Salvation and wholeness- the theological understanding of the summum bonum of the human

Salvation and wholeness- the theological understanding of the summum bonum of the human



1. Introduction

The concept ‘salvation’ is a common phenomenon in all religions. Salvation is neither an act nor an event, but a coherent process, which has a reason, beginning and end. It is a change of whole being and becomes a new creation. Here in this paper I would like to discuss what are the biblical and theological understanding of salvation, wholeness and summum bonum/supreme good. How this is related to each other and its relevance for the pastoral theology, care and counseling. Suggesting the concept and its historical back ground, development, health and the questions of meaning, other religious traditions and dealing this issue from a counseling/therapeutic frame work are out of the scope of my presentation.

2. Definition and a Biblical/theological understanding

2.1. Salvation




Hebrew words for salvation has the following meaning such as deliver, bring to safety, to redeem and the major salvific terms are gaual (“redeem,” “buy back,” “restore,” “vindicate,” or “deliver”) and yausua (“save,” “help in time of distress,” “rescue,” “deliver,” or “set free”).[1] The individuals [2] and the groups [3] find help and deliverance in the face of very specific problems. The gentile nations must turn toward Jerusalem as center to find salvation.[4] The Hebrew Scriptures frequently denounce pagans and their idolatry, yet even in the pre-exilic prophecy maintains a certain universalism in God’s saving activity.

The English term salvation has its root in the Latin term for health or deliverance. Thus salvation properly refers to a state, when a person is removed from peril or threat into a heavenly protection.[5] In the OT there is a strong emphasis on this-worldly nature of salvation. Materialism and national prosperity took a prominent place. In Isaiah’s terms, salvation means Israel enjoying earthly peace with other nations.[6] The messianic king will not only rule with wisdom and justice, but will also restore a proper harmony with nature.[7] On the other hand one cannot overlook the spiritual other-worldly elements involved in the making of the Sinai covenant, the giving of the law, the building of Solomon’s temple, the role of ideal kings, and much else in Israel’s history. The redemption and restoration of Israel[8] after the Babylonian Captivity illustrate strikingly the spiritual aspect of salvation. The prophetic expectations assume more and more an eschatological dimension.[9] There is also an eschatological tension of the continuity of salvation in the Bible.[10]

The biblical writers speak about salvation from the dangers such as sin, day of God's judgment, oppression and Satan. The verb to save has reference to some physical or spiritual peril, the noun salvation pertains to the positive effects of God’s saving action. The image of the well-being that defines salvation, peace, or shalom, redemption, justification, reconciliation and inner change which has a behavioral aspect also is found in the bible. The Biblical images for salvation describe: what God has done, is doing and will do on behalf of wo/men who suffer from the misery, mortality and meaninglessness of the human condition.

The NT uses the word soµteµria (“salvation”), soµteµr (“savior”) and soµteµrion (“salvation”) along with many other terms (“freedom, justification, life, reconciliation, redemption, resurrection, and rule of God”) to express salvation.[11] According to the Synoptic Gospels, sin, sickness, deformity, demonic possession, the threat of death, the power of wealth and the constant and pervasive domination of “evil” or “the evil one” put people in need of deliverance.[12] Jesus' healings are signs both of his saving power and of the nature of salvation based on the kingdom. The Synoptic Gospels present salvation in terms of “entering” the kingdom of God “accepting” it like a child or “sitting at table” in God’s kingdom.[13] The Synoptic record Jesus’ promise of eschatological salvation poetries whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it”[14] In general, one is saved from bondage and brought to a state of well-being or blessedness. The blessedness of salvation is depicted in terms of health and wholeness. The economic koinonia, witness and allegiance are also interconnected. [15]

In the main Pauline Epistles the futurity of salvation is especially prominent.[16] There are three major approaches to salvation which are interconnected but distinct: salvation as (a) deliverance from evil, (b) ritual purification from sin, and (c) the formation of a new relationship with God. The biblical imagery for salvation also all together makes-up a three-dimensional description: salvation is an objectively new situation, a new self and a new way of life that is past fact, present experience and future hope of the gift of God’s own triune life (Father, Son and Spirit) to those who do not deserve it.[17]

