example, in his important 1985 book), we want to engage the Bible. It strikes me that John 14:6 needs to be read in context, as part of [the evangelist John’s portrayal of] Jesus’ word of encouragement and prom- ise to disciples whose hearts are troubled (verse 1), who don’t think they know “the way” (verse 5), but who receive extraordinary promises: the “way” that is also truth and life (verse 6), the abiding of the Spirit (verse 17), the love of the Father and the Son (verse 21), the peace that is not like the world’s (verse 27), the possibility of rejoicing (verse 28). This is the wonderful content of
Christian witness in word and—may it be so—in the lives of those of us who strive to be Jesus’ disciples. John 14:6, it seems to me, is good news to be proclaimed, not coordi- nates for a map of salvation’s limits.
Sebastian: Have we gotten stuck with possible limitations, or do we affirm the limitless possibili- ties that the good news brings? The unambiguous assertion that, for us as Christians, we confess and affirm Jesus Christ as our savior is framed within the question of mission. Does the affirmation about the lordship of Jesus Christ and his unique role as our only savior lead to the under- standing of mission as conversion alone?
In other writings, including my
chairing lecture in April as the H. George Anderson Professor of Mis- sion and Cultures at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadel- phia, where speaking on the always- ready and ever-generous church, I explored the shape of a Christologi- cal missiology that is nonviolent, non-vicious and non-vociferous. For Samartha, “the particular- ity and distinctiveness of Christian mission needs to be restated in such a way that cooperation with
neighbors of other faiths for com- mon purposes in society is not seen as a betrayal of mission but as the context in which the Christian wit- ness to God’s sav- ing work in Jesus Christ becomes transparently clear. No one demands that the church should abandon this mis- sion. Mission is integral to the gospel. … “The distinc- tiveness of Chris- tian mission lies precisely in its being Christian, that is, in its being rooted in God
through Jesus Christ and in being active in the world in the power of the Spirit, without denying, how- ever, that neighbors of other faiths too have their ‘missions’ in the global community.” How does this impact our under- standing of God’s salvific act in Jesus Christ in a world of religious plurality and interfaith hospitality? What does this mean for the way in which we read the Bible and recog- nize the trajectories of thinking that crisscross the biblical witness?
Swanson: I like your three non-Vs. Perhaps we need to say this: a worry that often lurks behind discussions about Christ as “only Savior” is whether people who do not make this confession explicitly in this life will meet some terrible fate in the hereafter, will “go to hell.” If that’s what we believe, then we can easily imagine our Christian
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duty as somehow extracting that confession, somehow bringing about that “conversion,” by whatever means available to us. But those means easily become manipula- tive—“vociferous” at the very least. I’m convinced that we can entrust our non-Christian friends and neigh- bors to God and the “wideness in God’s mercy” (as the old hymn has it), and pursue a way of Christian mission in the world that seeks to honor Christ and reflect Christ: “ever-generous” is a great descrip- tion, as is “always-ready” with the attentiveness and hospitality (as host and guest) that Christ practiced throughout his earthly ministry. For us as Christians, when we
ask how it is we are to be in mis- sion, here, too, “Jesus Christ and no other is the norm.” This is part and parcel of what it means for Chris- tians to confess Christ as the “only savior.”
December 2013 19
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