Mackintosh, Torrance and Reformulation of Reformed Theology in Scotland

H. R. Mackintosh (1870–1936) was an early and profound theological influence on T. F. Torrance. A leading proponent of the “liberal evangelicalism” of the late nineteenth century, Mackintosh in the latter stages of his career came to embrace the emerging theology of Karl Barth. His influence on Torrance’s thinking can be clearly detected in their common critique of rationalist dualism and abstraction, found in both Protestant scholasticism and liberal modernism. Mackintosh’s soteriologically accentuated understanding of the incarnation and his pneumatological emphasis on the participation of the believer in Christ through the unio mystica are themes that Torrance developed much further.