The Import of Thomas F. Torrance’s Theological Anthropology for Addressing Racialization in Contemporary Society

Theological anthropology is “implicated” or intimated in various places in Thomas F. Torrance’s corpus. However, the doctrine of humanity has not received sufficient consideration in secondary literature. This essay will devote consideration to the import of Torrance’s theological anthropology for discussions of race in our contemporary context. Torrance did not write at great length on race and racism. However, he did critique anti-Semitism and Apartheid. Moreover, his theological anthropology can serve as a significant resource for the development of theological discourse surrounding race and racism in the present setting. Torrance’s volume The Mediation of Christ will serve as the fountainhead for discussion given its treatment of dualistic Enlightenment thought, Israel and Gentiles, mention of anti-Semitism, the import of Jesus as the personalizing person/humanizing human as Mediator, and his vicarious humanity. How might Torrance’s theological anthropology’s implications for race confront racialization in the contemporary context? Consideration will focus on the need to address and advance beyond three problematic and interrelated constructs with their import for race: first, dualism; second, Hellenism; and third, nationalism, nativism, and ethnocentrism.