Abstract
To answer the question of the relation between the Spirit and salvation, this article explores Michael Welker’s theology of the Trinity. I argue that Welker’s Trinitarian theology, with its focus on the activity of the triune God, is built on his theology of the Spirit. The Spirit, I argue, allows him to understand the salvific activity of the triune God realistically. The first three parts of the article will focus on Welker’s Trinitarian understanding of salvation, by looking at the sacraments, particularly at holy communion as a mirror of the salvific activity of the triune God. The fourth and final part will analyse Welker’s theology of the triune God in light of Dirk J. Smit’s analysis of the Trinity, thereby shedding light on Welker’s understanding of the activity of the triune God, on the one hand, and on the relation between the Spirit and salvation, on the other.
Highlights
There are many ways to ask about the relation between the Trinity and salvation in the theology of Welker
In the first part of the last chapter, he discusses the richness and breadth of salvation in relation to this reign. He reiterates that the reign of God ‘reveals the loving, preserving, salvific, and uplifting activity of the triune God’ (Welker 2012a:211)
The reign is discussed in his theology of Jesus Christ,1 which is closely related to his theology of the Spirit, he has made it clear that salvation can only be understood by means of a theology of the Trinity
Summary
The power in which this community participates, is the power of the Crucified, that is, of Selbstlosigkeit or selflessness, and Selbstzurücknahme or selfwithdrawal, and freier, schöpferischer Selbstzurücknahme zugunsten von Mitmenschen, that is free, creative, selfwithdrawal on behalf of others (Welker 1994): The persons who arrive in the communion of the Holy Spirit and who are filled with the Spirit of Christ perceive the revealed mystery of sacrifice and free self-withdrawal They become witnesses of the ‘life-giving Spirit’; they become members of Christ’s body; they stand in intimate communion. In the resurrection of the flesh, fleshly life in the Spirit is not limited to living or dying to a time and place It is life eternal (Welker 2010b): The salvific work of God – revealed in Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit – is not merely a series of attempted repairs or ‘touch-ups’ on what still remains (despite its powers and impotence, its strengths and frailties) a ‘life-supporting’ creation. ‘to be filled with the fullness of God already here and – this is exactly the experience of salvation’ (Welker 2015:193)
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