Theologies of Salvation from the Eighteenth to Twenty-First Centuries

This overview chapter for the fourth part of the book covers theologies of salvation from the eighteenth to the twenty-first centuries. It covers John Wesley, Friedrich Schleiermacher, Karl Barth, Hans Urs von Balthasar, Karl Rahner, and Gustavo Gutiérrez. In the overview chapter, Ryan Reeves explains that the unique context of this period of time provides an intriguing backdrop for competing theologies of salvation. The dawn and subsequent growth of modernity and the rise in rational, empirical thinking in this period reveal the need for theologians to re-examine both the nature and effects of salvation.

John Calvin

This chapter describes John Calvin’s theology of salvation. Calvin champions the work of the Spirit’s indwelling, transforming, and glorifying human beings in Christ, as well as his understanding of the gospel as the double grace of justification and sanctification accessed through union with Christ, received through faith.

Saint Thomas Aquinas

This chapter covers the theology of Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas’s views on salvation are rooted primarily in both the internal liberation from sin whereby the soul is renewed and justified by grace, and the cause of said justification, which is participation in the justice of the soul of Jesus Christ himself.

Theologies of Salvation in the Middle Ages

This overview chapter for the second part of the book covers the Middle Ages and includes chapters on Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, and Julian of Norwich. This chapter recounts the development of the theology of salvation through this period, where the life of Christ as the payment to the Devil for the souls under his authority became an increasingly popular notion. Over the course of the Middle Ages, this doctrine became known as the harrowing of Hell, due to the belief that when Jesus rose from the grave, the righteous were let out of Hell itself.

Athanasius

This chapter outlines the theology of salvation of Athanasius, noting that Athanasius believed that though man is fully dependent on grace, this grace is received by directing the mind toward God. As Yocum explains, Athanasius believed that the primary purpose of God becoming man in Christ was to do away with death and give way to life through the resurrection for those who are in Christ.

Gustavo Gutiérrez

This chapter explains the soteriology of Gustavo Gutiérrez, one of the founders of liberation theology. Gutiérrez’s theology of salvation is centered around the communion of humans with one another and with God, found not necessarily in a forensic declaration, meritorious works, or exclusive claim to an economic transaction, but in relationship with God the Father who produces human flourishing.

Hans Urs von Balthasar and Karl Rahner

This chapter provides an account of the theology of salvation for both Hans Urs Balthasar and Karl Rahner, eminent Roman Catholic, Jesuit theologians of the twentieth century. Dickens explores both the similarities between these two theologians, such as their disdain for the neoscholastic theological method, and their differences, which primarily exist in their conception of the person, distinctive views of sin, and the scope of the reconciliation of God in Christ.

Friedrich Schleiermacher’s Theology of Salvation

This chapter traces Friedrich Schleiermacher’s theology of salvation. Schleiermacher’s theology was unique in that it directly confronted the challenges posed by modernity, positing that the solution to the sin problem in man is found in the reality in the removal of sin and the incorporation of the believer into the corporate life of “blessedness” in Jesus Christ.

John Wesley

This chapter examines the teachings of John Wesley, one of the most influential men of the eighteenth century. Wesley’s theology of salvation, though not unique in Christian history, is an important and unmistakably Protestant view, rooted in the theology of the early church, though with an emphasis on God’s universal salvific will together with unlimited atonement.

Julian of Norwich

This chapter addresses the life and thoughts of the English mystic Julian of Norwich. Julian’s unique life of suffering shaped her understanding of theology, in which salvation is part of the journey of the individual, in which salvation occurs not as a result of humanity running from God, but as a great oneing between Divinity and humanity.