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is not merely one metaphor among others but the reality underlying them,^[14] and the cross is integral to establishing God’s kingdom as the fulfillment of Israel’s story.^[15] The historical contexts of penal substitution are receiving their due.^[16] Implications of divine child abuse and allegations of promoting violence or victimization are eliciting more intentionally Trinitarian accounts: the Father, Son, and Spirit together lovingly accomplish our salvation; the Son lays down his life of his own accord, and the Father does not punish a mere human but mysteriously pours out judgment on the Son in the bond of the Spirit’s love.^[17] This Trinitarian emphasis has also elicited attempts to recover the patristic fullness on the subject, which includes victory alongside considerable mention of sacrifice—more than Aulén’s followers have acknowledged. These Trinitarian accounts include efforts to integrate Christ’s incarnation more fully with his atoning work: his identification with fallen humanity already begins its healing.^[18]

      Justification as the declaration of forgiveness tightly correlates with penal substitutionary atonement. Though earlier modern alternatives to penal substitution may have been moralistic in their visions of the divine kingdom and human transformation, current alternatives are typically more optimistic or even universalistic regarding human salvation.^[19] Forgiveness seems to involve sheer divine fiat or radically incarnational divine identification with our plight, not a divine work of gracious justice involving the cross.

      The most substantial contemporary development concerning justification is the so-called new perspective on Paul. In brief compass, this perspective rejects the Lutheran parallel between Paul’s “Judaizing” opponents and medieval Catholicism. Such a parallel suggested that just as Paul’s opponents based sanctification or assurance on law-keeping in response to covenantal grace, so later Catholic belief errantly based justification on transformative righteousness through sacramental grace. Rejecting this parallel, newer perspectives on Paul characterize Second Temple Judaism in terms of covenantal nomism, not legalism or works-righteousness: works of the law simply demarcated God’s (Jewish) covenant people (from Gentile pagans), with circumcision expressing initial commitment to the covenantal obligation of keeping Torah.

      In that case Paul’s critique of his opponents chiefly opposed ethnocentric failure to recognize prophetic fulfillment of Gentile inclusion in Christ, not soteriological failure to champion the “faith alone” anthropology of true grace. Key Pauline texts, accordingly, may have in view the faith(fulness) of Christ rather than faith in Christ as what decisively accomplishes our salvation.^[20] Apocalyptic readings proceed on this basis to suggest that Paul’s gospel is more radically gracious than the Protestant Reformation suggested: not even human faith functions as any kind of condition for participating in the new reality of union with Christ, which has invaded and upended our earthly history.^[21]

      However, neither apocalyptic nor any of the various new-perspective readings have vanquished more traditional accounts. Certainly the newer scholarship has led to more careful portrayals of first-century Judaism, with corresponding debates about how its nomism relates to Pauline arguments. But if “works” must be addressed more chastely, still the traditional Protestant approach has contemporary exegetical and theological defenses—including the identification of misunderstandings and excessively narrow presentations from which it too suffers.^[22]

      The Spirit’s Application: Sanctification and Glorification

      Trends concerning sanctification involve regeneration, spirituality, and glorification, or theosis. For some, regeneration is the initial event of being made new by the Spirit, either logically preceding faith (as for most Calvinists and those affirming baptismal regeneration) or proceeding from it (as for most Arminians). For others, “regeneration” is a virtual synonym of “sanctification,” denoting a process of renewal rather than initial reception of a new nature. Apart from interest in conversion as more process- and less event-oriented, few current trends affect regeneration as such.^[23] In some circles, though, the positional aspect of sanctification—associated with justification as an initial event—is gaining renewed emphasis. “Sanctification” terminology in the Bible usually addresses being set apart positionally as God’s people, a status that contains a continual calling toward holiness—yet not itself a process involving human initiative. When (instead) that process of sanctification (in more systematic-theological terms) is in view, the biblical-theological terminology focuses on being renewed, being transformed, growing in grace. From this perspective sanctification needs more emphasis on divine initiative than many views of the Christian life provide.^[24]

      Spirituality has certainly received contemporary theological attention. Classic theologians’ spiritual priorities are being recovered, with particular attention to Christian virtues and practices.^[25] Interest in spirituality without religion has elicited theological pursuit of authentic Christian responses to that cultural trend. Protestant openness to theosis, with attention to the contemplative end of our earthly pilgrimage, stems partly from trends in Pauline studies and connections with other New Testament corpora.^[26] Perhaps it also stems from neglected aspects of Christ’s work—broadening atonement beyond the cross to consider implications of his incarnation, earthly ministry, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Even on traditional Pauline terms, Western soteriologies need better accounts of Romans 4:25 (“He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification”), especially in light of the encompassing Trinitarian vision of Romans 8.

      Speaking of theosis, and/or glorification, completes our overview of the ordo salutis. Orthodox and Catholic accounts of salvation’s final end have remained relatively stable, with the Orthodox rarely pursuing a technical ordo and the Catholic one being largely sacramental in nature. Yet their classic underpinnings challenge contemporary Protestants who have become more aware of patristic Christology. If early arguments for the Son’s full divinity tie salvation tightly to the incarnation—God taking on humanity in Christ so that believers might take on the divine nature in him—then salvation cannot solely consist in an atoning transaction accomplished by a human sacrifice (however flawless) on the cross. Such transactional myopia is actually not the classic Protestant view, but popular aberrations need correction: if Christ’s full divinity is soteriologically essential, then evangelical theologies must more fully integrate incarnation and atonement, correspondingly relating salvation’s end to the fullness of bearing the divine image.

      As theosis rises in Protestant prominence, however, the communal embrace of humanity in the incarnation and the cosmic reach of its implications have elicited critique of limited notions of glorification. Sometimes it seems as if spiritual life and divine likeness do not involve the social, earthly dimensions of created humanity but instead transcend those tempting obstacles. Few theologies say as much, but many in Western traditions live as such. Again, popular aberrations need correction: theosis, the beatific vision, or glorification—by whatever name—is not individualistic, disembodied, passive, eternal gazing on the divine essence after the present universe has been annihilated. Against such assumptions based on texts like 2 Peter 3, there has been increasing biblical-theological emphasis on new creation and historical-theological emphasis on resurrection. In light of Christ’s incarnation and his resurrection as the first fruits of ours, true Christian teaching resists an unhealthy dualism between the material and the spiritual.^[27] Rather than escaping from the body, community, and the cosmos, Christians wait in hope for God to make all things new. Yet such an emphasis introduces further critique of Western soteriological blind spots.

      Internal and External Critique

      For all their variety, Western accounts of salvation strive for some comprehensiveness by encompassing past, present, and future. Regarding the past, forgiveness of sin initiates new life; regarding the present, transforming grace works that new identity into patterns of living; regarding the future, the fullness of eternal life involves bodily resurrection and complete personal renewal in the joyful immediacy of God’s presence. These soteriologies encompass the full history of human lives in this way, but particular persons are their focus. What therefore do they neglect?

      The answer of some classically liberal and nearly all liberationist

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