Problem of Good(s) II
Yesterday I finished the NIME paper, so now I can begin to focus on my chapter for the "Christology and Ethics" book (and conference next spring). [See sidebars for more information]
My strategy is to use the story of the "rich young ruler" as a kind of organizing context for a discussion of ways in which the reciprocity of Christology and ethics can be reinforced after the philosophical turn to alterity (otherness, difference). 
After all of the introductory, context-setting sections, the first point will be how the young man's question "What must I DO?" and Jesus' response to it challenges the popular notion that salvation does not involve our DOING anything, i.e., is not directly or immediately connected to our concrete agency in the world.
Some atonement theories have been so eager to avoid the appearance of promoting "salvation by works" that they depict salvation as an event that occurs wholly apart from us, e.g., based on a decree or payment that is made over our heads, so to speak.
It seems to me that this habit in atonement theory is one of the main reasons that soteriology and ethics have slowly drifted apart over the last few centuries.
What if we start the other way around? In other words, begin with Jesus' call to give up everything for the sake of participating in the kingdom of God, in the reign of divine love that manifests itself as radical compassion for others, and then ask what this means for our understanding of "salvation."
What does the story of the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-31) suggest about the relation between the "work of Christ" and our own agency?
LeRon- I have no comment on this post, but simply am convicted of the "hardness" of Jesus' teaching regarding giving up goods for the Good. I appreciate the fact that you take this passage seriously, even though it challenges me and makes me uncomfortable. Being an armchair ethicist is way easier than actually living out compassion, justice, and love and your adherence to actually talking about this passage is spiritually formative for me!
Thanks!
Posted by: David Worley | 10 July 2007 at 15:45
your thoughts remind me of 1st John who tells that those who say they know God will be like him... that involves doing like him. knowing God has to be more than just receiving salvation that does not demand anything of those who say they know him.
Faith
Posted by: Faith Totushek | 10 July 2007 at 22:12
David and Faith,
Yes, this passage has been particularly convicting for me for many years... "how hard it is!" as the disciples exclaimed.
Indeed, impossible... without grace. But the indwelling power of divine grace enables us to DO, to act, to share in redemptive compassion that transforms human life, and this IS salvation.
LeRon
Posted by: LeRon | 11 July 2007 at 08:33