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Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World (09)
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Paul Jang
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2008-12-03 14:45:39, hit : 3,081 |
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3. Salvation in Christ : Particularist View (Alister McGrath)
(1) Agnosticism regarding those who have not heard the gospel.
(2) Particularist approach to religions and salvation focuses not so much on the doctrine of creation as on that of salvation.
(3) Salvation is to be understood, and it is grounded in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
(4) Salvation is a possibility only on account of Jesus Christ. For the New Testament writers, Jesus was the only Savior of humanity.
(5) The New Testament thus affirms the particularity of the redemptive act of God in Jesus Christ. The early Christian tradition, basing itself on the New Testament, reaffirmed this particularity.
(6) Although the early Christians acknowledged that God's revelation went far beyond Jesus Christ (known to various extents through such means as the natural order of creation, human conscience, and civilization), this general knowledge of God cannot give salvation to humanity.
1) Calvin who expresses a long-standing consensus within the Christian theology that knowledge of God may be had outside the Christian tradition (through the general revelation)
2) Reformed church maintains the general position of Calvin despite the vigorous challenge of Karl Barth.
3) Karl Barth insisted that no knowledge of God was available or possible outside Christ thus shifting from a Christocentric to a Christomonistic position.
4) Natural theology within the Reformed tradition points to a belief, grounded in Scripture, that God has not left himself without witnesses in the world, whether in nature itself, classical philosophy, or other religions (Rom 1:18-32)
5) Lutheran dogmatics has maintained the same general principle often expressed in terms of the distinction between Deus absconditus (hidden God) and Deus revelatus (revealed God).
(7) Some correctives must immediately be added.
1) The Christian tradition bears witness to a particular understanding of God and cannot be merged into the various concepts of divinity found in other religions (not consistence each other but points of contact).
2) In the Christian understanding, factual or cognitive knowledge of God is not regarded as saving in itself (knowledge and salvation are different).
3) The notion of salvation varies considerably from one religion to another (the notion of salvation in other religions is not same as Christianity).
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Introduction
Theology 