Presiding Episcopal Bishop Critiques Prominent Soteriology at General Convention

"While many expected LGBT issues to be at the forefront of controversy at the Episcopal Church's General Convention, presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori stunned some participants by taking aim at narrow notions of salvation." (Religion Dispatches)

Since the LGBT issue is threatening to totally split the Episcopal Church, one would imagine that the subject matter for the Bishop might be along those lines, but she surprised everyone with a much more wide-ranging issue - soteriology. Bishop Schori argues that the great Western Christian heresy is that salvation is individual, that right relation with God is something that can be accomplished all on one's own. Salvation is communal, just as life itself is.

As for me, the Unity tradition in which I reside certainly asserts a rather individualistic notion of salvation. Salvation/liberation is brought about by one's own free will in changing attitudes, persepectives, and consciousness from limitation and lack to prosperity and abundance. However, I most certainly see Bishop Schori's point. We in Unity do believe in interdependence. And as interdependently existing beings, each individual human cannot solely rely upon his/herself for existence. Rather, each individual life is integrally interconnected and interrelated to all else in thought, word, and deed. That is, though we certainly do have a free will/volitional agency, this will is impacted, influenced, and affected by others. Our life and living is possible only by virtue of others and is dependent upon others.

Thus, when it comes to soteriology, our individual salvation/liberation can only be understood in and through relationships. That is, my spiritual path to salvation/liberation is influenced by the lives, actions, and intentions of others and is accomplished in a social context of community. Perhaps we can bring more of this aspect of communal liberation explicitly into our Unity theology. There is much more to be said about this issue, but this is just a tidbit of thought.

Candace Chellew-Hodge has the Bishop Schori article at Religion Dispatches.