The Goodness of Judgment

In this volume McSwain continues to deploy Karl Barth, Julian of Norwich, Athanasius, James Cone, and dozens of others to buttress his claim about human duplicity and the Easter asymmetry which allows us to properly interpret our lives by the gospel. Specifically, the focus is on Christ's cross which provides the radical discontinuity (judgment) needed to preserve the continuity of God's good creation. In resurrection light we see the inner connection of re-creation to creation, an atonement that disentangles good from evil, righteousness from sin, and life from death. Even though the perfect clarity of this liberating separation is reserved for judgment day, this same judgment of grace frees us to live now as "eschatological activists" in the Liberator's way of justice and peace. In view of the cross, the Spirit empowers us to live in the hidden truth of who Christ is and who we have always been in Christ, as God's beloved in the Trinitarian communion. McSwain's cosmic vision pictures all people sharing in Christ's sufferings and also in his glory. Thus, the reconciled human community genuinely participates "as one" in Christ's victory over sin, death, and the devil.