Salvation history

Historical and theological approach

Pietro Perugino's depiction of the Crucifixion as Stabat Mater, 1482. The crucifixion, together with the resurrection of Jesus, represents the climax of Salvation History in Christian faith

Salvation history (German: Heilsgeschichte) seeks to understand the personal redemptive activity of God within human history in order to effect his eternal saving intentions.[1]

This approach to history is found in parts of the Old Testament written around the sixth century BC, such as Deutero-Isaiah and some of the Psalms. In Deutero-Isaiah, for example, Yahweh is portrayed as causing the fall of the Neo-Babylonian Empire at the hands of Cyrus the Great and the Persians, with the aim of restoring his exiled people to their land.[2]

The salvation history approach was adopted and deployed by Christians, beginning with Paul in his epistles. He taught a dialectical theology wherein believers were caught between the "already" of Christ's death and resurrection, and the "not yet" of the coming Parousia (or Christ's return to Earth at the end of human history). He sought to explain the Christ's mystery through the lens of the history of the Hebrew scriptures, for example, by drawing parallels and contrasts between Adam's disobedience and Christ's faithfulness on the cross.

In the context of Christian theology, this approach reads the books of the Bible as a continuous history. It understands events such as the fall at the beginning of history (Book of Genesis), the covenants established between God and Noah, Abraham, and Moses, the establishment of David's dynasty in the holy city of Jerusalem, the prophets,[3] as moments in the history of humankind and its relationship to God, namely, as necessary events preparing for the salvation of all by Christ's crucifixion and resurrection.[4]

Salvation history also plays a role in Islamic theology, such as in the narrative of the Jahiliyyah: a term for a morally corrupt era and social order that prevailed in pre-Islamic Arabia prior to the mission of Muhammad.[5][6] A process in the Quran and later Islamic literature where pre-Islamic Christian figures are re-narrated as Muslim or proto-Islamic precursors to Muhammad's mission has also been understood in the framework of salvation history.[7] Salvation history also occurs in Quranic narratives that heed the audience to consider the fate of earlier nations, destroyed by God for disobeying the messengers sent to them.[8]

## See also

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* Christianity portal

* Apocalypse
* Christian pacifism
* Christian Zionism
* Dispensationalism
* Eschatology

## References

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### Citations

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1. ^ "Paul and Salvation History", in Justification and Variegated Nomism; Volume 2 – The Paradoxes of Paul, eds. D. A. Carson, Mark A. Seifrid, and Peter T. O'Brien (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Baker, 2004), p. 297.
2. ^ Exile and Restoration: A Study of Hebrew Thought of the Sixth Century BC, Peter R. Ackroyd (London: SCM Press, 1968), pp. 130–133.
3. ^ Daniels, Dwight Roger (1990). Hosea and Salvation History: The Early Traditions of Israel in the Prophecy of Hosea. Germany: W. de Gruyter.
4. ^ Our Father's Plan: A Catholic Bible Study of Salvation History. Ignatius Press. 2002.
5. ^ Munt 2015, p. 436.
6. ^ Webb 2014, p. 69–71.
7. ^ Durmaz 2022, p. 112–114.
8. ^ Stewart 2024.

### Sources

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* Durmaz, Reyhan (2022). Stories Between Christianity and Islam: Saints, Memory, and Cultural Exchange in Late Antiquity and Beyond. University of California Press.
* Munt, Harry (2015). "Arabic and Persian Sources for Pre-Islamic Arabia". In Fisher, Greg (ed.). Arabs and Empires before Islam. Oxford University Press. pp. 434–500.
* Stewart, Devin (2024). ""Signs for Those Who Can Decipher Them": Ancient Ruins in the Qurʾān". In Rashwani, Samer (ed.). Behind the Story: Ethical Readings of Qurʾānic Narratives. Brill. pp. 44–92.
* Webb, Peter (2014). "Al-Jāhiliyya: Uncertain Times of Uncertain Meanings". Der Islam. 91 (1): 69–94.

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