Date
August 2008
Department
Religion
Degree
Master of Arts (MA)
Chair
John D. Morrison
Primary Subject Area
Theology
Keywords
Incarnation, Thomas Forsyth Torrance, Miracle, Einstein, Newton, John Douglas Morrison
Recommended Citation
Samms, Daniel Christopher, "Incarnation and The Nature of Miracle: Thomas Forsyth Torrance’s View of The Incarnation" (2008). Masters Theses. 24.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/masters/24
Abstract
The concept of miracle, especially the miracle of the Incarnation is vital to the Christian faith. However, current approaches to miracle begin with a cosmologically dualist presuppositions rooted in Newtonian physics, which see the universe as a closed mechanistic system on which order is imposed from the outside. Miracles are not possible in this dualist framework that separates God from His creation. The result is incongruent definitions of miracle. Many of these incongruent definitions rule out God’s redemptive self-revelation to human beings. However, Thomas Forsyth Torrance has developed a unitary theological science that understands the universe as “open-up” to God’s redemptive self-revelation, especially His revelation in the Incarnation of the Son of God. Contra Newton, Torrance via Albert Einstein, understands the universe to be inherently rational. Thus, the universe does not need to have rationality imposed on it from outside. In this way, it is contingent and thus open to the Incarnation of the Son of God. This thesis identifies key principles in Torrance’s approach to the Incarnation in order to develop a model to be applied toward a definition of miracle.
