violence which allows women to hold to the tenets of their faith while also accessing the full protection of the law.
  • Completed 2022:
    • Daniel Cameron. "Scientific Ecclesiology: Science, Ecclesiology, and Ecumenism in the Theology of T.F. Torrance." (Ph.D., University of Aberdeen).  Supervisor: Tom Greggs. Defended successfully Dec 13, 2022.

      My dissertation argues that modern ecclesiology does not offer a truly theological account of the church and thus fails to serve the ecumenical movement. In order to overcome this error, this thesis argues that T. F. Torrance’s scientific ecclesiology is therapeutic to this commonly held sociological, and therefore, non-theological ecclesiology and desires to cut behind the differences in the Church seeking our unity in Jesus Christ and, thus, serves the ecumenical movement.

    • Stavan N. John. The Risen and Ascended Humanity of Christ in T. F. Torrance’s Holistic Christology (Oxford Centre for Mission Studies).
      • Supervisors: Myk Habets, Tom Noble. Examiners: David Fergusson, Paul Molnar. 
      • My thesis contends that a Christology without the ascension is not a holistic Christology, and by “holistic” is meant a theological holism, in which all of Jesus’s life (incarnation, resurrection, ascension, and return of Christ) is taken into account in the process of theologising about Christ. T. F. Torrance models such a holistic theology in his articulations about the person and work of Christ and is rightly recognised to have immensely contributed to theological studies on the ascension of Jesus. However, with some exceptions, Torrance’s theology of the ascension has not received the attention it deserves in contemporary theology, and therefore this study seeks to redress this lacuna by critically exploring and building on Torrance’s contributions to the ontology, spatiality, and function of the ascended Jesus, in the hopes of beginning to construct a holistic theology of the ascended Jesus for the Indian theological context.
  • Completed 2021:
    • Christine E. Thornton, "Knowing God in the Body of Christ: The Epistemic Significance of the Church in the Theology of T. F. Torrance" (PhD dissertation, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2021); #2021-CET-1.
      • Supervisor: Keith Whitfield.
    • Stephen Lorance. Thomas Torrance and the “Latin Heresy” (Ph.D., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary); #2021-SL-1. 
      • Supervisor: Keith Whitfield. 
      • I plan to engage and evaluate TFT's contribution to the East/West divide on the Trinity (especially the monarchy and filioque) whereby he seeks to overcome the Latin Heresy in Augustine's Trinitarian theology and its Eastern counterpart in Cappadocians and Byzantine tradition.
  • Completed 2020:
    • Christopher G. Woznicki, “Discerning Humanity in Christ: The Promise of Christology for Developing T. F. Torrance's Theological Anthropology.” (Ph.D. Diss., Fuller Theological Seminary, 2020); #2020-CW-2.
       
  • Completed 2017:  
    • Alexander J. D. Irving, "T. F. Torrance's Natural Theology Understood in its Intellectual Context: The Synthesis of Rational Structure and Material Content" (Ph.D., University of Oxford).
      • Supervisor:  Alister McGrath. Committee members or examiners: Joel Rasmussen, Paul Nimmo.
    • Marty Miller Maddox, "Modern Theology at the Wheel: The challenge of ancient Greek skepticism and the drive toward authority with certainty in Christian doctrine" (Ph.D., Graduate Theological Union, Berkeley, California).
      • Supervisor: Ted Peters. Committee members: Gregory Anderson Love; Gerard McCarren. ProQuest document ID: 1930961722.
  • Completed 2016: 
    • Jacquelynn Price-Linnartz, "Christ the Mediator and the Idol of Whiteness: Christological Anthropology in T. F. Torrance, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Willie Jennings" (doctoral dissertation, Duke Divinity School, 2016). Advisor: Jeremy S. Begbie.
    • Christian J. Triebel, "A Third Culture Kid Theology: Constructing Trinity, Christ, and Believers’ Identity in Liminality in dialogue with Nozomu Miyahira, Emil Brunner, and Thomas F. Torrance" (Ph.D., King's College, London).
      • Supervisor: Alister McGrath. Committee members or examiners: Paul Joyce, Pete Ward, the Revd Canon Vernon White, Michael A. Barnes SJ, and the Very Revd Professor Iain R. Torrance. ProQuest document ID: 1896110369.  Online UK link.
    • David S. Vanderbilt, "Thomas Forsyth Torrance and Scientific Theology: An Analysis and Assessment of his Project" (Ph.D., Salve Regina University, Newport, Rhode Island).
      • Supervisor: Daniel M. Cowdin. Committee members or examiners: W. James Hersh, Stephen L. Trainor. ProQuest document ID: 1862127072.
    • Ruth Helen Bell Morrison, "A study of the special commission on baptism (1953-63) and developments in baptismal doctrine and practice in the church of scotland since 1963" (Ph.D., University of Glasgow).  
      • Supervisors: Werner Jeanrond, Charlotte Methuen. ProQuest document ID: 1827521903. Online at Glasgow.
  • Completed 2015: 
    • Christopher Heren, "Scientific or Existential?: A Comparison of Thomas Torrance to Alexei Nesteruk and whether the latter uses what the former refers to as “natural theology’" (Th.M., Luther Seminary, St. Paul, Minnesota).  
      • Supervisor: Alan Padgett.
  • Completed 2014:
    • Robert Lucas Stamps, "'Thy will be done': A dogmatic defense of dyothelitism in light of recent monothelite proposals" (Ph.D., Southern Baptist Theological Seminary).
      • Supervisor: Stephen J. Wellum. Committee members: Michael A. G. Haykin; Paul Helm. Outside reader: Oliver Crisp. ProQuest document ID: 1541534921.
    • Geordie Ziegler. "Grace and Participation in the Theology of Thomas F. Torrance." University of Aberdeen.
      • Supervisor: John Webster. Examiners: Phil Ziegler and Tom Noble. Published as #2017-gwz-1.
  • Completed 2013:
    • Jing Wei, "Theological Anthropology of Thomas F. Torrance: A Critical and Comparative Exploration" (Ph.D., New College, University of Edinburgh).  
      • Supervisors: David A. S. Fergusson, Paul Nimmo.  Committee members and others acknowledged: Robert Walker and Frances Henderson; Carver Yu, Kang Phee Seng, and David Peng. ProQuest document ID: 1687707909.  Online at Edinburgh Research Archive.
  • Completed 2009:
    • Neal D. Presa, "Here I am, Lord, send me: Ritual analysis for a theology of presbyteral ordination in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)" (Ph.D., Drew University).
      • Supervisor: S. Wesley Ariarajah. ProQuest document ID: 89254887.
    • Nathan D. Hieb, "The Liberating Reconciliation of the Cross: Atonement for sin and liberation from suffering in Karl Barth's theologia crucis" (Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary).
      • Supervisor: George Hunsinger. ProQuest document ID: 304988018.
  • Completed 2008:
    • Titus Chung, "The Mediator and the Mediations: Divine Self-disclosure in Thomas F. Torrance" (Ph.D., New College, University of Edinburgh).
      • Supervisors: David A. S. Fergusson, John McDowell.  Committee members and others acknowledged:  Robert Walker, John Chew.  ProQuest document ID: 2064823619. Online at Edinburgh Research Archive.
    • Peter I. M. Cass, "Christ Condemned Sin in the Flesh: A study in the Soteriology of T. F. Torrance with particular reference to the relationship between the incarnation and atonement and the ontological and forensic metaphors and their ecumenical significance" (Ph.D., Princeton Theological Seminary).
      • Supervisor: George Hunsinger. ProQuest document ID: 304515351.

 

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