This chapter is exploratory. It seeks to glimpse “an other Christology.” I make no exclusivist claims for the project; it is one Christology among others; and, if I am correct, it is hardly a new one. The exploration is informed by the premise that those who set out in search of the tradition's “other” may discover in the process the otherness of the tradition.

“Christ and Salvation” recalls the classic theologies, which generally treat first the person and then the work of Christ. In modern theology, however, the common, even predominant, practice has been to reverse the sequence, placing some prefatory notion of salvation before the treatment of Christ. This reversal reflects the Christian community’s struggle to respond to the skepticism of modern Western culture by demonstrating, in one fashion or another, a need for Christianity.

In such a situation, the need naturally comes first. The need may be portrayed in manifold ways: as need for some larger meaning in one’s life, for example, or as need for deliverance from sin. Whatever the specifics, the argument generally includes four elements. The first is a broad, generally acceptable description of common human experience with emphasis upon certain problems or discontents: for example violence in our society, the pressures of contemporary life, the prevalence of drugs. There follows a more specific diagnosis of the phenomena in terms of some underlying condition, for example the search for meaning, or anxiety in the face of death. There then follow a general recommendation (cf. in medicine, “You need an analgesic”), and a specific remedy (“I suggest brand X”). “Recommendation” as used here is a general category whereas the “remedy” is a specific reality. The concepts merge in the statement, “You need to find peace in God”; but the distinction is important, for history amply testifies that an effort to direct a person toward peace-in-God is often received as recommending “peace of mind” – found perhaps in God, perhaps elsewhere.