1.2 Summum bonum (Latin: Supreme good, highest good)

Philosophical conceptions of the summum bonum have for the most part been teleological in character. That is they have identified the highest good in terms of some goal or goals that human beings are supposed, pursue by their very nature. These goals or ends have differed considerably. For the theist, this end is God; for the rationalist it is the rational comprehension of what is real; for hedonist it is pleasure.[18] The question is must the summum bonum be just one thing or one kind of thing? Yes, to be this extent, although one could certainly combine pluralism (the view that there are many, irreducible different goods) with an assertion that the summum bonum is ‘complex’. But the notion of the highest good has typically been the province of monists (believers in the single good), not pluralism.[19] For Christians the summum bonum is the designation for God as the one who is intrinsically good in the divine self and as the ultimate end toward whom all human endeavors are directed [20]


2.3. Wholeness

The Biblical understanding and the uses of whole and related words, reflecting simply the idea of “all” or “complete.” Most are translations of the Hebrew koµl and sûaµleµm (which is related to the oft-used Hebrew word for peace, sûaµloÆm) and the Greek holos, pas, hygieµys and soµdzoµ.[21] The ideal human wholeness must be understood in light of the infinite God, who is imaged in His finite human creation (Gen 1:26–31). The one and only God (Deut 6:4; 1 Tim 2:5) is a triune being (Mt 28:19). The triune God is the embodiment of self-sufficient (Acts 17:25) wholeness which build a vertical relationship. The second creaturely need for wholeness is horizontal: the need for human companionship and community, without which people remain lacking. This human need too is rooted in God’s creation of people, with God creating Eve because “it is not good that the man should be alone” (Gen 2:18 NRSV).[22]

In the Johannine perspective human wholeness is ‘life in all its fullness’.[23] The goal of ministry and of pastoral care and counseling as vital dimension of ministry is the fullest possible liberation of person in their total relational and social context. The essence of liberation in Hebrew Christian context is the freedom to become all, that one has the possibilities of becoming. Here counseling and pastoral care is a powerful instrument for this wholeness. Counselors act as the liberator and enabler of a process by which people free themselves to live life more fully and significantly. The spiritual wholeness is the centre of mission of the church and the perspective to bring an aliveness of their faith, their values by having contacts with the loving spirit of the universe.

The biblical accounts very systematically and vividly portrays about the outstanding potentialities of human beings. The Psalmist (8:5) describes “human beings as being created little less than God”.[24] The creation accounts (Gen: 1:27) states that human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. The goal of Christian life is to develop the unique personhood in the likeness of the divine. Life in all its fullness or the abundant life is the Biblical way of speaking about spirit-centered holistic health or wholeness centered in spirit (John: 16:10).

Human wholeness comprises the unity of all dimensions of person’s body, mind and spirit in a community. The wholeness is a matured relationship. The Hebrew concept of Shalom (sound, whole or healthy) and the New Testament concept (gk.) koinonia (define the church as a healing and transforming community, centered in the spirit) are very closely associated with the concept of wholeness. In this process the counselors are the co-creators of wholeness. The danger is: whole can’t be conceptually grasped, and we can only realize our own dependence on the creator and in that realization find meaning and substance. We can’t know the whole, but the whole makes it possible for us to fit into it, and there to find bliss and peace.[25]

3. Salvation a Biblical/theological perspective

The salvation act of NT can be defined as second exodus. The blessedness of salvation is depicted in terms of health and wholeness. Soteria carries health, wholeness and soundness. St. Mark presents Jesus as a good physician. It is very vivid in Jesus’ ministry, the physical and spiritual aspects of healing miracles (making people well) are linked together salvation and transformation. In the Pauline writings, salvation is linked with individual life and it is other worldly. Individual resurrection and salvation is to be seen in the context of the kingdom of God by participating it through faith in Him. Both the present and future dimensions are emphasized.[26] Union with Christ is one of the unique characters of Salvation. According to St. Paul if any one is ‘in Christ’ he is a new creation. Jesus Christ is the cornerstone and foundation in whom the whole structure is pinned together.[27] Liberation theology tends to emphasize the corporate liberation of the oppressed with little attention to individuals (Structural transformation of the Marx). Process theology has tend to emphasize individual salvation through relation with both human beings and God, but recently has tried to balance this with ecological and social emphasize”[28]

