'Salvation is of the Jews'

There have been several studies of Karl Barth’s doctrine of Israel, but hardly any research has been done on what Thomas F, Torrance, Barth’s greatest ambassador, had to say about Israel. This paper is an attempt to close this gap. It is based on a number of scattered references to the subject in Torrance’s major works, along with a small collection of essays and lectures on Israel and the Jews. This article demonstrates that Torrance’s doctrine reflects the tectonic shift in the twentieth century in the Christian stance towards the Jews. This shift was precipitated by the enormity of the Holocaust. “The Christian Church can never be the same after the Holocaust,” Torrance wrote...