Christian Beliefs and Convictions Chapter 7

Soteriology (141)

The Doctrine of Atonement, attending to the interconnections between who Jesus is and what He has done, especially in the cross and resurrection, to bring about salvation.

Contrition (145)

The step on the way of salvation when we feel sorry for our sin, when we wish that it could be made right.

Repentance (145)

We turn away from sin and toward God.

Justification (145)

God's work in justifying sinners— forgiving our sin and making us right with God.

Indulgences (146)

The Catholic Church granted these for "a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven." One is thus understood to cover punishment for sins—punishment that would have to be paid by the individual. This punishment is to be covered by the merits of Christ and of the saints, held in treasury and administered by the Catholic Church.

Imputed righteousness (147)

God imputes Christ's righteousness to us; the righteousness of Christ is imputed, reckoned, or credited to us and becomes the legal basis for our acquittal.

Sanctification (150)

God's work in making us godly, holy, and like Christ, and it is a gift of grace.

Works righteousness (151)

Legalism, a doomed Pelagianism in which we attempt to be our own saviors.

Antinomianism (151)

Acting as if God's law had nothing to say to the Christian life, as if it didn't matter how we lived.

Calvinist (153)

Focuses on the priority and sovereignty of God's grace by emphasizing God as the sole agent of salvation.

Arminian (153)

Focuses on God's loving desire to be in a saving relationship with humanity and connects to God's opening up space for human agency alongside divine grace in salvation.

Prevenient grace (154)

A gift of grace from God that comes before us, preceding anything we do.

Monergistic (156)

Calvinistic soteriology, meaning that God is the only actor in salvation.

Synergistic (156)

Arminian soteriology, meaning that God works together with human beings in the process of salvation.

Atonement (158)

The way Christ's work bridges the separation between humans and God, opening up the possibility that we may again be reconciled to, or made one with, God.

Deification (158)

"Christ, indeed, assumed humanity, that we might become God." Atonement involves a double movement: 1) God comes to us, in incarnate unity with us, in order to 2) bring us to God, in unity with the divine life.

Christus Victor (159)

The idea of the Atonement as a Divine conflict and victory; Christ—Christus Victor (Christ the Victor)—fights against and triumphs over the evil powers of the world, the 'tyrants' under which mankind is in bondage and suffering, and in Him, God reconciles the world to Himself.

Substitute (160)

Christ's role in taking our place to pay the price of sin.

Satisfaction (160)

Posits that Christ's death on the cross functioned as a gift to God on behalf of humanity to restore the order of justice subverted by sin.

Forensic (160)

Shifting the metaphor from the feudal context to the court of law—God as judge, us as the guilty defendants with Christ taking the punishment on our behalf.

Moral example (161)

The perfect love of Christ, which becomes a moral example for us who are witnesses of the love. Abelard suggests that in seeing the love of Christ, especially on the cross, we are moved by love to love in turn.

Sacraments (161)

Baptism and communion, recognized by the whole church, commanded by Jesus, are central, formative, and communal practices often defined as "outward and visible signs of inward and spiritual grace."