4. Health and healing in relation to salvation/wholeness

The world continues to be in desperate need of ‘total healing’, not jut from physical ills, but from social, psychological, emotional and spiritual evils.[29] Healing is the binding together of the disintegrated personality into a new, transformed whole. The written law condemns to death, but the Spirit gives life.[30] Healing results in a true wholeness of the person, which allows him to approach the transcendent holiness of God in intimacy and love. The word forgiveness, justification, sanctification, perfection, glorification and reconciliation used in pastoral theology as the vehicle of salvation and it always includes healing. The progressive emergence of the self as the unification of the personality has primary healing and salvatory significance.[31] Both Mark and Luke used the verb “sodzo” to define healing and saving respectively.[32] Thus healing and sickness and other forms of human brokenness is a central motif in the New Testament. Salvation and wholeness is interconnected in the bible because in a new relationship to God and neighbor where one overcomes the threats of death, meaninglessness and unrelieved guilt.

5. Salvation and Liberation

Soteria in the NT is ‘total salvation’ which means body, mind, spirit and soul along with qualitative and quantitative aspects of life.[33] Liberation from sin, from deviant interior attitude and like is known as integral liberation. “The wholeness of God’s liberation is present within the historical liberation of human beings.”[34] The state of existence is the state of estrangement; man is estranged from the ground of his being, and other beings. The Traditional religious word for alienation and resultant proclivity to block wholeness in ourselves and others is sin. Sin was understood in the world of the Bible as both individual and societal/structural. The bible is aware that own estrangement from one selves and others is some how rooted in the estrangement from God's life giving love. Though wholeness is a gift of God, it takes effort intentionality, and often painful struggle to receive this gift by developing our potentials. The powerful resistances to growth are seen, in the biblical heritage, in the context of the more powerful resources for growth. In a nutshell the salvation process itself is a new creating order or creating spirit, towards new creation as a liberative force. Church plays a central part in this liberating wholeness. Wholeness in the context of the new age is called the liberative aspects of the kingdom of God. This is an age of caring and community of justice and social transformation based on a new wholeness- making relationship with God. In the understanding of the mission and wholeness of the church the liberation and empowerment has a spiritual wholeness at its center. This means that the helping people experience healing and growth in the vertical dimension of their lives is at the heart of all caring and counseling that is truly pastoral. To facilitate spirit-centered wholeness requires the continuing integration of resources from the psychosocial science, psychotherapy and the resources of theological heritage. Liberation includes liberation from and liberation to and liberation for. It is to life in all its fullness- to increasing caring and competence, and creative living. It is from those many forces in individuals, relationships, groups, and institutions that limit, constrict, and sometimes strangle the full development of the God-intender possibilities of persons.[35]

6. The heart of wholeness and Six dimensions of wholeness

The holistic pastoral care and counseling aims at enabling persons to increase and balance growth in all six aspects of their lives such as Enlivening one’s mind, Revitalizing one’s body, Renewing and enriching one’s intimate relationships, Deepening one’s relationship with nature and biosphere, Growth in relation to the significant institution in one’s life and Deepening and vitalizing one’s relationship with God. The goal of pastoral care and counseling is self-other-society’s wholeness. Growth occurs in covenant of wholeness with others. These are relationships in which there is mutual commitment to nurturing each other’s growth toward fulfilling the dream of wholeness that God has for all persons. Self-caring and self-responsibility enable one to enter into such growth- nurturing relationships.[36]

6.1. Enlivening one’s mind-involves developing rich, partially used personality resources for thinking, feeling, experiencing, envisioning and creating. Enriching consciousness, releasing creativity, deepening insight, sharpening awareness, expanding intellectual and artistic horizons all these are part of wholeness centered approach to pastoral care and counseling.[37]

6.2. Wholeness is closely related to the revitalization of one’s body. This means learning to experience and enjoy one’s body more fully and use it more effectively and lovingly.

