Press Release

T.F. Torrance Collection
Donated to Princeton Seminary

Princeton, NJ, January 24, 2008­The family of the Very Reverend Professor Thomas F. Torrance (1913–2007) has donated his books, personal papers, and manuscripts to the special collections of the Princeton Theological Seminary Libraries. This working library from one of the twentieth century’s greatest Reformed theologians represents a major gift to Princeton Seminary.

Thomas F. Torrance was a frequent visitor to the Seminary campus and also acted as an informal advisor and confidant to several of its presidents. His younger son, Iain R. Torrance, became Princeton Seminary’s sixth president in 2004.

T.F. Torrance’s elder son, Thomas S. Torrance, an economist at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, said, "For many years it was our father’s intention that his books should go to my brother Iain as the son who had followed him into theology. With Iain’s becoming president of Princeton Seminary, our thoughts changed, as we all agreed that it would be best for our father’s books to come to Princeton."

"T.F. Torrance was a towering figure among contemporary theologians," said Clifford Anderson, curator of special collections. "We are absolutely delighted to have received this invaluable collection of letters, manuscripts, sermons, and reading files. This collection will attract scholars worldwide to the Seminary Libraries."

T.F. Torrance was born in 1913 in Chengtu, China. He received his B.D. from the University of Edinburgh in 1937. He studied with Karl Barth at the University of Basel in 1937­38, subsequently completing his doctoral thesis under his direction in 1946. In the Second World War, Torrance served as a chaplain in the British Army during its Middle Eastern and Italian campaigns. After serving as a parish pastor, he was appointed to the Chair of Church History at the University of Edinburgh in 1950. Two years later, he accepted the Chair of Christian Dogmatics, which he occupied until his retirement in 1979. In 1976, Torrance served as the Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. Torrance was a prolific author on subjects ranging from patristics, ecumenical theology, Scottish church history, and the relation between theology and science. He was also the coeditor of the English translation of Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics. Torrance was awarded the prestigious Templeton Prize in 1978.

T.F. Torrance’s library contains approximately four thousand volumes, with nearly a thousand books dating from the eighteenth century or earlier, and a number of volumes on Scottish Reformation theology. Many of the books are annotated by T.F. Torrance’s own hand. His papers contain correspondence, sermons, lecture notes, topic files, manuscripts, photograph albums, and various objects (including his many awards and honorary degrees).

The collection must be organized and described before it can be made accessible. The Department of Special Collections will employ a professional archivist to prepare the collection for researchers. "We expect that the collection will be open to the public by late 2009," explained Anderson.

Princeton Theological Seminary was founded in 1812, the first seminary established by the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. It is the largest Presbyterian seminary in the country, with more than 700 students in seven graduate degree programs.