What is the Meaning of Salvation in the Salvation Army Today?: Exploring a Theology of Social Service and Holistic Mission

The Salvation Army, through a multitude of social services right across the world, is involved daily in saving people from the devastating impacts of poverty, homelessness, addictions, unemployment and a wide range of other predicaments. However, the dominant internal rhetoric about salvation would appear to suggest that theologically these efforts are at best secondary to an evangelical mission of conversion. What good is it to save people?s bodies if their souls are damned to hell? A critical task of this study will be to explore theological notions of salvation which encourage a holistic view of mission, with the potential for reuniting the social and evangelical purposes of The Salvation Army. It will be demonstrated that this broader view of salvation reflects the early history of The Salvation Army, has a solid scriptural basis and also fits within a number of other contemporary theological frameworks which are based in the life experience of the poor and oppressed.