Glorious isolation?

"We cannot compare the fact of Christ with other facts, nor can we deduce the fact of Christ from our knowledge of other facts... we cannot understand [the fact of Christ] in terms of other facts"

(p.1, TF Torrance, Incarnation)

I think that's half right. We cannot deduce Christ from other facts, but to understand him we do need to compare him with other things.

Theology is not a conversation that faith has with itself, it is not a monologue, but it is a critical engagement with doctrines, ideas, and ideologies inimical to the faith of the church. It only becomes what it is meant to be by engaging with objections and entering into disputes.... faith should be no stranger to conflict and dispute if its charter is: "I am the Lord, your God. You shall have no other gods besides me!"

we cannot examine the claim [of Christ] in isolation but only with reference to other things. Without such points of reference, we cannot even articulate the necessary contradictions. For proof of this, we only have to look at 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16, Romans 1:18-3:20, and Acts 17. Only an a priori Christological construct, divorced from all connections with life and suffering, could exist in glorious isolation because it spins everything out of itself.

(p.187, Oswald Bayer, Theology the Lutheran Way)