Salvation and the Good Life

Salvation and the Good Life

This conference is organized by the Centre for Church and Mission in the West, which seeks to draw together scholars with a variety of theological approaches to research on mission, ecclesial practices and church polity. The main topic of this conference is connected to the CCMW’s research programme, ‘Salvation in the Twenty-First Century’.

What is life about? Why are we here? What is the use of doing the things we do? Questions like these have concerned human beings throughout the ages. Asking them touches the deeper levels of life: our intentions and motivations, the visions that inspire and animate us. As it is always easier to focus on the ‘what’ and ‘how’, especially the ‘why’ questions tend to be ignored. In Christian theology, such questions are related to what is called ‘salvation’.

‘Salvation’ is traditionally the subject of soteriology, that is, Christian teachings on God’s mission of transforming his creation towards the fullness of his reign, working out the ‘saving’ efficacy of Christ’s ministry, death and resurrection for creation in general and humanity in particular. Traditionally, the topic has been intimately connected with Christian reflections on eternal life, sin, forgiveness, community, and atonement. In our times, ‘salvation’ has expanded and diversified in a great many directions, such as human flourishing, peace-building, the future of the planet, happiness, health, and prosperity. According to a recent study, the future of Christian theology as an intellectual discipline depends to a large extent on its contribution to ‘the good life’ (Volf, Croasmun, For the Life of the World, 2019). This conference builds on the assumption that visions of the good life (in all these senses) continue to animate current practices of mission, church and polity. ‘Salvation’ thus is about the motivation, content and form of Christian practices inside and outside the Church.

Call for papers

We welcome papers that explore views on and practices of salvation. Please find out more on https://churchandmission.nl/conference-2022/

Speakers

Dr James Butler (University of Roehampton, UK)

Dr Christopher James (University of Dubuque, US)

Dr Harvey Kwiyani (CMS, Oxford, UK)

Prof. Clive Marsh (Birmingham, UK)

Prof. Stefan Paas (Theological University Kampen/Free University Amsterdam, NL)

Dr Nigel Rooms (CMS, Oxford, UK)

Dr Cathy Ross (CMS, Oxford, UK)