THE DOCTRINE OF CHRIST AND SALVATION 

Christology (the doctrine of Christ) and soteriology (the doctrine of salvation) are key features of Christian theology.  In many ways they are interlocked.  We cannot separate them in an absolute way, especially as in Christian theology, salvation is impossible without Christ. 

In Scripture, we find several passages that imply that salvation only comes through Christ.  In John 14:6 Jesus Himself says that "no one comes to the Father except through Him."  In the book of Acts we are told that "there is no other name given under Heaven to humankind by which we must be saved." And then the Apostle Paul says that "there is only one Mediator between God and humankind, the man Christ Jesus."  

When we read these passages superficially and without paying attention to the context, we tend to take them literally and at face value.  In other words, the tendency is to take them literally, and to state "the Bible says so and end of story." 

Christology is reflection upon the one whom the Christian community confesses as Lord and Savior.  Historically, this reflection has not been merely a theoretical matter. The effort has  informed the keenest of human interests-the interest in salvation.  It is therefore fitting that soteriology be considered at the same time as Christology (Walter Low, in "Christ and Salvation."  Christian Theology: An Introduction to Its Traditions and Tasks.  Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1994, p. 222). 

In testifying to Jesus Christ, the community points to a particular person who lived at a specific time and in a specific place.  This reference gives Christianity its distinctive identity, its specificity. But Christian thought throughout its history has oscillated between questions of identity and questions of relevance (Jurgen Moltmann, The Crucified God. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1993, p. 7).

If Christology is located at the first pole, i.e. identity, then soteriology would seem to gravitate to the second pole, that of relevance.  One might say that the role of soteriology is to show why this person Jesus Christ is understood to be significant (Lowe, op. cit. p. 222).

The modern period, however, experienced the polarity as a tension.  Linking soteriology to Christology has seemed to many to be odd and even presumptuous. After all, it amounts to gathering up the most fundamental of human concerns-the concern with salvation, however defined-and linking it, focusing it, and somehow making it contingent upon a Jewish prophet in a minor Roman dependency  some two thousand years ago.  The sense of anomaly and tension this creates is often termed "the scandal of particularity (Ibid.)"

In view of this concern, modern theology has tended to reverse the classic order of the doctrines.  In classic dogmatics, one felt free to begin with Christology and then proceed to soteriology.  One might talk about who Christ is, then about what He has done.  For many in the modern period, however, to begin with Christ seems to presume too much, to risk being irrelevant and if not, intolerant.  Thus modern theologians have generally preferred to start with soteriology, to begin by establishing a common ground with their audience on the basis of common humanity.  It has been said, after all, and only in half jest, that sin is the one Christian doctrine which can be empirically verified.  And if sin should seem too harsh a term to serve as a point of contact, one may speak in a more positive vein, invoking the human search for peace and meaning.  Whatever the particulars, this pattern of argument appears and reappears  throughout the modern period in the rhetoric of conservative preaching no less than in the proposals of liberal revision. In this broad sense the modern temperament has been preoccupied with apologetics-depicting some human need or experience, then speaking of salvation in relation to that need or experience, and finally presenting Jesus Christ as the one through whom salvation comes (Ibid., pp. 222-223).

We are then, faced with the question of which comes first between the chicken and the egg.  Do we begin with the person of Christ, or do we begin with the work of Christ?  Do we confine and limit God's liberating and salvific work in human history to the incarnated Christ of Bethlehem, or do we see Christ in more cosmic terms, not limited to dogmatic propositions? 

Few would deny the fruitfulness of the modern strategy.  Further, one may claim on its behalf that it simply brings to light a method already implicit within the classic Christologies. The best of the tradition, as has been noted, was never merely theoretical; it was animated from first to last by a deep soteriological interest.  At the same time, however, the shape of theology does make a difference.  To reverse  the classic paradigm generally entails a reinterpreting of content as well.  When the soteriological interest is converted into a topic of reflection in its own right and becomes itself a sort of doctrine (and a decisive one at that), then the modern approach, produces problems of its own (Lowe, op. cit., p. 223)

The whole issue of Christology hinges on the following two questions:

1.  What do we mean by the term "salvation?"  Are we referring to something that happens in the "hereafter," or is it something that happens in the "here and now?" 

2.  Is the Christ of Scripture a Christ who is restricted to the dogma and theology of the Christian Church or is the Christ of Scripture a cosmic and universal Christ who transcends all religious dogma and religious belief?

As a theologian who subscribes to Liberation Theology, I believe that salvation (deliverance and liberation) is something that occurs within history, and entails liberation from colonial, economic, political, and social bondage.  I also believe that God's liberating and salvific work in human history is not limited to preparing us for the "hereafter," but rather includes the element of the "yet/not yet" of God's reign through Christ.  Jesus Himself, on one occasion said, "If I by the finger of God, cast out demons, then the reign of God is among you."  

How Christology and soteriology are conceived and developed, will be something that will go along with the continuous construction of our theological systems.

In the Name of the Creator, and of the Liberator, and of the Sustainer. Amen.

Dr. Juan A. Carmona 

Past Visiting Professor of Theology 

Tainan Theological College/Seminary