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Looking for salvation
By Jason E. Vickers

William H. Willimon is among the ablest and most engaging writers in the Wesleyan theological tradition. Always thought-provoking, pastors and scholars alike have benefitted enormously across the years from Bishop Willimon's reflections on theology, preaching, worship, the sacraments, pastoral care, and the nature and mission of the church. And while not everyone agrees with what he has to say, I have yet to meet anyone who thinks that Bishop Willimon is dull. At a time when many theology texts can easily double as a cure for insomnia, this is a quality worth celebrating.

For readers accustomed to Willimon's knack for tackling difficult subjects with both wit and theological wisdom, the bishop's latest book will not disappoint. On the surface, the book purports to tackle the rather audacious question, Who Will Be Saved? (Abingdon). Yet anyone who bothers to read beyond the title page will quickly discover that this is not a book to be judged by its cover.

Bishop Willimon's real concern is the nature or shape of salvation. His primary question is "What is salvation from a Christian point of view?" Thus in the Preface to the book, he is at pains to say what salvation is as well as what it is not. For example, he writes that salvation "is not what we think but what God in Christ thinks." He then says, "Do you want a good working definition of salvation? Jesus Christ in all that he is and all that he does." Later on, he exclaims, "'Who will be saved?' is not as interesting a question as 'Who saves?'"

What does Willimon mean by this? To answer this question, we need to know two things. First, we need to know who Willimon thinks Jesus Christ is. Second, we need to know what he thinks Jesus Christ has done for us and for our salvation.

Right away, it is clear that Bishop Willimon is not content to think of Jesus Christ primarily as a "personal savior" who, upon profession of faith, grants get-out-of-hell free cards. His problem with this view of Jesus and of salvation is that it is anthropocentric to the core. In other words, it often has more to do with "our decisions, our actions, our feelings, and our desires" than with God.

Moreover, Willimon has deep reservations about views of salvation that revolve almost exclusively around the after

life. To be sure, he says, salvation has to do with "our eternal fate," but it also has to do with accepting an invitation "to share in God's particular life here, now, so that we might do so forever." In other words, salvation is not simply a question of who is going to heaven and who is going to hell; it is also a matter of "how we are swept up into participation in the mystery of God who is Jesus Christ." 

For Willimon, salvation is primarily about God-about who God is and what God does in Jesus Christ for us and for our salvation. In the Incarnation, says Willimon, God overcomes "the distance between us and God" in order to be with us. Jesus does not come simply to give us a "moral nudge" or to liberate us "from unjust social structures," but to share in our life so that we might share in God's life. Thus Willimon is clear in his answer to the question, "Who is Jesus Christ?" Jesus Christ is "both fully divine and fully human," at once having the power to save and identifying with our need for salvation.

What about the second question? What does Willimon think Jesus has done for us and for our salvation? Initially, Willimon says that the Incarnation changes our understanding of God's nature, especially as that nature has to do with us. We presumed that God was our enemy. In the Incarnation, we discover that God is our friend-that God is for us. In doing so, we are converted to a life of unending gratitude and joy.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the story does not end here. Willimon reminds us that we rejected God's passionate overture to us. Because of our sin, God's intended oneness with us "ended in a crucifixion." Yet so reckless is God's love for us that God "weaves such tragedy into God's purposes thereby remaking our sin into God's great triumphant embrace."

Willimon beautifully fleshes out his account of salvation. "The one whom we crucified in a desperate attempt to be left alone becomes our savior who refuses to be God without us," he writes. "And in being saved we are also indebted, enlisted, and bound in discipleship to the one who has suffered because of us and yet suffered for us in order to save us. Our salvation by the crucified Christ thus presses upon us heavy responsibility to live with the risen Christ. His salvation makes our lives more complex than if we had not been reached to and embraced by him."    

To this point, most United Methodists will likely find little to counter. Indeed, not a few United Methodists will take delight in the Nicean and Chalcedonian content of Bishop Willimon's Christology. They are right in doing so. It is a joy to hear a United Methodist bishop articulate so clearly and forcefully the fullness of Christ's divinity and humanity and the saving significance of the Incarnation. It is encouraging to hear him reject any "minimalist Christology" that results in a "flaccid salvation-a 'god' who doesn't really do anything except to encourage basically good, progressive people who don't need anything done for them anyway."

