Somebody upstream asked me about the PB’s understanding of Christ’s role as the “Way” to salvation. Bishop Pierre Whalon, the Bishop in Charge for Europe has written up a brief note about this on his blog. He describes an exchange that took place during the HoB meeting last week:
“One image I will always remember: a new bishop asked her to clarify her stand on the uniqueness of Christ. +Katharine replied that her view is similar to that of Vatican II (Nostra ætate, actually), namely that Jesus Christ is the final self-revelation of God in the world, but that salvation is possible outside of the Christian Church. He seemed dissatisfied with this reply. After adjourning the session, she went right over to him and they talked for fifteen minutes, alone in the meeting room.
This showed two things about the new Presiding Bishop. First, contrary to some reports, her Christology is orthodox. There have been some who have held that extra ecclesiam nulla salus—outside the Church there is no salvation. But this does not jibe with Jesus’ behavior toward Gentiles nor to Paul’s teaching about grace. What is essential, as the PB noted, is that Christians do not know how God saves people outside the New Covenant. Somehow Jesus Christ, through whom all things were made, makes provision, since through him all people are offered salvation. [my emphasis]”
Seems pretty mainstream to me…
Read the rest here: I’m coming, I’m coming
It will be nice, of course, to hear it from her own lips, cleary, more than once, and how she takes it to square with her other pronouncements. We’ll see. +Whalon is pretty quick to say her christology is orthodox, basing only on her beginning a talk he didn’t hear with a reference to salvation outside the Church. (And the real point of his post seems to be to slam some conservative colleagues he doesn’t like . . I didn’t get the end of his post . . .was he swearing with the unprintable letters . . .hmmm) But we’ll see. If she truly thinks Jesus is the full and final self-revelation of God then, that would be assuring. Maybe she will then move the church to evangelize those of other faiths, and put into play words like ‘discovery’ and ‘application’ to replace ‘continuing revelation’ which has become so prominent.
This could be good. It would really clear up that mess about how people look to other people (she was speaking of the NT writers and communities) to see the divine and the early Christians saw this divinity in Jesus (therefore he is the vehicle to the divine for Christians) and other faiths see that divinity in others. Yes, this could be a good, solid step. Now, if we can just hear it from her, and more of the same if possible, at length . . .
Salvation is always the ending of the minds fascinated identification with the dead and unchanging image of what it was. It is the complete reversal of the
“natural” order of things a METANOIA – the Greek word for repentance, meaning precisely a turning around of the mind, so that it no longer faces into the past, the land of the shadow of death, but into the Eternal Present.
So long as the mind is captivated by memory, and really feels itself to be that past image which is “I” it can do nothing to save itself; it’s sacrifices are of no avail, and it’s Law gives no life.
After years of therapy, I had a metamorphosis – I asked Jesus to have mercy on me & forgive me my sins. He delivered me from my inequities. Praise the Lord!!