The fourteen contributions to this book on The Redemption are the fruit of an interdisciplinary seminar held in Dunwoodie, New York in April 2003. The proceedings of three earlier seminars have already been published: The Resurrection(1997), The Trinity(1999) and The Incarnation(2002). Between the third and the fourth ‘summit’ meetings there occurred the shattering events of the terrorist attacks in the USA on 9 September 2001, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which lent new urgency to questions concerning redemption and reconciliation on a world scale. This fourth volume, conceived in the post-9/11 climate, focuses on ‘Christ for us’, unique redeemer of all humanity and of the created universe. It lives up to the promise of intellectual rigour, ecumenical generosity and lively engagement with contemporary issues which marked the earlier volumes. The articles move chronologically through biblical, historical, foundational, systematic, and pastoral/cultural contemporary approaches. The aim was to look more closely at select themes and emerging approaches in an interdisciplinary and collaborative setting.
In a very helpful introductory chapter Gerald O’Collins outlines seven overlapping questions which ‘map some important features of the present landscape of studies on the redemption’, and goes on to indicate further significant questions which could not be dealt with or developed in the present symposium. There follows five chapters on biblical questions. Christopher Seitz is concerned that ‘extra-apostolic’ categories for research, such as Jesus self-understanding and redemptive intentions, might displace the ‘plain sense’ of key scriptural passages. He also gently questions Tom Wright's reading of the OT that return from exile was a more prominent theme than the suffering and atoning work of the Servant of Yahweh. In the first of three Pauline studies, Gordon D. Fee speaks of the corporate nature of ‘salvation in Christ’, the goal of which is the creation of a new people of God. However, initiation into this people is at the individual level which Paul describes (rather than explains) by means of primary metaphors. Tom Wright examines the ‘new perspectives in Paul’ launched by E.P. Sanders (1977) and the debates which followed. Within this context he revisits the role that the cross played in seven key, interlocking narratives in Paul's theology and practice. Jean-Noel Aletti reflects on the paradoxical style and crucial debating point of 2 Cor. 5:21: Christ made sin for us. Augustine initiated the ‘sin offering’ reading of the text, and Luther used it to support Christ's solidarity with human sinfulness rather than his exemplary power. Contemporary scholars would be more inclined to see it in terms of a ‘rhetoric of exaggeration’. Peter Ochs concludes this section with a sensitive exegesis of the shacharit, or daily morning prayer service as a source for contemporary Jewish and Christian theology. He reminds us that theology is ‘performed prayerfully’, not in a timeless vacuum, but in our time and our need for redemption. As the title indicates, Israel's redeemer is the One to whom and with whom she prays.
In the patristic/medieval section Brian Daley reminds us that in the early centuries of the Christian tradition redemption/salvation was understood as achieved in Jesus's identity rather than accomplished as his work. Redemption is already achieved by the personal union of God and Man in Jesus Christ; salvation is God's presence among us. This ‘soteriology of union’ was articulated in rich and multiple imagery and is inseparable from a theology of grace as deification. In one of the (for me) most challenging articles in this collection, Caroline Walker Bynum argues that in the middle ages there were not two redemption theories (Abelardian and Anselmian), but one theory approached in two ways and understood within the context of belief in purgatory and the Eucharist. She tackles head on those who dismiss much of medieval (and modern) atonement theory as ‘amoral or nothing less than terrorism’ or as ‘theological inducements to violence’. She explores the richness of ‘vernacular theology’ which existed alongside scholastic theology – sermons, hymns, devotional manuals and extra-liturgical practices. She discovers that fixation, even obsession, with blood and suffering is lodged squarely at the heart of popular theology, shaped by living in a violent society. It does not carry implications of substitution or punishment, but is often part of an ecstatic, erotic response to God. ‘Blood piety’ or ‘power in the blood’ must be understood on their terms (not ours) but is part of our inheritance.