6.3. Helping people to repair, renew and enrich their networks of caring relationships: Our human personalities are formed, deformed and transformed into relationships. Healing and growth both depend on the quality of our significant relationships. Relational healing and growth skills are therefore essential for a ministry of wholeness.

6.4. Deepening one’s relationship with nature and biosphere- People can become more whole-physically, mentally and spiritually when they are helped to develop and cherish a nurturing interaction with our great mother – mother nature/biosphere (cf. Ecological salvation- Rom: 8:19,22).

6.5. Institutional/societal liberation: Pastoral care and counseling should include consciousness rising to make people more aware of the social roots of their individual pain (Identified patients), brokenness and truncated growth. Caring and counseling should aim at freeing, motivating and empowering people to work with others to make our institutions places where wholeness will be nourished in every one. There can be no full or long-term wholeness for individuals and families in a broken world, a world that destroys wholeness by its systems of injustice, poverty, violence and exploitation. Conscientization increases such awareness of persons receiving care of the societal roots of their individual problems and empowerment, which gives them a sense of their potential strength to work with others to change these societal injustices, are both essential (The collective unconscious).

6.6. The growth toward wholeness is spiritual growth. This intersects the other five and is the unifying bond.[38] The key to human flowering is an open, trustful, nourishing, joyful relationship with the loving spirit who is the source of all life, all healing and growth. Methods of spiritual healing and growth aim at enhancing our meanings, our guiding values, our faith, our moments of transcendence (Peak experience- Maslow), and our empowering relationship with the creative spirit of the universe.

The church as a caring, liberating, healing, growth- enabling community centered on the spirit to bring wholeness in function (community service) and in the dogmas (preaching, teaching, worship, educational, leadership).

7. The philosophical aspects of wholeness and summum bonum

7.1. For Aristotle man is neither a brute nor a god; hence, he needs to live among others. Political groupings are therefore not artificial impositions but natural outgrowths of man's essential being. Nevertheless, man is not just a social animal, he is also endowed with reason. And so Aristotle ultimately insists upon the supremacy of the intellectual virtues, the life of contemplation. It is clear that Aristotelian moral philosophy is rooted in the psychological and social dimensions of human life. The summum bonum is the life lived by wo/men through the perfection and actualization of what s/he essentially and naturally is. Thus, in Aristotle's philosophical system, biology, psychology, ethics, and politics are integrated to provide a coherent framework for human development and perfection.[39] Wholeness is a sum-total of an integration of reason and sociability.

7.2. For St. Augustine all of human life is moved by desires. He takes it for granted that "we all certainly desire to live happily" and that without desire we do nothing. The problem is not to uproot or transcend desire, which is an essential mark of our humanity and of our belonging to God. It is right rather to direct desires toward their appropriate objects and to order all objects of desire in accordance with their true relation to God, the summum bonum, the source and center of all value and beauty, in whom alone our restless hearts will find the satisfaction of all their deepest desires. It is for Augustine the dynamic of desire that draws the heart toward God, though only an infusion of divine grace is sufficient to turn desire from all lesser goods toward God. Augustine makes a major distinction between desires directed upward, which he calls love, and those directed downward, which he calls lust. The one tends toward God, the other toward worldly goods. An even sharper contrast is invoked as he distinguishes between the City of God and the City of Man, the heavenly and earthly cities into which all of humanity is divided, the one formed by the desire or "love of God, even to the contempt of self," the other by the "love of self, to the contempt of God" An otherwise Platonic contrast between lower and higher desires and their corresponding hierarchy of objects culminating in God is thus transformed into a more historical contrast culminating in heaven and hell—a contrast and contest between those moved to seek God and respond to God's grace and those moved to seek self and the world.[40] In the dualistic frame work of St. Augustine and Plato the wholeness is achieved through putting our desires in the light of God and it has an other worldly relevance.

