Wednesday, 14 February 2007

T. F. Torrance audio lectures (1)

Recently, a reader from the UK got in touch with me about some T. F. Torrance audio lectures. He had old cassette copies of a lecture series that Torrance gave at Union Theological College in Belfast, Northern Ireland, some time in the early 1980s. This reader was kind enough to convert the audio cassettes to mp3, and he has sent me the series of lectures as eight mp3 files (4.2 hours in total). This is a great resource – as far as I know, there are no other lectures by Torrance available online.

So I’ll be posting these lectures as podcasts over the next couple of weeks. The quality varies – unfortunately, the quality is poorer in the first lecture, and the start of the first lecture seems to be missing. (If you happen to know how to edit mp3 files, I’m sure you could improve the sound-quality; please send me an email if you’d like to volunteer for this job.)

Anyway, here’s the first 32-minute instalment: you can listen to it here, or you can get the podcast feed here.

10 Comments:

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! I can't wait to hear the rest!

Anonymous said...

From all us theology nerds out there, thanks, Ben. And thanks for providing it as a downloadable mp3 and not just a feed. The sound quality sounds pretty good to me, especially considering that it came from an old cassette.

Anonymous said...

Brilliant! Please post the rest soon!!!

Michael Westmoreland-White, Ph.D. said...

What a gift to us all, Ben! I heard Torrance lecture once in the mid'80s. Amazing.

BTW, is it true that 1/3 of all Scottish theologians are named Torrance? :-)

Jon said...

I'm in a class with one... Andrew Torrance son of Alan... and we're both taking a module done by Alan - "Salvation in Christian Reflection" and one of the readings is a passage from TFT so in answer to your question... yes!

Michael Westmoreland-White, Ph.D. said...

Hmm, I heard most of the other Scottish theologians are named "Baillie." :-)

Actually, theological brilliance running in families has a long tradition--and not just in Scotland. Nature or nurture? The brothers Wesley? Swiss Family Barth? The Niebuhr family? (Everyone is familiar with brothers Reinhold and H. Richard, but their father, Gustav, was a major leader in their immigrant denomination, the German Evangelical Synod--one of the components of the 1950 amalgamation known as the United Church of Christ. The Niebuhrs' mother, Lydia, served as a de facto associate pastor for both Gustav and Reinie. Reinie and H. Richard's older sister, Hulda, was a pioneer in congregational based religious education. H. Richard's son, Richard Reinhold Niebuhr, was a longtime theologian and Schleiermacher scholar at Harvard. Reinie's wife, Ursula Keppel-Compton, originally from the U.K., was also trained as a theologian and taught the subject until Reinie's stroke cut short her career.)

The incredible Torrance family is another where, through genetics or family dynamics, it keeps producing theological brilliance. Sociologists ought to study this phenomenon.

Halden said...

This is great. Torrance is the best British theologian since MacKintosh, in my opinion. Don't dilly dally in posting the other lecture! :)

Anonymous said...

Of the Torrance lectures posted, only two were actual Torrance lectures. The others were live music performances. So, unless TF was sidelining as a Christian rock artist, I don't know if those files belong to him!

Thanks for the other two!

Ben Myers said...

Hi E. Flett: I've only posted one of the Torrance files so far. There are 7 more to come, and I'll be posting them over the next week or so.

W. Travis McMaken said...

I downloaded; I listened; I felt theologically nourished. Keep them coming!

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