Introduction
John Winthrop commenced bible study at a tender age and served the community to become a fully-fledged puritan. He was a seasoned scholar who cascaded his academic knowledge with religion to elaborate God’s word. Winthrop improvised the biblical message into five acts, the creation, the fall of man, and the Israelite’s tribulation analogous to human suffering today, the church, and salvation. His key argument is that suffering is the way to attain salvation. According to the Well’s model, the world is dynamic, and the bible’s messages must be improvised to communicate the message in a way that modern-day Christians can understand. The Wells model explains the five-act drama in five distinct stages, creation, fall of man, saving Israelites, Jesus Christ, and the church. Winthrop’s improvisation will be faithful if the order of the acts reflects the one indicated in Wells’s model. John Winthrop’s improvisation is not faithful to the five-act Christian Theo drama because the acts on the fall of man and salvation contradicts scriptures.
How Winthrop’s Improvisation Contradict Scripture
Winthrop’s improvisation introduces the third act as the suffering encountered by Israelites to gain God’s favor. He argues that human suffering is part of the process toward salvation (Winthrop, 2020). On the contrary, Jesus in the scriptures states that he is the only way to salvation, and no person can get to heaven without him. The improvisation, therefore, misses the point that no matter how people suffer, they will not be saved if they do not accept Jesus as their savior. Winthrop further underscores that Christian suffering is key to salvation which is not an accurate statement. According to the five-act Christian Theo-drama, suffering as a means of salvation is expressed in act two in the fall of man, where Jesus was sent to suffer and die for the world’s sins (Lyons, 2022). After his death, no other sacrifice or suffering is needed for salvation, grace is needed.
The proposal of suffering as a route to salvation in the third act is further misaligned with the scriptures in Acts and Timothy. Acts four, verse twelve, states that salvation is not found in anyone else or any situation other than Jesus Christ and that only those who believe in him are saved (Aridi & Tambiyi, 2021). In second Timothy chapter one, verses nine state that all saved people are not selected because of their efforts but because of the grace of Jesus Christ, whose grace existed in the world before the beginning. Since only divine grace and Jesus’ love is key, no suffering can be equated to salvation.
The fall of man is an important act that shares the reasons that spoiled man’s relationship with God. In the contemporary world, the fall of man is repeated whenever people sin, and it must be elaborated to help people preserve their relationship with God. Winthrop’s improvisation designates the second act as the fall of man characterized by immense suffering (Winthrop, 2020). Although the order aligns with Samuel Well’s model, the explanations differ as they express the fall of man as a continuous process whenever man sins. On the contrary, Well’s model focuses on the original sin as the cause of deteriorated relationship with God (Wells, 2018). Christians relying on Winthrop’s theological improvisation may be delusional that salvation is obtained through human effort and suffering, which is inaccurate.
Conclusion
Winthrop’s theological improvisation must be in harmony with Samuel Well’s model of Theo-drama. However, it covers the events for each act to understand God’s message of redemption and love for humanity. The improvisation helps cover the gap in act four as people prepare to enter the fifth act by encouraging Christians always to endure suffering, especially if they are meant to improve their relationship with God. Theological improvisation is key to understanding how the bible can be interpreted in modern times.
References
Aridi, I. S., & Tambiyi, G. Y. (2021). Rest in the Book of Hebrews and its Implications on Contemporary Christianity. Web.
Lyons, F. P. (2022). Book Review: The Logic of the Body: Retrieving Theological Psychology by Mathew A. LaPine.
Wells, S. (2018). Improvisation: The drama of Christian ethics. Baker Academic.
Winthrop, R. C. (2020). Life, and Letters of John Winthrop: Volume II. BoD–Books on Demand.