Beginning with chapter three, Willimon addresses the question with which the book sets out by insisting that it is ultimately a matter of "what God wants." Following Karl Barth, he argues persuasively that God wants to be merciful to all. This, of course, raises the question, "Does God eventually get what God wants?" Willimon himself puts it this way, "Was the incredible sacrifice of Christ on the cross truly, universally effective for all or only conditionally effective for a few?" A little later, he asks, "Is the hope of universal restoration, the hope that all people will be saved-that hell will not be eternal and that God will eventually be 'all in all' (1 Cor. 15:28)-a legitimate Christian hope?"

Having raised these questions, Willimon admits three things. First, he admits that the "idea of universal restoration" is one that "has rarely been regarded as fully orthodox." Second, he concedes that the "Augustinian-Lutheran-Calvinist counterview-some are saved and some are damned-has tended to prevail" among most Christians. Third, he admits that, while Wesley taught the doctrine of universal atonement (Christ died for all), he did not equate this with universal salvation. Rather, Wesley held that "some tragically refuse this gift." 

Where, then, does Bishop Willimon stand on the matter? He appears to agree with Barth that Christians should at least hope that universal salvation is true-that in the end God will restore all persons, indeed, the whole of creation to all that it was intended to be from the beginning. Certainly, Willimon stops well short of dogmatically asserting that God will save all. Nonetheless, he clearly hopes that God will do so, and he marshals considerable evidence from Scripture and the Christian tradition to support that hope. Moreover, he does not think for one minute that such a hope should lead to antinomianism (living however we please). After all, universalism only undercuts our motivation to lead good and holy lives here and now if we think that salvation does not have to do with the here and now.   

At this stage, Bishop Willimon anticipates that not a few persons will reject the prospect of universalism on the basis of scriptural references to hell, damnation, punishment of the wicked, and the like. Here, Willimon turns to Origen (ca. 185-254) for help, noting that he "agreed that hell is real but disagreed that it was eternal." For Origen (and seemingly for Willimon), "hell is more a purifying fire than eternal torment, more educative than retributive."

In fairness to Willimon, it is very important to note that he is especially admiring of Origen for the humility and modesty with which he speculates about the nature and purpose of hell. This is not a "knock-down argument but rather a genuine, though not legally defined, hope that is based on the identity of Jesus Christ." Furthermore, Willimon is, like Origen, well-aware that there are some scriptures "that may be counter to his theological claims." Such humility and modesty is highly appropriate when parsing out theology, and it is a good and happy thing to see it modeled when dealing with such intricate matters as these.

From here, Willimon goes on to suggest that we may be overdue for a "Protestant argument in behalf of the Catholic purgatory, the time that people are given to wait until they are better able to accept the full intimacy of God that is heaven." In short, he says that salvation may well take longer than our earthly lifetimes. Similarly, he offers musings about "them"-people who belong to other world religions-insisting that, from a Christian point of view, all salvation is in and through Christ because Christ became incarnate and died for all. This fact, he says, should not lead to triumphalism, but to patient and candid dialogue with people of other faiths about what we believe about Jesus Christ and about salvation. 

In many respects, this is William Willimon's most daring book yet. It is not daring because a United Methodist bishop is encouraging Protestants to re-consider purgatory (despite the fact that the United Methodist Articles of Religion prohibit the teaching of this doctrine). It is not daring because a United Methodist bishop is seemingly flirting with a form of universalism. It is daring because it is highly likely that some well-meaning evangelicals will turn it into another exercise in missing the point, believing that the audacity of this book has to do with purgatory or universalism.

If this book is audacious-and it most certainly is-it is because Bishop Willimon is attempting to do something that not enough United Methodist bishops have done of late, namely, to take Nicea and Chalcedon seriously. He is attempting to show us that no theological speculation about what will happen to us when we die could ever match in audacity what has already taken place "while we were yet sinners," namely, the Incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and the pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh. In short, Bishop Willimon is once again reminding us of just how scandalous Jesus Christ really is-even in United Methodist doctrine.

Jason E. Vickers is Associate Professor of Theology and Wesleyan Studies at United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio.



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