The God Who Saves

Christian universalism has been explored in its biblical, philosophical, and historical dimensions. For the first time, The God Who Saves explores it in systematic theological perspective. In doing so it also offers a fresh take on universal salvation, one that is postmetaphysical, existential, and hermeneutically critical. The result is a constructive account of soteriology that does justice to both the universal scope of divine grace and the historicity of human existence. In The God Who Saves David W. Congdon orients theology systematically around the New Testament witness to the apocalyptic inbreaking of God's reign. The result is a consistently soteriocentric theology. Building on the insights of Rudolf Bultmann, Ernst Kasemann, Eberhard Jungel, and J. Louis Martyn, he interprets the saving act of God as the eschatological event that crucifies the old cosmos in Christ. Human beings participate in salvation through their unconscious, existential cocrucifixion, in which each person is interrupted by God and placed outside of himself or herself. Both academically rigorous and pastorally sensitive, The God Who Saves opens up new possibilities for understanding not only what salvation is but also who the God who brings about our salvation is. Here is an interdisciplinary exercise in dogmatic theology for the twenty-first century. ""David Congdon and I grew up together theologically. It has been my privilege to watch his penetrating insight grow and develop into a creative theological program. Rumors of dialectical theology's demise have been greatly exaggerated. If you are interested in a glimpse of what a fresh dialectical theology for the twenty-first century looks like--and you should be!--you need look no further."" --W. Travis McMaken, Associate Professor of Religion, Lindenwood University ""While the idea of universal salvation has long been a minority report in the Christian tradition, it has found an increasing number of advocates in recent times. This volume provides a rigorous, creative, and comprehensive dogmatic account of this belief from one of the brightest young scholars at work today. Even those who are not in agreement with Congdon's line of argument and conclusions will be challenged and enriched by the detail and scope of his engaging theological vision."" --John R. Franke, Theologian in Residence, Second Presbyterian Church, Indianapolis; Author, Manifold Witness: The Plurality of Truth ""Congdon has authored a sophisticated and ambitious dogmatic essay full of insight and bristling with provocation. He invites us to join him in a sustained experiment in radically soteriocentric thinking: what if the work of the God of the gospel on the cross were truly the Archimedean point from which all things are moved and so saved? Congdon's aim is to limn the revolution in Christian theology that should follow when Christian imagination and intelligence are animated and disciplined anew by faith in the God whose very being is at stake in his advent 'for us and for our salvation.' The God Who Saves is an important intervention in contemporary doctrinal debate."" --Philip G. Ziegler, Chair of Christian Dogmatics, Professor, University of Aberdeen ""This is a bold, clear, and stimulating articulation of the good news. While few will follow Congdon at every point, his account of eschatological theo-actualized universalism provokes in the places where it matters most, and reminds us again why the advent of Jesus Christ is the first article of faith, and the ground that makes Christian dogmatics possible, intelligible, and profoundly hopeful. Dorothee Soelle once insisted that 'when we ask ourselves what God is like, we must answer first by looking at what God does.' This essay takes up that momentous task admirably."" --Jason Goroncy, Senior Lecturer in Systematic Theology, Whitley College, University of Divinity, Australia ""A powerful and provocative work. In prose that is sim