Soteriology: A Dogmatic Treatise on the Redemption
Overview
How, exactly, are we saved? In attempting to answer this question, Pohle joins a long line of thoughtful Christians who have reflected theologically on forgiveness and redemption. He writes on the purpose of studying Christ’s redemption, along with the necessity of redemption. He also defends the doctrine of predestination, and writes a lengthy chapter on the atonement—both of which merit reading in order to understand the contemporary controversy surrounding these doctrines. Pohle concludes with reflections on the offices of Christ—prophet, priest, and king.
- Detailed footnotes and bibliographical material
- Contains a detailed topical index
Top Highlights
“‘Mediator.’—A mediator (mediator, μεσίτης) is one who holds a neutral position between parties at variance, and is therefore apt to interpose between them as the equal friend of each.” (Page 5)
“ 2 Cor. 5:19: ‘God indeed was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself.’” (Page 3)
“christ’s mediatorship as a condition of our redemption” (Page 5)
“Vicarious atonement, therefore, can only mean the voluntary assumption of a punishment due to sin,—not indeed the reatus poenœ, which implies real guilt, but the penance imposed by God. In other words, the Godman renders infinite satisfaction in our stead, and this satisfaction by its objective worth counterbalances our infinite offence and is accepted by God as though it were given by ourselves.” (Pages 37–38)
“Creator Himself, without regard to the future Incarnation, described His work as ‘very good,’25 and that the Incarnation would not be preeminently a free grace if it corresponded to a strict claim of nature.” (Page 20)
- Title: Soteriology: A Dogmatic Treatise on the Redemption
- Author: Joseph Pohle
- Publisher: B. Herder
- Publication Date: 1919
- Pages: 171
Joseph Pohle (1852–1922) studied in Trier, Rome, and was ordained as a priest in 1878. He served as a professor in Baar, Switzerland from 1881 to 1883, as professor at St. Joseph’s College in Leeds, England from 1883 to 1886, and as professor of philosophy in Fulda from 1886 to 1889. In 1889, he moved to America to teach at the newly-founded Catholic University. Pohle returned to Europe in 1894, teaching at Münster and then Breslau, where he served as professor of dogma, and wrote his Dogmatic Theology. He was also a frequent contributor to the Catholic Encyclopedia.