Conflict and Agreement in the Church, Volume 1

T.F. Torrance's collected writings on ecclesiology and ecumenical disputes, informed by his work for the Faith and Order Commission.

T.F. Torrance's Conflict and Agreement in the Church gathers together his most influential essays and articles on topics relating to ecumenism. Himself involved heavily in the ecumenical movement, he wrote that 'ours must be the task of learning together again how to confess, like the early Church, faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and God in all its breadth and length and height and depth, and therefore in the overflowing love of God.' Out of this conviction grew a comprehensive doctrine of the Church 'in which our differences are lost sight of because they are destroyed from behind by a masterful faith in the Saviour of men.'
In this first volume, Torrance presents a set of essays engaging theologically with different denominations, along with responses to particular problems facing the ecumenical project. In particular, writing after the third world conference on faith and order, he addresses the hopes and barriers it raised to closer ecumenical relations. Throughout, Torrance's acute awareness of contrasting theological principles establishes a firm basis for further progress, without obscuring the doctrinal and ecclesiological differences that remain.

Thomas F. Torrance (1913-2007) was Professor of Christian Dogmatics at the University of Edinburgh. A prolific writer on many topics, he is known particularly for his study of Karl Barth, and his early work on theology and natural science. In 1976-7 Torrance served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, and in 1978 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion.