Professor Torrance has held the chair of systematic theology in the University of St Andrews. Earlier in his career he taught in universities in Germany and Scotland before being appointed to a chair in New Zealand. In 1993, he was appointed Director of the Research Institute in Systematic Theology, King’s College London and in 1998-9, he held a Senior Research Fellowship in the University of Notre Dame, Indiana. He was appointed to his present position in 1999.
His publications include a monograph, Persons in Communion, several edited and co-edited volumes and numerous articles in the fields of Christian doctrine and philosophical theology – most recently, on the relationship between theological anthropology and developments in the neurosciences and on the interface between Christian dogmatics, ethics and politics. In 1994 a Festschrift was published in his honour and in 1997, he was invited to give the Hensley Henson Lectures in the University of Oxford. In addition, he has given several series of endowed lectures in the USA as well as lecturing widely in Asia and Australasia. Over recent years he has been a member of four USA-funded research projects working on such diverse topics as faith and reason, brain-mind issues, forgiveness and politics, and theology and the built environment. Last year, he was awarded (jointly with Professor Eric Priest, the solar physicist and mathematician), £68,000 to launch the Gregory Lectures on Religion and Science.
A keen musician, he has played violin professionally with the Scottish Baroque Ensemble and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and now plays chamber music with his four sons. In January, this year, he lost his wife to cancer after 25 years of marriage. He is ordained in the Church of Scotland. When time allows, he enjoys kayaking, fishing and mountain-biking with his family.