7.3. Immanuel Kant also affirmed that it would be fitting if the will that conforms to this imperative were happy. Indeed, the summum bonum, that whose realization we must all desire, is the union of virtue and happiness. Such a state is not attained in this life, but we have the right to posit that it is not an illusion, that is, that this life is not the whole, and that in the larger sphere the summum bonum may be realized. This argument assumes that God exists as the guarantor of ultimate fittingness.[41]

8. Shalom and wholeness

The principal word used to express the idea of peace in the Hebrew Bible is ‘shalom’. The root of the word is found in many Semitic languages. The Akkadian ‘salamu’ comes closest to the core meaning of the root, “to be hale, whole, complete.”[42] In one form or another, the notions of wholeness, health, and completeness inform all the variants of the word. Peace is not, then, simply a negative, the absence of war. Peace is a positive notion with its own content. ‘Shalom’ is the daily greeting in Israel; ‘salom alekem’ “peace upon you (pl.)” is a common expression we could translate as “good day.” But it really is closer to “may you be well.” To be well is, of course, to be “whole, to be complete,” to have physical and spiritual resources sufficient to one’s needs.[43] Wholeness or completeness can be ascribed to things as well.[44] The Hebrew term for peace covers health, prosperity, security, friendship and salvation. It is the desired experience of individuals, families and Israel as a nation. It is present because of God’s own presence and his favor toward his people. The Greek term ‘eirene’ in classical Greek literature means little more than absence of war. In the NT, however, it incorporates the breadth of meaning conveyed by the Hebrew ‘salom’.[45]

9. The nature and process of wholeness/salvation

The unfolding wholeness that God dreams for all human being is reflected in Jesus. God emanated the wholeness of humanity through God’s son Jesus of Nazareth. Paul Tellich had commented it as ‘new being’[46]. The new being means enhancing up to fullness of Christ. The Pastoral care and holistic counseling is a stepping stone which helps to grow up to fullness or wholeness. According to M.M.Thomas that “we belongs to a humanity that cries passionately and articulately for a full human life (humanization). The full human life or wholeness is a gift of a new creation which is radical renewal of the old and the invitation to men to grow up into their full humanity in the new man Jesus Christ”.[47] Christ in his incarnation, passion and resurrection comes to show what it is to be a real person and to help all men every where in their struggle for new humanization.[48]

Helping people to achieve liberation from their prisons of unlived life, unused potentials, and wasted strengths ultimately help to reach wholeness. Through this freeing experience people discover that happiness is a by-product of actualizing of the self / integration of the self (Abraham Maslow) and their constructive potentials. Mental- spiritual-relational health is the continuing movement toward living life more fully, joyfully and productively. Wholeness is a growth journey, not the arrival at a fixed goal.[49]

In the process of pastoral care and counseling one can attain wholeness and salvation. Salvation has different stages such as beginning (past state), going on (present stage), will be coming (futuristic stage). Salvation has understood as transcendent of materialistic or internal or external deliverance from mortal danger, healing in sickness, liberation from captivity, ransom from slavery, help in law-suit, victory in battle and peace after political negotiations.[50] Exodus was understood as a decisive saving action of Yahweh. Judges and kings delivered the nation from distress and oppression and were regarded as instruments of God’s saving action. During the exile salvation was viewed under the image of brining home the remnant (the second exodus). In the Pauline concept futuraristic soteriology- bodily resurrection, redemption, hamartiologial soteriology (sin and salvation), cosmic soteriology, soteriology and men’s self-liberation from alienation are emphasized. The objectivity (Jesus’ act) and subjectivity (obedience) leads to self-liberation from self-alienation. Healing/wholeness also has a subjective part.

