Strangeness Forgiveness Salvation
... “…the real task of hermeneutics…is to overcome the fundamental strangeness and alien quality that lies in the Christian message itself, culminating in the idea that even faith is exclusively a gift of divine grace so that all our criteria of merit and worth lose their significance. ... ” Is there a “fundamental strangeness” and “alien quality” in the Christian message itself? ... In the Christian vision, that “greater good” is the ultimate salvation of humankind made possible by the grace of God in the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, that serves to expiate all human sin for all time, making divine forgiveness available whenever it is asked. The concept of forgiveness itself is radical. ... The element of forgiveness is a feature of Christianity that makes the religion itself unique, and also what makes Jesus unique. ... Even if Jesus had done nothing other than pray for the forgiveness of those crucifying him as they were doing it, that alone would be sufficient to make him a unique figure in history, and to create meaning for those who hear this story. ... The difference between Christians and Jews is that faithfulness to the core of Judaism is measured in and manifested by obedience to the law, (the Torah-Book, manifested in the Halacha, or Jewish law) whereas faithfulness to the core of Christianity is measured in and manifested by the praxis of forgiveness (i. ... Forgiveness is a revolutionary concept, and rare in human history and doings. On a personal level, I find the Eucharist meaningful not because it proclaims the mystery of faith, which it does do, but because I find the practice of forgiveness to be meaningful and useful in my daily life. One simply cannot carry on relationships with others without the element of forgiveness. ... The movement of forgiveness allows us to maintain it. ... The search itself, the praxis of justice-seeking, peace-making, and forgiveness is the content of human salvation, and is the salvation. Ultimate salvation in the eschatological sense is unknowable. ... Although, as the title of Mark Heim’s 1995 book suggests, there are many “salvations” and many kinds of salvation can be a recurring theme in many religious traditions, I do not necessarily believe that “salvation” of any sort is necessarily the goal of a religious life for all religions, nor do I believe that the goal of dialogue between religions and faith communities is to seek commonality. ... However, in order to be authentically Christian, I also have to believe in the Great Commission, recognizing all the while that simply because Jesus is my salvation does not mean that he will be everyone’s salvation, and that Jesus is simply not “right” for everyone within their own context. ... But because I do in fact believe that Jesus’ salvific action on the cross serves as expiation for all human sin for all time, I do have to believe that Jesus can become the salvation for others, just as he became mine. ... It is my feeling that the Christian need to apologize for and receive forgiveness for all the atrocities committed in the name of Christianity is far greater than the need to establish “soteriology” as a basis for interreligious dialogue. “Salvation,” after all, comes through and as a result of the sacrifice of Christ on the cross, that makes forgiveness of sins available to humankind. In my view, the uniqueness of Jesus is the capacity for forgiveness, and for me, it is forgiveness, rather than “love of neighbor” as Knitter would have it, that became for me the important message of Christianity. ... In other words, the search to establish some central concept, such as salvation, as the basis or focal point for interreligious dialogue is to simply cave in to the centristic forces in Western culture that seem to require it.