According to T. F. Torrance, all authentic knowledge involves the nature of the object impressing its inherent rationality on our minds. Consequently, knowledge involves thinking in accordance with the nature of the object given for thought. Given that this epistemological position is not presuppositionless, we shall explore the place and function of "ultimate beliefs" in Torrance's epistemology, as well as the question as to whether such beliefs imply a retreat to either foundationalism or fideism. The inescapability of ultimate beliefs in all human knowledge requires a shift in the traditional notion of objectivity. Consequently Torrance's understanding of objectivity, and the reasons for his insistence that the subject-object relation cannot be transcended, are analyzed. Additionally, our ability to keep our tendency toward subjectivity in check is considered. It is also argued that Torrance's epistemological position implies an alternative notion of truth. Drawing on distinctly Christian sources, Torrance emphasizes the distinction between truth and truthfulness thereby reorienting the discussion from a focus on statements to a focus on being. This shift challenges the dichotomy between correspondence and coherence theories of truth and provides one way of transcending the scientific realism/anti-realism debate. Torrance's position on truth is located relative to other well-known thinkers. Torrance's epistemological convictions give rise to a practical epistemological tool, disclosure models. These function as self-correcting, self-marginalizing lenses through which we encounter reality, allowing it to disclose itself to us. It is this constant disclosure and revision that enables our concepts to remain rooted in reality and yield knowledge in accordance to the nature of the thing known.

The Christian tradition, both East and West, has developed various models and theories of the atonement as explanations of what it means to speak of the reconciling activity of God in Christ. Central to these has been the claim that God has reconciled the world to himself in Christ. One way of testifying to the reconciling love of God has been the adoption of the metaphor theosis (�divinization�, �deification�) as an explanation of salvation. While central to Eastern Orthodoxy, a doctrine of theosis also has a rich tradition within Western, especially Reformed theology. The Reformed theologian, Thomas Forsyth Torrance, represents an attempt to construct a soteriology that incorporates both Eastern and Western models of the atonement around the controlling metaphor of theosis. A close reading of his theology presents a robust and clearly articulated doctrine of theosis as a key way of expressing God�s reconciling activity in Christ. As the true Man and the last Adam, Christ represents the arche and telos of human existence, the one in whose image all humanity has been created and into whose likeness all humanity is destined to be transformed from glory to glory. Through the Incarnation the Son becomes human without ceasing to be divine, to unite humanity and divinity together and effect a �deification� of human nature, mediated to men and women who are said to be �in Christ� by the work of the Holy Spirit. By means of a �wonderful exchange� Christ takes what is ours and gives us what is his. For Torrance, this is the heart of atonement. The goal of humanity is worship, something Torrance defines as the gift of participating through the Spirit in the incarnate Son�s communion with the Father. The locus of worship, and thus of theosis, is the church, the communion of saints created by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Throughout Torrance�s doctrines of creation, anthropology, incarnation, reconciliation, and pneumato-ecclesiology, the concept of theosis plays a central and constitutive role in explaining a Christian theology of salvation. Theosis is thus foundational to Torrance�s theology and is one way in which he holds together in systematic fashion his diverse theological oeuvre.