10. Pastoral and counseling implications

10.1. Growth Counseling

In growth counseling the maximum development of a person’s possibilities at each stage of the life cycle enables the growth of others and the society in which all persons have the opportunity to develop and use their full potentials.[51] The growth-oriented care and counseling, therapy and education seek to liberate persons from whatever is blocking their growth toward wholeness. For persons in the Judeo-Christian tradition the source of all growth and creativity is God, liberation, hope, kingdom of God, the image of God, and Jesus as an example of what it means to be a whole person.[52] The church has the capacity to be salugenic-health and growth producing-as well as pathogenic-sickness producing and growth blocking. There is also the concern to educate and reeducate persons so that they can take full responsibility for their own growth and to help them to learn constructive values, attitudes, and relationship skills.

11. Evaluation on Salvation is wholeness

2.1. Views of Salvation connected with wholeness

There are following positions such as exclusivist position (There is no connection with salvation and wholeness), inclusivist position (health and wholeness is some have included or interconnected. Salvation leads to wholeness, the penultimate is health and ultimate is salvation), the dialectical position (salvation and wholeness has a connection but some time it overlaps. Health has its on territory but has a point of conduct) and the interlocking model (being healthy unable a person towards salvation. One experiences health as participant in the experience of salvation). Ones position has a strong influence in our pastoral care and counseling.

2.2. Salvation is wholeness, not just ‘point-of-sale’ transaction: Why there is no wholeness experienced in the present day is the major question? The failure is because Christians prone to think of salvation as a "point-of-sale"[53] transaction that focuses on getting to heaven instead of appreciating that Jesus came to fulfill the Old Testament promise of shalom, a concept that suggests wholeness, wellness, and peace. The Old Testament speaks of salvation three times more often than the New Testament, generally in the sense of divine deliverance that brings/preserves peace.[54] Based on surveys he has done, Martoia said nine out of 10 pastors define the gospel as the good news that Jesus died for people's sins so they can go to heaven. But Jesus rarely said anything about getting to heaven. He focused mainly on present human needs. Jesus' self-stated mission, as found in Luke 4:16-19, is derived from Isaiah 61:1-2 and incorporated the Old Testament sense of bringing deliverance, healing and wholeness. Preaching about forgiveness from sin becomes increasingly ineffective in a postmodern world where a sense of guilt and obligation is less often operative. In contemporary culture, one can no longer assume that people identify themselves as sinners in need of grace. "People may not think of themselves as sinners going to hell, but they seek wholeness and recognize they're not there,"[55] The inner imago Dei creates the yearning to believe that there is purpose to life, that life can be better, and that belonging is possible. It’s a trio of longings that correspond to faith, hope and love. Gaining a fuller understanding of salvation does not eliminate the concept of eternal life, however, as Jesus came to offer a gospel that led to peace and wholeness, contemporary Christians are likewise called to be "shalom spreaders," proclaiming good news not just to all people but to the whole person.

3. Conclusion

The concept of salvation means the complete change of the whole being of human beings and it is a coherent and progressive process up to a new creation/new being. It focuses on the holistic and qualitative change of human personality both inwardly, outwardly, mentally and physically. The Christianity is not primarily a doctrine of salvation but the announcement of the advent of a new creative order in Jesus. This new discovery is the fullness or wholeness of life through salvation. Bible talks about the unifying center of wholeness which is Christ. The integration of the self, wholeness and reaching the highest good is possible in Christ.


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[1] Gerald G. O’Collins, "Salvation", Freedman, David Noel, ed., The Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday,1997)1992.

[2] The Barren women receive the gift of a son (Judges 13; 1 Sam 1:1–2:11). Jacob seeks and receives the blessing from his father (Gen 27:1-29). The Psalms pray for deliverance from wicked people (Ps 12:1; 43:1; 86:16), victory for the king (Ps 20:9), and deliverance from personal enemies (Psalms 7, 109). The Psalms also offer thanksgiving when the individual is delivered from trouble (Psalm 34), from dangers in battle (Psalm 18), and from death (Ps 86:13), Gerald G. O’Collins, "Salvation", The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1992.

