Soteriology 101: Former Calvinistic Professor Discusses Doctrines Of Salvation

Drs. Leighton Flowers and Johnathan Pritchett (along with a video from NT Wright) discuss the first century tribal or collectivist culture as it relates to our hermeneutic in approaching controversial passages regarding soteriology. Dr. James Leo Garrett, an esteemed Southern Baptist scholar, wrote of a “Westernized hyper individualization” of certain biblical doctrines: "From Augustine of Hippo to the twentieth century, Western Christianity has tended to interpret the doctrine of election from the perspective of and with regard to individual human beings. During those same centuries the doctrine has been far less emphasized and seldom ever controversial in Eastern Orthodoxy. Is it possible that Augustine and later Calvin, with the help of many others, contributed to a hyper individualization of this doctrine that was hardly warranted …?" Let’s just be honest. We, as American Westerners, do tend to think everything is about us, the individual. We tend to read the text with an ego-centric bent. If someone tell