While this formula has been a powerful statement of good news in some times and places, it was, for the questioner in the audience, simply a puzzle. I wonder if it
DESIGN PICS
sibilities has the potential to move us beyond whatever theology regarding salvation has been handed down to us (by both the church and the wider culture) to a more “deliberative” theology.
Swanson: Let me offer an example. I was in an interfaith meeting where a Christian panel was asked, “What does my Christian neighbor mean when she tells me that Christ died for my sins?” The questioner was honestly baffled. The question is a good one.
“Christ died for your sins” is a very common formula. We hear it all the time. But I see it as shorthand. To say “Christ died for your sins” puts particular emphasis on one aspect of the human condition (sinfulness) and on one aspect of the mystery of the incarnation (Christ’s death).
would have helped to expand the formula: “Christ lived, died and rose again for you, whatever your sins.” This offers a fuller formula- tion—and we can go on expanding it. We are called again and again not to repeat for- mulas but to ask how the story of Jesus embraces and interprets the sto- ries of the friends to whom we speak.
Hannan: A question arises in most conversations on salvation: What must I do to obtain (or keep) this gift of salvation? I’ve often ques- tioned the necessity or pertinence of this question, as my own theology understands that we are justified not by any works of our own but by the actions of a loving and gracious God. Even so, this question does have its place—at the very least because we constantly struggle with it. The Lutheran tradition insists that the answer to the question above is “nothing”—God is the agent when it comes to salvation. However, Scripture is full of stories that offer a correlation between salvation and faith and further correlations of these things (salvation and faith) with works. Hence, careful nuancing is needed.
While we understand that our works are a grateful response to God’s saving work, it is still the Spirit that prompts, guides and accomplishes our participation (whether by our faith, our words or our deeds) in the unfolding story of salvation. In other words, God is ever at the center of it all.
Swanson: So perhaps we can put it like this: For Christians, salvation is the work of God the Trinity, which through baptism brings about our participation in the life of God the Trinity.
This, by the way, reminds us that any description of “salvation” is faith-specific: it has to do with the fulfillment of what one’s faith holds is the nature of ultimate reality. For those who believe in a God who has a good purpose for their lives and very existence, “salvation” is the realiza- tion of this purpose, which goes hand in hand with God’s own purpose. For Christians, this leads us to God the Trinity.
Hannan: Given your work, I suspect you get asked about the salvation of those who don’t profess to be Chris- tian. Do people ask you about the eternal destiny of, for example, Mus- lim or Hindu neighbors?
Swanson: Indeed, that’s a com- mon question. Well, God alone is judge. Our ultimate fate is in God’s hands and is a matter of God’s judg- ment rather than ours. But I believe and hope that the divine mercy and love—which I know as the love of God in Jesus Christ poured out by the Spirit—embraces and interprets the stories of my non-Christian friends in ways beyond our understanding. In any event, we must approach every human being as a fellow crea- ture of God, loved by God, and cre- ated for God’s good ends. M
January 2012 19
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