THE VICARIOUS HUMANITY OF CHRIST AND THE REALITY OF SALVATION

This dissertation is a theological investigation of the reality of salvation from a Christian perspective, and what part the humanity of Christ plays in such a discussion. By "the reality of salvation" we mean the question of how one speaks of a Christian idea of salvation in a world of evil, pain and suffering. The proposal of this study is that the humanity of Christ, the significance of Jesus Christ as true human being, a doctrine which has been confessed by the church since its early days, has profound implications for this question if it is seen in a vicarious sense. In this view, not only is the atonement accomplished by Christ's vicarious death, as in traditional thought, but the very essence of salvation includes the vicarious nature of the entire humanity of Christ, the representative and substitute for all humanity. The humanity of Christ thus becomes the basis for a renewed and restored humanity and a key to understanding the reality of salvation in an "objective" sense, which nonetheless provides a place for true, creaturely humanity.;After a critique of anthropocentric tendencies in contemporary soteriologies through using the doctrine of the humanity of God in the thought of Karl Barth, our agenda becomes established by the contemporary theologian Thomas F. Torrance. It is seen readily in Torrance's thought what far reaching implications the vicarious humanity of Christ has for all facets of theology and the life and ministry of the church. Then, in successive chapters, we focus specifically upon the implications of the doctrine of the vicarious humanity of Christ. The relationship between epistemology and hermeneutics and the vicarious humanity of Christ is seen in the theology of the nineteenth century Scottish theologian, John McLeod Campbell. Implications for a radical soteriology are explored through the theme of the "vicarious repentance" of Christ in Campbell and the Anglican theologian, R. C. Moberly. Karl Barth's soteriology, as expressed in the section from his Church Dogmatics entitled, "The Judge Judged in our Place," provides the perspective of a radical doctrine of substitutionary atonement. The Pauline teaching on the relationship between Christ as last Adam and the body of Christ presents the church as the locus of the vicarious humanity of Christ in the world. Thus, it is concluded that the reality of salvation is to be found in God himself, but not God apart from our humanity.