346 - God Does Not Foreclose: The Universal Promise of Salvation

God Does Not Foreclose: The Universal Promise of Salvation

By David Lowes Watson

Nashville, Abingdon, 1990. 160 Pp. $12.95.

According to David Lowes Watson, former Professor of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology and current Director of Covenant Discipleship for The United Methodist Church, the churches of North America suffer from "a major ecclesial blockage." They have misappropriated God's grace, rendering it "a particular benefit for Christians rather than a universal gift to be shared with the world." American congregations and parishes have become "Christic health spas," dispensing spiritual amphetamines instead of serving as the channels of grace they are called to be.

God Does Not Foreclose is Watson's attempt to develop this diagnosis and, then, to propose a cure. Rather than offering a new recipe for renewal or a technique for instant transformation, he takes a theological tack. If we are to help the North American Churches (Watson's deliberately circumscribed focus) then we must deal with theological ideas like ekklesia, discipleship, and grace-above all grace, At the bottom of the American religious predicament, Watson claims, lies a confusion about grace. Sounding a bold universalist note, he draws a fundamental distinction between the grace offered to a humanity in Christ's inauguration of the new age and the more particular grace offered to those who are called to discipleship. Salvation is for all in this reading, including those who never have heard the gospel, as well as those who remain indifferent or half committed to it. But discipleship, on the other hand, is another kind of grace. It is a special vocation to inform the world of its salvation by Christ-centered living and testifying. If American congregations could be open to God's universal grace beyond their precincts and could make room for authentic discipleship within them, then these congregations could make a much-needed contribution to God's larger project, the "long, slow victory of Christ over all the enemies of humankind."

Watson's argument, though written in a spritely and accessible manner, is seriously theological. In conversation with many contemporary theologians, he draws upon Irenaeus; Gerrard Winstanley, the lay leader of the Diggers of the seventeenth century; and, above all, John Wesley. Readers will grapple with many scriptural texts, with arguments about eschatology and prevenient grace. They will have to deal with a major judgment rendered against the "anthropocentric" legacy of the magisterial reformation which turned the church's vision inward on personal response to grace rather than to God's grace itself.

More unusual than this package of claims and arguments is the fact that Watson focuses them on the local congregation. He argues that if

348 - God Does Not Foreclose: The Universal Promise of Salvation

these institutions became more Christ-centered and less anthropocentric, the world might become more aware of how graced it is and God's kingdom might become more evident. Unusual here is a theologian's taking local congregations seriously, seeing them as pivotal to God's gracious design. Moreover, this theologian neither whitewashes them nor writes them off. Instead, he proposes a way for them to be universal (affirming God's salvation of all) and particular (practicing rigorous Christian discipleship) at the same time.

It is a major contribution to reconnect local American church life with fundamental theological perspectives and questions, as Watson attempts here. But the statement of a core vision-one of many to be sure-is only part of the task. What is still needed is the radical relating of such visions to the daily life of our more than 300,000 local churches. This is not a task for theologians to hand off to someone else. Rather, a new type of practical theological inquiry within these congregations must be fostered. Watson's book provides a distinctive entry point. What we need now are people who can construct local theologies that correlate the classic treasures of "academic" theology intricately and very specifically to the living texts of our individual churches themselves.

JAMES P. WIND

Lilly Endowment, Inc.
Indianapolis, Indiana