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As I read Alister McGrath\u2019s Christian Theology[1]<\/strong><\/a><\/em> (2011), I was struck by many thoughts.\u00a0 But one theme that kept rising again and again was the notion that we cannot forget those who came before us<\/em>.\u00a0 This is especially true for people of faith.\u00a0 We Christians often think of our faith as being personal, but it is, in reality, a communal faith.\u00a0 It is not my faith; it is OUR faith.\u00a0 And the theology that defines the Christian faith has been painstakingly developed through ions of time by great cost.\u00a0 Thus, our Christian faith is incredibly valuable, and it belongs to many.\u00a0 Like the icons that hang in Eastern Orthodox churches that are \u201cwindows into heaven,\u201d the study of Christian theology should cause us to remember those many men and women who came before us \u2013 thinking, sacrificing, believing, living, and dying.\u00a0 The book of Hebrews reminds us to remember<\/strong> an important Christian imperative:\u00a0 \u201cWherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses<\/em> [italics mine], let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us. Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.\u201d[2]<\/a>\u00a0 And so, we are admonished to remember<\/strong> \u2013 and we are admonished to look unto Jesus in faith.\u00a0 Good theology, then, is more than just empty ideas.<\/p>\n The other thought that grabbed me by reading McGrath is that Christian theologians do not all agree.\u00a0 This might sound obvious, but to me it was a profound reminder.\u00a0 My Christian heritage did not allow for options, neither did my Biblical and theological studies.\u00a0 I was told what I should believe and was not allowed to think through the issues myself.\u00a0 This is what a Christian is and this is what a Christian believes about God, about Christ, about the Holy Spirit, and (especially) about the end times.<\/em>\u00a0 McGrath doesn\u2019t do this.\u00a0 His approach is to trust his readers to make up their own minds on historical, theological, and doctrinal issues.\u00a0 McGrath covers doctrinal controversies by introducing his readers to the many dissimilar theologians who have grappled with the complicated issues of faith.\u00a0 After reading the text (and I will admit here that I did not read every word), I found myself thinking that this author left no stone unturned!\u00a0 A goal that I have for myself is to read this text more carefully in the future.<\/p>\n Because of time and space, I would now like to comment on one particular area of theology that has caused me to dig and think deeply for the past several years.\u00a0 This particularity has to do with the doctrine of salvation in Christ and the scope of that salvation.\u00a0 I would first like to talk about my own struggle with this area of theological understanding and then to give a brief synopsis of how our author deals with these issues.<\/p>\n I have struggled for many years with the idea that if people have the \u201cright beliefs,\u201d they are saved and will not go to hell.\u00a0 However, if a person does not have all the \u201cright beliefs\u201d but lives a godly, \u201cChristian\u201d life, he or she will go to hell.\u00a0 The beginning of this struggle with evangelical orthodoxy began the day I met my mother-in-law.\u00a0 I was raised in a Christian family.\u00a0 They believed all the right doctrines and had all the Christian answers (they still do).\u00a0 The problem was that these were mean people \u2013 really mean people.\u00a0 They were also judgmental, self-righteous, and hypocritical.\u00a0 I should know; I was one of them!\u00a0 And we knew<\/em> who would be saved and who would not be saved.\u00a0 We knew<\/em> who was filled with the Holy Spirit and who was not.\u00a0 Actually, we had all the theological answers.\u00a0 However, all of this thinking was challenged the day I met my girlfriend\u2019s mother Dorothy.\u00a0 Dorothy loved me, accepted me, encouraged me, and drank wine with me (I would call this communion).\u00a0 She listened to me, loved everyone, and endured life\u2019s difficulties with a calm assurance that \u201ceverything would always work out.\u201d\u00a0 Besides her daughter (who became my wife and has retained that title for 32 years) this was the finest human being I had ever met.\u00a0 But there was a major problem; she was going to hell, as were all the others loving members of my wife\u2019s family.\u00a0 What?<\/strong>\u00a0 They were not believers; they just lived like believers.\u00a0 What the\u2026\u00a0 My theological views went into a major tailspin at that point.\u00a0 And on this point of Christian doctrine and personal salvation, I have been asking questions ever since.\u00a0 By the way, my Christian family has grown in its meanness and fundamentalism.\u00a0 Ironically, all my wife\u2019s family members are now believers in Christ.<\/p>\n In Chapter 13, McGrath discusses the doctrine of salvation found in Christ[3]<\/a>.\u00a0 In Christian understanding, salvation is linked with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Salvation is also shaped by Jesus Christ, which means that for a Christian, the Christian life has a lot to do with imitating the life of Christ as well as with the believer\u2019s life being \u201cbrought into line with the inward relationship to Christ, established through faith.\u201d[4]<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0 Mcgrath then discusses the eschatological dimension of salvation that includes a brief explanation of justification and sanctification.\u00a0 He then lays down various views on the meaning of the cross as related to salvation and discusses classical and contemporary models of salvation in Christ.\u00a0 Lastly, he expounds on the topic of the appropriation of salvation in Christ.\u00a0 Is salvation found in the Church or is it more private and personal?\u00a0 In relation to views of personal faith, McGrath explains the Pietist movement and its impact on Western Christianity, using Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf and the Wesley brothers as examples of those who emphasized the importance of personal conversion and holy living.\u00a0 Finally, McGrath comes to the issue of the scope of salvation in Christ: What is the extent of salvation made available and possible in Christ?\u00a0 He introduces two central affirmations to inform this discussion that are both found in the New Testament[5]<\/a>:<\/p>\n Clearly, this is a biblical paradox that has caused much debate among Christian theologians and believers through the centuries.\u00a0 Who will finally be saved?\u00a0 Universalism claims that all will ultimately receive salvation.\u00a0 Other views claim that only believers will be saved or that only \u201cthe elect\u201d will be saved.\u00a0 What about other religions?<\/p>\n So where am I on these issues?\u00a0 I am open \u2013 open to saying that I don\u2019t know \u2013 I don\u2019t have the answers.\u00a0 But like theologians throughout history, for whom I am eternally grateful, I am in a process of theological discovery.\u00a0 And, McGrath\u2019s book has given me fodder for reflection \u2013 and some beautiful windows into heaven.<\/p>\n\n