2) Salvation as Freedom for…
Engagement with the Whole World
Salvation immerses Christians in concrete life circumstances to seek reconciliation with others and bring about foretastes of the Kingdom of God. It does not encourage them to seek isolation, individual perfection, or ethereal reflection to escape the current reality, rather it calls for contextualization of Christ in the particular historical circumstance. As a result of the Incarnation, God is not an “abstract being” but rather He has a “historical identity.”[1] Since Christ joined Himself to humanity in the Incarnation, He is deeply involved in the human experience and meets humans right in the midst of their current context to transform it. He cares about present suffering, especially that of the oppressed, and invites Christians to serve and sacrifice on behalf of others just as He did. Costas articulates this well by stating that “The cross reveals Jesus as the man for others and in so doing locates authentic humanity in being at the service of others.”[2] Therefore, Christ’s identity and the true experience of salvation is found where “the transforming presence of God’s kingdom among the victims of sin and evil” is manifested.[3] Jesus liberates Christians to live in accordance with His new Kingdom order where men and women are loved by one another, the poor are cared for, and the oppressed are set free. The Church’s mission is to follow Christ’s model and participate in His transformation of the contexts of the whole world by the power of the Spirit.[4]
It is necessary to understand the whole world, the whole communal reality, to see how the Kingdom of God permeates its entirety. According to Costas, the world consists of three levels: cultures, institutions, and structures. The institutions and structures portions will be addressed at a later point in this collection. Dussel reveals that all human beings have instilled within them by their culture an “ethical-mythical-nucleus,” a core of their being that determines behavior.[5] Evangelization or an understanding of salvation that focuses on the individual but neglects his or her cultural context and value system will not allow Christ to permeate and transform the whole communal reality.[6] However, the collectivist understanding of salvation recognizes that people do not exist apart from their culture or context, thus they rightly see Jesus Christ as the One who offers a new collective identity and value system from which to determine collective behavior. He creates in people a completely new way of being and relating to others.
[1] Orlando E. Costas, Christ Outside the Gate: Mission Beyond Christendom (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1982), 12.
[2] Costas, 12.
[3] Ibid., 12.
[4] Ibid., 12. God cares for the transformation of all contexts, but especially that of the poor and oppressed because He is one with them. This will be discussed more in depth in later sections.
[5] Ibid., 165.
[6] Ibid., 165.
