Scope and Dimension of Christ's Saving Activity

Abstract

I t is not my task here to give a systematic paper on the topic from the Lutheran point of view. Nor do I want to present a christological treatise which would reflect the present ecumenical debate. I rather intend to focus attention on some historical developments of Christian or "Western" culture. Our Orthodox friends may forgive me i f I neglect the developments in the Eastern church, but this is a different perspective altogether. I shall try to interpret the present understanding of reality or the emerging paradigm in a comprehensive Weltanschauung, which might shed a new light on the old question of the scope and dimension of Christ's saving activity. In other words, I would like to propose a few notes on the topic in the present crosscultural and global context created especially by developments in science. What Jam going to suggest here is a study of the concepts of "scope" and dimension in the context of the new emerging paradigms in scientific and philosophical theories. I f we want to speak about the saving activity of Christ in a meaningful way, we have to consider these prolegomenasince they are the ground for all christological parlance which wants to be contextual. We, as Orthodox as well as Lutheran theologians, might discover that we are on the same route while engaged in the attempt to describe the pro-logos, hopefully in, with and under the inspiration of the logos.