In the section on foundational and systematic issues, Eleonore Stump is concerned with connecting the somewhat ‘unearthed’ contemporary philosophical debates over the problem of evil, with narratives of evil in bible and literature. Using the Samson story and Milton's interpretation of it in Samson Agonistes, she considers the problem of horrendous suffering from the point of view of those inflicting it and those who are victims. Human beings can be irrevocably broken by such suffering but also, in rare instances, ‘it is possible for a broken person to flower in that very brokenness and to fulfil the promise of his life in one way or another’. Stephen T. Davies brings an inter-faith dimension by comparing what religions of Grace mean by ‘salvation’ with what religions of Karma mean by terms such as ‘liberation’, emptiness’ or ‘enlightenment’. Most religions of Karma see the human predicament as clinging to a false idea of reality and the cure as self-acquired enlightenment. Most religions of grace see the human condition as sinful or fallen and in need of forgiveness or redemption from God. Davies presents a prima-facie case for preferring Grace to Karma. Stephen Evans addresses the question as to how Protestants and Catholics view their remaining disagreements over the doctrine of justification. While considering ways in which these disagreements might be narrowed, he opts for a solution which respects the possibility of genuine inter-faith dialogue even when serious differences remain.
The unexpected popular success of the exhibition Seeing Salvation(National Gallery, London, 2000) gives added justification to the inclusion of a section on ‘The Redemption practised and proclaimed’ in literature, art, music, and select sermons. Robert Kiely argues that ‘redemption narratives’ in both secular and religious literature often appear as a dialectic between faith and scepticism. He begins with passages from Job and from Matthew's account of Jesus's passion, to illustrate the presence of both mockery and hope in foundational biblical texts. He briefly illustrates the same point in texts from Shakespeare and Donne before turning to later writing in the American literary tradition: Henry David's Thoreau's A Week in the Concord and Merrimac Rivers, Herman Melville's Billy Budd, Toni Morrison's Beloved and Flannery O’Connor's Parker's Pack. These secular redemption narratives carry overtones of an American democratic emphasis on ‘saving oneself ’. But there is a moment in each story when the character confronts the limits of self-reliance and faces the possibility of seeking help from outside. David Brown explores how redemption can be understood through the recurring use of certain images in art and music. He focuses on three: the lamb of God, the descent into hell and the prodigal son. Artistic images are then linked with the great musical redemptive narratives such as Bach's Mass in B Minor, his settings of St. Matthew's and St. John's Passions, and a variety of musical settings of the Agnus Dei. Finally, in the light of contemporary environmental concerns, M. Schuster examines fifty sermons on Rom.8:18–25 to see how (or if) preachers speak of human redemption as related to that of the whole created order. She sees a marked reluctance to deal with the resurrection of the human body, or with hope for the future of material creation.
In examining the major sources and issues for a contemporary theology of redemption, the contributors have not avoided the contentious, the unfashionable, or the scandalous, dealing with concepts like death, cross, blood, wrath of God, justification, propitiation, substitution, which have been grist to the theological mill down the centuries. I agree with O’Collins that one of the more exciting developments suggested by Tom Wright has been the ‘coming together of soteriology and political theology’ and wish that this could have been further explored. Walker Bynum's brilliant analysis of the late medieval obsession with ‘blood piety’ needed to be matched by a critique of the search for non-violent atonement in contemporary theology. Those who argue that ‘christianity is an abusive theology that glorifies suffering’ or who reinterpret Jesus's death on the cross as a form of ‘divine child abuse’, may be misinformed, but are also influential. The work of R. Girard and R. Schwager in uncovering the roots of collective violence is another challenging feature of contemporary theological concern. Finally, O’Collins is right in regretting that questions of gender have not been sufficiently prominent in this collection. Much excellent work has been done to find ways of addressing the stumbling block which redemption through a male saviour, and classical atonement theories, have posed for many women. There is also considerable interest in why feminist theology seems to lack a ‘theology of the cross’ and how this might be constructed without returning to damaging forms of self-denial and sacrifice.
However, to regret what was not included or developed is in no way to diminish one's appreciation of the exciting and rewarding survey of contemporary thinking on redemption and the hope that it may be a foundation for a fuller and more comprehensive systematic study.
