The Ministry and the Sacraments of the Gospel
The second part of 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 second volume, Torrance's thought on inter-denominational cooperation in light of the Church's mission is presented. He begins by suggesting that 'the lines of conflict and agreement in the Church coincide less and less with the frontiers of the historic communions'. This opens the door for greater union between those communion, but also exposes significant challenges to unity within them. Addressing the major debates on the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist, along with the priesthood and biblical exegesis, Torrance proposes a constructive way forward sealed by 'reconciliation in the Body and Blood of Christ'.