Definition: When translated from German it literally means “salvation history.”
More about the term: Heilsgeschichte is an organizing principle developed by Oscar Cullman for the various New Testament titles for Jesus. Cullman’s Christology is centered on what Jesus has done in history.
It is a characteristic of New Testament Christology that Christ is connected with the total history of revelation and salvation, beginning with creation. There can be no Heilsgeschichte without Christology; no Christology without a Heilsgeschichte which unfolds in time. Christology is the doctrine of an event, not the doctrine of natures. (Oscar Cullman, The Christology of the New Testament, rev. ed. [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1963], 9).
Two ways can be used to interpret this functional Christology:
- A functional Christology of the New Testament, as opposed to an ontological Christology , is the truly biblical view, but it can be used to construct a more ontological Christology, since ontological concepts are implicit within the functional.
- It is neither necessary nor desirable to go beyond the functional approach taken by the New Testament. The New Testament Christology is normative for our Christology.
Example of use: When shifting the emphasis against certain heretical views of Christology, the discussion of natures is ultimately a Greek philosophical concern and not a Jewish or biblical concern–the biblical concern is Heilsgeschichte and not metaphysics.