One with God: Salvation as Deification and Justification

by Veli-Matti Karkkainen

Overview

In recent decades the doctrine of salvation has become a key issue in international ecumenical conversations between Lutherans and Roman Catholics and also between Lutherans and Eastern Orthodox. The 1998 Joint Declaration on Justification between the Vatican and the Lutheran World Federation is a historic milestone in those efforts. Advances in ecumenical conversations have challenged the traditional opinion according to which the Lutheran view of justification by faith has been thought to be opposed to both the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis (deification) and the Roman Catholic view of justification, which also includes sanctification.

In One With God Kärkkäinen points out that amidst all the differences between the East and West with regard to theological orientations and the language and concepts for soteriology, there is a common motif to be found: union with God. Both the Eastern understanding of theosis and the Western idea of justification have union as the ultimate goal.

Chapters are Salvation as Union," *Justification in Recent New Testament Scholarship, - *Deification in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition, - *Justification and Deification in Martin Luther's Theology, - *Deification, Union, and Sanctification in Later Protestant Theologies, - *Salvation as Union: Towards an Ecumenical Convergence, - and *One with God: In Search of a Consensual View of Salvation. -

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, D.Theol. Habil., is professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780814629710
Publisher:	Liturgical Press
Publication date:	11/01/2004
Series:	Unitas
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.12(h) x 0.32(d)

About the Author

Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen, D.Theol. Habil., is professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.

Table of Contents

	Preface	ix
	Abbreviations	xiii
1	Introduction: Salvation as Union	1
1	Salvation in Christianity and Other Religions	1
2	Union in Salvation-Divisions in the Church	4
3	In Search of an Ecumenical Convergence	7
2	Justification in Recent New Testament Scholarship	10
3	Deification in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition	17
1	"Partakers in Divine Nature": Theosis in the Bible	17
2	The Renewal of the Image of God and Immortality	20
3	The Eastern Fathers, Incarnation, and the Deifying Spirit	24
4	The Palamite Vision of Salvation	27
5	Theosis as the Defining Principle of the Doctrine of Salvation in Eastern Theology	29
6	Spirit and Theosis: The Pneumatological Soteriology of the East	32
4	Justification and Deification in Martin Luther's Theology	37
1	A New Paradigm of Luther Interpretation	37
2	The Theology of Love and the Theology of the Cross	40
3	Justification as the Presence of Christ and Deification	45
4	Christ as Favor and Gift: The Relationship Between Effective and Forensic Justification	51
5	The Christian as "Christ" to the Neighbor	58
6	The Pneumatological Potential of Luther's Doctrine of Salvation	61
5	Deification, Union, and Sanctification in Later Protestant Theologies	67
1	Deification in Anabaptism	67
2	Deification and Sanctification in Methodism	72
3	Union in Evangelical Theology	81
6	Salvation as Union: Towards an Ecumenical Convergence	87
1	"Salvation as Justification and Deification" in Lutheran-Orthodox Conversations	87
2	Justification and Sanctification in the Roman Catholic-Lutheran Conversations	99
3	"Beyond Salvation": Christian Transformation in the Orthodox-Pentecostal Perspective	108
7	One with God: In Search of a Consensual View of Salvation	116
1	The Conditions and Promise of Ecumenical Thinking about Salvation	116
2	Union as the Defining Motif in Eastern and Western Soteriologies	119
3	Fresh Voices from the Bible	121
4	"Be Holy as I Am Holy"	123
5	Loving in Faith	125
6	Free to Sin or Free to Become Like God?	126
7	Toward a Pneumatological Doctrine of Salvation	129
8	"Justification in the World's Context": New Tasks for Soteriology for the Third Millennium	131
9	Deification, Justification, and Other Religions	133
	Index	139

Editorial Reviews

. . . it would certainly open the door to valuable ecumenical discussions among scholars in very diverse branches of Christianity.
Catholic Library World


The great service of the slim volume by Veli-Matti Kärkkäinen. . .fills in some valuable pieces of the justification-as-deification puzzle by providing a very helpful chapter on the doctrine of deification in the Eastern Orthodox tradition.
The Christian Century

From the Publisher