A new kind of thing?
 
The term ‘Christian universalism’ may conjure up many images in the mind of the everyday follower of Jesus.   These concerns or preconceptions of the phrase are often tied up with humankind's need to judge that which is good or other.  What Congdon presents in his new book is a clear need for a revision of terms.  Where most scholars use a biblical methodology, in The God Who Saves, we see a more systematic approach to arguing for the Christian account of universalism.  The argument simplified is thus: the event of salvation is for all but not only that, it is the centre of all.  Congdon names this soteriocentrism.  In the age-old theological battle of doctrinal supremacy, here we see that rather than Patriology, Christology, Pneumatology, or any other -ology, the theology of Salvation becomes the arc above all existence.  
 
It is relatively simple as to how these jumps are made, although potentially explosive.  1) God freely chooses to define himself as the ‘Saving One’. 2) This is made concrete in the temporal life of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ, and then made accessible by his Spirit through the Church.  And 3) (perhaps most radically) salvation is not a once for all change of nature but by life in God, salvation is an ongoing “ontic transformation of existence”.  Whilst we must wait until the Epilogue to find out what Congdon suggests regarding other faiths, people who have come to death through horrific means or, traditional belief in conscious life after death, here begins the necessary ground work on what we can enquire upon here on earth; and it is an utterly convincing effort.
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