Thomas F. Torrance (1913- 2007) is recognised as one of the foremost theologians of the twentieth century. Eschatology occupies a very significant place in his theology, although scholars interested in his work have paid little attention to this fact, focusing instead on his methodology. This thesis not only brings Torrance's eschatology to light through an exploration of his sermons, correspondence, lectures and short writings, it shows that it is a central component of his early theology, uncovering an eschatological orientation in his treatment of various Christian doctrines. It also takes cognizance of the fact that this eschatology is shaped by such events as WWII, the spread Clf communism, the modern eschatological debate and the world- wide ecumenical movement. Torrance's eschatology seeks to recapture, on the basis of a high Christology, the New Testament tension between the present realization of the Kingdom of God and the future consummation of it. In contrast to many contemporary eschatologies, Torrance's eschatology is apocalyptic, ecclesial and ecumenical. It is unique too in its attempt to do justice to the humanity of Christ and to the interrelation of the doctrines of creation and redemption. / Thomas F. Torrance (1913 - 2007) est reconnu comille l'un des principaux theologiens du XXe siecle. L'eschatologie occupe une place importante dans sa theologie, bien que les chercheurs interesses par ses travaux ont porte peu d'attention a ce fait, se concentrant plutot sur sa methodologie. Cette these apporte non seulement l'eschatologie de Torrance a la lumiere a travers une exploration de ses sermons, sa correspondance, ses conferences et de courts ecrits, elle demontre aussi qu'elle est un element central des debuts de sa theologie, devoilant une orientation eschatologique dans son traitement des differente doctrines chretiennes. Elle prend egalement connaissance du fait que cette eschatologie est faconnee par des evenements comme la Seconde Guerre mondiale, la propagation du communisme, Ie debat eschatologique mod erne et Ie mouvement recumenique mondial. L'eschatologie de Torrance cherche a retrouver, sur la base d'une haute christologie, la tension neotestamentaire entre la realisation actuelle du Royaume de Dieu et son accomplissement futur. Contrairement a de nombreuses eschatologies, on decouvre chez Torrance une eschatologie qui est apocalyptique, ecclesiale et recumenique. Elle est aussi remarquable pour sa tentative de rendre justice a l'humanite du Christ et de l'interdependance des doctrines de la creation et de la redemption. fr

Chapter one begins with a definition and exposition of the concept of theodicy, and a topology for characterizing comparative theodicies is suggested. It is argued that the basis on which theodicies might be compared is the foundational ontological principles on which they are built. Chapter two is a lengthy discussion regarding the meaning of terms such as omnipotence omniscience omnibenevolence, moral evil and natural evil. Chapter three begins with a critical analysis of a variety of theodicies found throughout the history of Christian theology. The final conclusion drawn in this chapter is that none of the proposed answers is acceptable. Acceptability is measured in three important ways: First, is the position logically consistent, second, does it conform, at least in a broad way, to the major tenents of the Christian form of life, and third, does this position take the individual sufferer seriously? In chapter four a foundation is laid for a response to the problem of evil which is to follow in chapter five. In this penultimate chapter an analysis of the Book of Job is offered which centers on the interpretation of Yahweh's speeches out of the whirlwind. It is suggested that the crux of Jobs repentance is to be understood in connection with Job "seeing God." In chapter five, an attempt is made, using the help of Karl Barth, D. M. Mackinnon, P. T. Forsyth, Ludwig Wittgenstein and John Wisdom, as well as some insights gained from chapter four, to argue that there is a teleological response to the problem of evil that is logically consistent, true to the Christian form of life and sensitive to the needs of the individual sufferer.

The Christian tradition, both East and West, has developed various models and theories of the atonement as explanations of what it means to speak of the reconciling activity of God in Christ. Central to these has been the claim that God has reconciled the world to himself in Christ. One way of testifying to the reconciling love of God has been the adoption of the metaphor theosis (�divinization�, �deification�) as an explanation of salvation. While central to Eastern Orthodoxy, a doctrine of theosis also has a rich tradition within Western, especially Reformed theology. The Reformed theologian, Thomas Forsyth Torrance, represents an attempt to construct a soteriology that incorporates both Eastern and Western models of the atonement around the controlling metaphor of theosis. A close reading of his theology presents a robust and clearly articulated doctrine of theosis as a key way of expressing God�s reconciling activity in Christ. As the true Man and the last Adam, Christ represents the arche and telos of human existence, the one in whose image all humanity has been created and into whose likeness all humanity is destined to be transformed from glory to glory. Through the Incarnation the Son becomes human without ceasing to be divine, to unite humanity and divinity together and effect a �deification� of human nature, mediated to men and women who are said to be �in Christ� by the work of the Holy Spirit. By means of a �wonderful exchange� Christ takes what is ours and gives us what is his. For Torrance, this is the heart of atonement. The goal of humanity is worship, something Torrance defines as the gift of participating through the Spirit in the incarnate Son�s communion with the Father. The locus of worship, and thus of theosis, is the church, the communion of saints created by the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Throughout Torrance�s doctrines of creation, anthropology, incarnation, reconciliation, and pneumato-ecclesiology, the concept of theosis plays a central and constitutive role in explaining a Christian theology of salvation. Theosis is thus foundational to Torrance�s theology and is one way in which he holds together in systematic fashion his diverse theological oeuvre.

