Salvation in the Flesh: Understanding How Embodiment Shapes Christian Faith

by David Trementozzi, Amos Yong (Foreword by)

Overview

David Trementozzi contends that conservative-traditional Christianity has uncritically adopted an intellectualist (i.e., rationally-driven) view of faith in its understanding and practice of salvation. Throughout, he maintains that an intellectualist soteriology should be rejected because it prioritizes the rational over other behavioral and affective aspects of faith. An intellectualist rendering of salvation is incomplete because human experience is neither abstract nor gnostic--it is embodied and experientially relevant. An intellectualist soteriology simply cannot account for the dynamic and transforming possibilities of saving grace. Salvation in the Flesh offers an innovative perspective on the embodied nature of faith and the centrality of the Holy Spirit in the Christian doctrine of salvation. Drawing from the cognitive neurosciences and psychology, Trementozzi argues for a holistic awareness of cognition to better inform an embodied understanding of faith. In dialogue with the cognitive sciences, he appropriates Jonathan Edwards' theology of religious affections, early church practices, and pentecostal spirituality to highlight the soteriological significance of orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and orthopathy for a renewal soteriology of embodiment. In doing so, Trementozzi offers a vision of salvation that more thoroughly accounts for the multifarious ways God's saving grace interacts with human flesh and blood.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781498242899
Publisher:	Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication date:	02/01/2018
Series:	McMaster Theological Studies Series , #7
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	330
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

David Trementozzi is Dean of Graduate Studies and Professor of Theology at Continental Theological Seminary in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Belgium. David and his wife, Emily, live in Brussels with their three children: Judah, Kaleb, and Halle.



Amos Yong is Professor of Theology and Mission and the Director of the Center for Missiological Research at Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, California. He is the author and editor of more than forty books, including Hospitality and the Other: Pentecost, Christian Practices, and the Neighbor (2008). This book is a companion to his The Dialogical Spirit: Christian Reason and Theological Method in the Third Millennium (Cascade, 2014).

Table of Contents

Foreword Amos Yong ix

Preface xiii

Acknowledgments xxi

Introduction xxiii

Part 1 Salvation and Embodiment

1 The Problem with Conservative Christian Soteriology 3

2 Re-Imaging Soteriology through the Cognitive Sciences 40

Part 2 Salvation and Orthodoxy

3 Jonathan Edwards and the Salvific Role of Orthodoxy 65

4 Salvation in the Flesh through Edwards' Dispositional Orthodoxy 91

Part 3 Salvation and Orthopraxy

5 Cononical Theism and the Salvific Role of Orthopraxy 109

6 Salvation in the Flesh through Canonical Theism's Orthopraxy 141

Part 4 Salvation and Orthopathy

7 Pentecostalism and the Salvific Role of Orthopathy 157

8 Salvation in the Flesh through Pentecostal Orthopathy 192

Part 5 Toward A Renewal Soteriology of Embodiment

9 Stating our Case 209

10 Imagining Salvation in the Flesh 229

Glossary 255

Bibliography 275

Names Index 289

Subject Index 293

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

“Trementozzi articulates a sustained argument for a holistic soteriology in place of the evangelical (and Pentecostal) tendency to intellectualize faith and marginalize affective and behavioral dimensions of faith. . . . Thus, it makes an important contribution to the fields of evangelical and Pentecostal theology as well as to contemporary systematic and constructive approaches to theology.”

—Steven M. Studebaker, Associate Professor, McMaster Divinity College



“David Trementozzi grants us a long overdue pneumatological soteriology that places its accent right where it belongs—embodiment. If the reader’s notion of faith or of salvation starts with rational acceptance of theological propositions, then read this excellent book, and get ready to be challenged!”

—Frank D. Macchia, Professor, Vanguard University of Southern California



“Salvation in the Flesh issues a passionate plea to embrace a holistic explanation of the Christian faith that accounts for the integration of intellect, behavior, and affections. Critiquing the lack of an embodied paradigm of salvation in conservative Christianity, Trementozzi invites to a renewal of soteriology by bridging the distance between orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and orthopathy. . . . This book casts a vibrant vision of salvation as embodied, ongoing, and social, creating new vistas for Christian mission, evangelism, theology, and discipleship.”

—Wolfgang Vondey, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom



“Flesh, bodies, and physicality matter. At least they should to Christians. And yet sometimes overt, more often covert, claims by Christians undermine the importance of flesh. A big part of the problem is a faulty or at least limited view of salvation. David Trementozzi details the history of the problem, offers a solution, and calls us back to what matters: salvation that includes flesh. It makes my body want to jump and shout!”

—Thomas Jay Oord, Professor, Northwest Nazarene University

Editorial Reviews

Trementozzi articulates a sustained argument for a holistic soteriology in place of the evangelical (and Pentecostal) tendency to intellectualize faith and marginalize affective and behavioral dimensions of faith. . . . Thus, it makes an important contribution to the fields of evangelical and Pentecostal theology as well as to contemporary systematic and constructive approaches to theology.”

—Steven M. Studebaker, Associate Professor, McMaster Divinity College



“David Trementozzi grants us a long overdue pneumatological soteriology that places its accent right where it belongs—embodiment. If the reader’s notion of faith or of salvation starts with rational acceptance of theological propositions, then read this excellent book, and get ready to be challenged!”

—Frank D. Macchia, Professor, Vanguard University of Southern California



“Salvation in the Flesh issues a passionate plea to embrace a holistic explanation of the Christian faith that accounts for the integration of intellect, behavior, and affections. Critiquing the lack of an embodied paradigm of salvation in conservative Christianity, Trementozzi invites to a renewal of soteriology by bridging the distance between orthodoxy, orthopraxy, and orthopathy. . . . This book casts a vibrant vision of salvation as embodied, ongoing, and social, creating new vistas for Christian mission, evangelism, theology, and discipleship.”

—Wolfgang Vondey, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom



“Flesh, bodies, and physicality matter. At least they should to Christians. And yet sometimes overt, more often covert, claims by Christians undermine the importance of flesh. A big part of the problem is a faulty or at least limited view of salvation. David Trementozzi details the history of the problem, offers a solution, and calls us back to what matters: salvation that includes flesh. It makes my body want to jump and shout!”

—Thomas Jay Oord, Professor, Northwest Nazarene University

From the Publisher