Читать книгу The World's Christians - Douglas Jacobsen - Страница 54

The Protestant vision of salvation is simultaneously intimate and austere. It is intimate because salvation focuses on the personal relationship between the believer and God. It is austere because the individual has to face God in stunning isolation. Within Protestantism, Jesus is frequently portrayed as the friend of sinners, who is ready and willing to embrace all who turn to him. Salvation is a joyful homecoming. One by one, individual by individual, God redeems humanity, freeing people from the burden of their sins and befriending each one in turn. The only requirement is faith. The gift of salvation is free, with no cost beyond placing one’s full trust and confidence in God (see Voices of World Christianity 3.2). Protestants have also, however, said that each person has to face God alone. The saints of the past cannot intervene, and Mary cannot mediate. Anxiety can be further heightened by Protestantism’s bleak assessment of the unredeemed condition of humankind. People are declared to be “lost,” they are “worms in the dust,” they are “totally depraved.” In the famous words of Jonathan Edwards (1703–58), the American Puritan preacher, humans need to recognize that they are “sinners in the hands of an angry God” before they can appreciate the breadth of God’s grace. Meeting God on those terms can be terrifying.