3.1.4.

Salvation as Liberation

Russell modifies the saying “no salvation outside the church” to “no salvation outside the poor.”
Russell comprehends the gospel to be a message of liberation from internal and external
oppression.1 Salvation no longer privatized and futurized, but refers to liberation and blessing,
right relationship and responsibility for the welfare of community. Russell challenges the idea of
God’s preferential option for the church and the claim to exclusive control of the powers of
salvation through the sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist.2

3.1.5. Communion of Hospitality

Russell develops the metaphor of welcome table partnership to consider the inclusiveness of the
church. She observes as a move towards diversity rather than equality. For Russell, hospitality
does not impose the lifestyle of the host, but “creates a safe and welcoming space for persons to
find their own sense of humanity and worth.” Hospitality calls us to be a community of faith and
struggle that connects with those at the margin and celebrates the way God has called a diverse
people, so that we may all share together at God’s welcome table.3

Russell observes that in the early Christian communities, hospitality was to be practiced among
church members and with itinerant missionaries who came to visit. She states that hospitality
included table fellowship and was a catalyst for partnership in the hybrid church communities
whose members came from different classes, religious backgrounds, genders, races and ethnic
groups.4

3.1.6. Spirituality of Connection

Russell’s passion for moving the Church toward solidarity of the oppressed and the marginalized
is laudable. She demonstrates how feminist spirituality is about connection with the marginal,
broken, and excluded. The spirituality of connection explores how people who chose to be

1
Lisa P. Stephenson, Dismantling the Dualisms for American Pentecostal Women in Ministry: A Feminist-
Pneumatological Approach (Leiden, Boston: Brill, 2012), 160.
2
Russell, Church in the Round, 119.
3
Russell, Church in the Round, 173.
4
Letty M. Russell, “Children of Struggle,” in Hagar, Sarah, and Their Children: Jewish, Christian and Muslim
Perspective, ed. Letty M. Russell and Phyllis Trible (Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster/ John Knox, 2006): 192-193.
connected to those at the margins of life can be sustained and nurtured. She finds the answer in
coalition, community, and sharing.5

5
Graham Hill, Salt, Light, and a City: Ecclesiology for the Global Missional Community, Vol.1 (Eugene, Oregon:
Cascade Books, 2017), 90.