This thesis resulted in the development of robust chironomid-based transfer-functions for February mean air temperature and the concentration of total nitrogen (TN) in lake-water. The New Zealand transfer-functions for both variables compare favourably with chironomid-based transfer-functions for equivalent variables from elsewhere in the world, and diatom-based transfer-functions for nutrients and lake production from New Zealand. The application of the temperature and TN transfer-functions provided insight into New Zealand climate conditions during the last glacial and served as validation for the reconstructions. Chironomid-based Temperature reconstructions from lake silts preserved in the banks of Lyndon Stream indicate a maximum cooling of ca 4 ℃ between 26.6 and 24.5 ka BP, which is consistent with estimates based on beetles and plant macrofossils. A cooling of 4 ℃ is insufficient to explain the lack of canopy tree pollen in many New Zealand pollen records at this time. Other environmental parameters additional to temperature may have limited the expansion forest cover. The chironomid-based TN reconstructions infer a trend of rapidly deteriorating water-quality in a small doline in north-west Nelson, in the South Island of New Zealand following deforestation immediately surrounding the lake ca. 1970 AD. The overall trend and timing of eutrophication inferred from the chironomids was consistent with other biological proxies and actual observations of changes in lake water quality. The chironomid-based transfer-functions provide a valuable new tool for the study of longterm climate variability and improving our understanding of the response of aquatic ecosystems to long-term natural and human induced environmental change in New Zealand lakes. I have identified some possibilities for future research which should improve the performance of these transfer-functions. The improvement of the chironomid taxonomy and the expansion of the training set should be the highest priorities.

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity International University, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-175).

Thesis (M.A.)--Trinity International University, 2006. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 168-175).

This thesis argues that the pertinent intellectual context for understanding Thomas F. Torrance's reconstruction of natural theology is the synthesis of the rational structure of knowledge and the material content of knowledge. The bridge between the synthesis of (i) rational structure and material content, and (ii) natural theology is the analogous relation Torrance set between the relation of natural theology and revealed theology and the relation of practical geometry and physics, which is constituted by the same formal relation of rational structure and material content. By examining Torrance's work on natural theology in this connection it is apparent that the germane methodological issue at stake is the manner of the relation between the rational structure of human understanding and the material content of God's self-revelation in theological cognition. Torrance's criticism of natural theology concerns its autonomous formulations in which theistic argumentation is established as an antecedent rational sub-structure, from which revealed theology is interpreted and cognized within an anthropocentric correlate system. Accordingly, Torrance's reconstruction of natural theology is the reconfiguration of the relation of rational structure and material content within theological rationality. Applied to the classical loci of natural theology, this takes the form of a reconceptualisation of the cosmological argument and ontological argument, such that the rational structure of theistic argumentation is determined through its connection to revelation at key points. The significance of this inversion of the relation of rational structure and material content extends outwards into Torrance's broader dogmatics, where natural theology is identified as the rational intra-structure of theology, which, in conjunction with revealed theology as material content, constitutes theological science. The result is a theological approach that sets itself as a development beyond Karl Barth's rejection of natural theology, which conceives of natural theology as the necessary but insufficient condition of theology, under the determination of God's self-revelation.

This dissertation is a comparative analysis of the yeomanry of Forsyth and Hancock counties in Georgia during the ten years prior to the Civil War. The premise argues that definitive characteristics of yeoman culture can only be found in counties that are dominated the yeomanry. Studies that find yeomen in planter dominated counties are defined those yeomen by the institutions that are created by and serve the planter society.