Christian Soteriology: Understanding Salvation in Christianity - Prof. Kenton Frank Machin, Study notes of Introduction to Philosophy

Download Christian Soteriology: Understanding Salvation in Christianity - Prof. Kenton Frank Machin and more Study notes Introduction to Philosophy in PDF only on Docsity! Christian soteriology – a study guide Markham (Chapter 8) describes several different ways that Christian theology has conceptualized how humans are “saved” by Jesus. The plan is to go through each of these conceptualizations and ask of each the same set of questions, thus forcing the conceptualizations to come alive and stand up for examination. Here are the questions: A. According to the conceptualization presently under consideration ... 1. What elements of the Jesus story play a role in producing salvation? Choose from among these elements: • Jesus’ way of interacting with people and the things he taught about life and God through his preaching and discussions. • Jesus’ miracles. • Jesus’ death by crucifixion. • Jesus’ resurrection from death. 2. Exactly how do each of the elements identified in answering (1) above work to produce salvation? 3. What exactly are people being saved from? 4. What does the conceptualization imply about whether people have to do anything in order to be saved? 5. What is God like? 6. What is implied (if anything) about how saved people should live? Are there any practical differences that follow from adopting this conceptualization? 7. Is there a way to interpret each of the following commonly-heard Christian statements so that they are true? If so, how would that work – that is, what would each have to mean? Jesus saves us from sin. Jesus died to save us. Jesus died for us. Jesus bore our sins. Believe in Jesus to be saved. Jesus overcame death for us. B. Is the conceptualization successful in presenting a clear and coherent viewpoint? Does it fit well with other typical Christian beliefs? C. Is it true that in order for this conceptualization to work, the Jesus story has to be literally factual, at least for the most part?