[3] Example the great flood (Gen 6:5–9:19) portrays a situation of general perversion and consequent destruction from which God saves a just man (Noah) and his family; they form a holy remnant from which the entire human race will be regenerated. In Genesis 37–50 Joseph’s family escapes starvation and Joseph is reconciled with his brothers. The cult of the Passover preserves the memory of the Israelites being delivered from their heavily armed persecutors through the crossing of dangerous waters (Exod 12:1–28). Through Deborah and Barak, God delivers the Israelites from the Canaanite oppression of Jabin and Sisera (Judges 4–5). The cycle of stories from the northern kingdom about the prophets Elijah and Elisha show God’s power at work in a salvific way (1 Kings 17–2 Kings 10). Postexilic literature (Esther, Tobit, and Judith) presents the Israelites as a minority in a Diaspora situation. God intervenes to save this oppressed people. At times God’s salvation seems restricted to a holy remnant (Isa 7:3–4; 10:20–23). Other prophetic voices attest to the Lord’s steadfast love for the people as a whole and desire to renew the saving covenant with Israel (Hos 2:14–23). Both pre-exilic (Amos 1–2; Isaiah 13–23) and exilic prophecy (Jeremiah 46–51; Ezekiel 25–32) contain oracles against foreign cities and nations. Gerald G. O’Collins, "Salvation", The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1992.

[4] Isa 2:1–4; 49:6, 22–23; 60:1–14.

[5] John. R. Hinnells, The New Dictionary of religions, (UK: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.,1995)

[6] Isa 2:1–5.

[7] Isa 11:1–9.

[8] Isa 43:14–44:5

[9] Gerald G. O’Collins. The Anchor Bible Dictionary,1992.

[10] Hawthorne, Gerald F; Martin, Ralph P. and Reid, Daniel G. (eds.), Dictionary of Paul and His Letters, (Downer’s Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press 1998), 1993.

[11] soµºzoµ (“save,” “keep from harm,” “rescue,” “heal,” or “liberate”), and its compound diasoµºzoµ. The corresponding nouns soµteµria (“salvation”), soµteµr (“savior”) and soµteµrion (“salvation”) turn up respectively. We find the very ruomai (“rescue”) which also uses many other terms (“freedom,” “justification,” “life,” “reconciliation,” “redemption,” “resurrection,” and “rule of God”) to express salvation. Freedman, David Noel, (ed.) The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1992.

[12] Luke 15:18, Luke 8:48; 17:19, Mark 3:4; Luke 18:42, Mark 1:34, Mat 14:30, Mark 10:25–26, Luke 19:1–10, Matt 6:13.

[13] Mark 10:23–26, Mark 10:15, Luke 13:23–30.

[14] Mark 8:35; 10:29–30.

[15] Martin, Ralph P., Peter H. Davids. Dictionary of the Later New Testament & Its Developments, (Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity Press 2000), 1998.

[16] Gerald G. O’Collins, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1992.

[17] Ryken, Leland; Wilhoit, James C. and Longman III, Tremper, Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, (Downers Grove, Ill: Intervarsity Press 2000), 1998.

[18] James A. Montmarquet, “Summum bonum”, Robert Audi (G.ed.). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Second Edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999), 889.

[19] James A. Montmarquet, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 889.

[20] Donald K Mckim (ed.) Westminster Dictionary of Theological terms (Louisville: Westminster John Knox press, 1996)272.

[21] Ryken, Leland, Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, 1998.

[22] Ryken, Leland, Dictionary of Biblical Imagery, 1998.

[23] Howard Clinebell; Basic Type of Pastoral care and Counseling, Resources for the ministry of healing and growth, (Revised and Enlarged).Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1984, 63.

[24] Howard Clinebell; Basic Type of Pastoral care and Counseling, Resources for the ministry of healing and growth, 51

[25] Paulose Mar Gregorios. Healing A Holistic Approach (Kottayam: Current Books,1995)36.

[26] L.N. Larpsley, “Salvation and healing”, Rodney J Hunter (ed.). Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996) 1107

[27] 2Corithians: 3:17

[28] L.N. Larpsley, “Salvation and healing”, Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, 1108.

