Rahab and salvation

Continuing on his look at Rahab and salvation in Joshua, Earl comments:

It is worth developing this concept of ‘salvation’ here, for as Charry noted, it has become an increasingly ‘thin’ concept in much of the Christian tradition, with the focus of salvation being on the forgiveness of sins, rather than on participation, in some sense, in the divine life. However, if salvation is construed rather more broadly and ‘holistically’ as conquering death and entering into life in its fullness, sharing in the life of God, then Rahab’s and the Gibeonites’ ‘salvation’ is intelligible in these terms—Rahab ‘conquers’ the death that awaits the other inhabitants of Jericho, and enters into the fullness of life with Israel, and hence YHWH, whereas the Gibeonites, whilst ‘conquering death’, enter into a life of servitude, albeit ‘with YHWH’ in some sense. The difficulties that might be raised regarding the forgiveness of the sins of Rahab’s former way of life, something that the narrative does not address, are then relativized because forgiveness is not the primary focus of salvation; rather life with God is the focus. Indeed, Charry notes that for Augustine ‘salvation is dwelling in the fullness of God’, and that one enjoys God by participating in the good—‘Augustine pressed Christians … to taste and enjoy God. And since the “essence” of God is justice, wisdom, love and goodness, participation in these qualities is eternal life with God.’ In other words, perhaps one can construe salvation in terms of participation in these qualities, qualities that are, in some sense, demonstrated in Rahab.Reading Joshua as Christian Scripture, pages 227-228

<idle musing>
I like that definition of salvation; it is much "thicker" and fuller than the simple "forgive-me-for-my-sins, but-let-me-go-on-sinning" version that seems all too common.
</idle musing>