What has Athens to do with Edinburgh?

The kataphystic epistemology of T. F. Torrance is established upon a conception of reality determined by God’s self-revelation in Jesus Christ. However, understanding exactly what Torrance conceived the nature of reality to be is one of the more difficult challenges facing his interpreters. Torrance did not articulate his view of reality in formal proofs, but rather as the obedient response to God’s self-revelation. Problematically, however, Torrance’s attempts to establish connections between a theologically determined conception of reality and the view of reality in twentieth century physics has been subjected to continued criticism. This paper asks whether a fresh approach can help to clarify what Torrance’s conception of reality is via a comparative analysis with an immanent-realist reading of Aristotle’s formal discussion of ousia in the Categories. It is not argued that Torrance developed his conception of reality under the determination of Aristotelian metaphysics. It is argued that by such an analysis, we might understand Torrance’s theologically determined understanding of reality a little better, particularly on the crucial matters such as the actual existence of reality independent of the observer and its own intrinsic intelligibility in intimate conjunction with phenomena.