History under the special action of God
All human history is guided by divine Providence, which is always salvific action and which walks towards the integral and definitive salvation of the human being. But we call “salvation history” the dimension of this same history insofar as it is oriented towards Jesus Christ (center of creation and history), or also the history of the revelation and special communication of God to his People, the old and the new Israel.
Salvation history is also concretized in biblical history, in the Old and New Testaments. The events of the Holy People are the milestones of this history, whose meaning is deciphered through the Word that God has revealed to his People. God speaks and works in a salvific way, and expects and makes possible the free response of man. For this reason Jesus, the Verb or personal Word of God, is the beginning, the center and the end of this story “Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today and forever” (Heb 13,8).
God is present in the history of his people (Ex 29,43), leaving a visible sign of this presence and meeting in the “tent” (the “shekinah”) that will later be the temple (Ex 26). This presence will intensify until it shows itself as “God with us”, the “Immanuel” (Is 7,14). God is unique, creator and Lord of history, the Holy One, who calls to holiness (Lev 19,1).
The narrative of saving history
The books of the Bible narrate the constant pilgrimage of the People of God. The figure of Abraham, who listens and believes, serves as a prototype in this walk with God and before God (cf. Gen 17:1). The journey through the desert, leaving Egypt (“exodus”) under the guidance of Moses, for forty years, was a special time of trials (with successes and failures), in order to receive the grace to hear the word, live the Alliance and yearn for union with God in the promised land. The prophets will accentuate the messianic hope. The book of Wisdom and other moral books make a rereading of the salvific facts.
God speaks through revelation and sustains the pilgrimage of his People towards “the promised land”. The prophets, relying on the promises made by God to Abraham, recall and extend the perspective to “all the nations of the earth” (Gen 12,3), in the midst of which Israel, living its faith, is like “a flag hoisted” to sustain the messianic hope of humanity (Is 11,12).
Christ-centered saving history
In Christ, the center of salvation history, hopes and promises are fulfilled, like the reality that happens in the shadows. Christian faith discovers that human history is salvific through the eternal election of man in Christ the Redeemer (cf. Eph 1:3-14) and through the paschal mystery of his death and resurrection. Theology, as a reflection on faith in Christ, tries to present all the contents of that faith in the perspective of a human history that, by grace, is salvation history. For Christ, history or time is not only “chronology”, but “kairós”, that is, “favorable time… day of salvation” (2Cor 6,2).
The Church, as “universal sacrament of salvation” (LG 48) continues this pilgrimage towards the final resurrection in Christ, when there will be “a new heaven and a new earth” (Rev 21,1; cf. LG 49-50). The salvific action of God in history wants the free collaboration of man, on the path of perfection and mission, on a personal and community level, to make the mystery of the Church become a universal communion.
References Covenant, Old Testament, liturgical year, Bible, desert, eschatology, Church (pilgrim), Israel, New Testament, Providence, People of God, revelation.
Document reading DV 14-20; LG 48-51.
Bibliography P. BLí„SER, A. DARLAPP, History of Salvation, in Fundamental Concepts of Theology (Madrid, Cristiandad, 1979) I, 640-658; O. CULLMANN, History of Salvation (Barcelona, Peninsula, 1967); Idem, Christ and time (Barcelona, Estela, 1968); J. DANIELOU, The mystery of history (San Sebastián 1963); W. KASPER, Faith and history (Salamanca, Follow me, 1974); JM McDERMOTT, Universal History and Salvation History, in Dictionary of Fundamental Theology (Madrid, San Pablo, 1992) 569-583; J. MOUROUX, Le mystere du temps (Paris, Aubier, 1962); HU VON BALTHASAR, Theologia della storia (Brescia, Morcelliana, 1964).
(ESQUERDA BIFET, Juan, Dictionary of Evangelization, BAC, Madrid, 1998)
Source: Dictionary of Evangelization