[29] Aylward Shorter. Jesus and the Witchdoctor: An approach to healing and wholeness. (New York: Orbis Books, 1985) 259.

[30] 2 Corinthians 3:6.

[31] Rodney J Hunter, ‘health’, Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, (UK: Abingdon Press, 1990).1107

[32] Mark:5:23, Luke:8:36.

[33] Simon Pau Khan En, “Life and wholeness: A theological challenge”, A Wati Longchar(Ed.), Health, healing and wholeness: Asian Theological perspectives on HIV/AIDS. ( Jorhat: ETE-WCC/CCA, 2005) 46.

[34] Leonardo Ann Clodovis. Salvation and Liberation. ( Australia: Boffdove Communication, 1984)

[35] Howard J. Clinebell; Basic Type of Pastoral care and Counseling, Resources for the ministry of healing and growth, 30.

[36] Howard J. Clinebell, Basic Types of Pastoral Counseling: Resource for the ministry of healing and growth, 31.

[37] Howard J. Clinebell, Basic Types of Pastoral Counseling: Resource for the ministry of healing and growth,31.

[38] Howard J. Clinebell, Basic Types of Pastoral Counseling: Resource for the ministry of healing and growth, 32.

[39] “ARISTOTLE”, Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol.1, P.411, CD ROM.

[40] “DESIRE” Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol.4, P.312, CD. ROM.

[41] “God in Post biblical Christianity” Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol.6, P.23 CD. ROM

[42] "Shalom", Freedman, David Noel, (ed.) The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1992.

[43] "Shalom", Freedman, David Noel, (ed.) The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1992.

[44] Solomon in 1 Kings 9:25 offers peace offerings (selamim) in the temple he completed (šillam). A debt is made good (sallem) through payment of money. Vows are completed (sallem) through sacrificial offerings. Cited in "Shalom", Freedman, David Noel, ed., The Anchor Bible Dictionary, 1992.

[45] Green, Joel G.; McKnight, Scot and Marshall, I. Howard; (eds.) Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels (Downer’s Grove, IL: Inter Varsity Press 1998)1992.

[46] Where there is new being (new creation) there is real healing. But real healing is not where only a part of body or mind is reunited with the whole personality is united with itself. The new creation is healing creation because it creates reunion. Paul Tellich, New being (New York, Charles Sribners Sons, 1955) 23.

[47] M.M. Thomas, Salvation and Humanization, (Madras: CLS, 1971)

[48] M.M. Thomas, Acknowledged Christ, P.72, cited in., Robin Boyd, An introduction to Indian Christian Theology, (Delhi: ISPCK, 2004), 314.

[49] Howard Clinebell, Growth Counseling (Nashville: Abingdon Press,1979)17-18. Cited in Howard Clinebell; Basic Type of Pastoral care and Counseling, Resources for the ministry of healing and growth, 29.

[50] Maisch, Ingrid; Biblical concept of salvation, Karl Rahner (Ed), Encyclopedia of Theology (Germany: Burns and Oates, 1975) 1504. (PS: 17:11, 18:28, 22:22).

[51] Howard Clinebell, “Growth Counseling” Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, p.483 CDROM.

[52] Howard Clinebell, “Growth Counseling” Dictionary of Pastoral Care and Counseling, p.483 CDROM.

[53] Tony Cartledge, “Consultant says salvation is wholeness, not just ‘point-of-sale’ transaction”, Published February 8, 2007-30- http://www. abpnews.com /1684.article

[54] Martoia's website, www.velocityculture.com, calls him a "transformational architect" who helps churches shift their theological outlook toward a more effective "ministry trajectory and cultural interface." He is currently working on a series of three books dealing with a new vocabulary for communicating Christianity, and the implications of it for Christian conversations. Static: Tune Out the Christian Noise and Experience the Real Message of Jesus is set for release in March 2007.-30- copyright © 2005 Associated Baptist Press. http://www.abpnews.com/1684.article.print.

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