SALVATION. - The idea of salvation includes that of safety and preservation. It is also the sense of the Greek σωτηρία, which recurs frequently in Holy Scripture. Transferred to the spiritual plane, it signifies liberation from evil and attainment of good; particularly liberation from sin and its consequences and attainment of the supernatural good. The longing for salvation indeed arises from the sense of sin and of human decline which has resulted from it; it gives rise to a problematic, both in face of the recognition of human insufficiency and the difficulty of recovery, and also because of the fear or dread of Him who has been offended, the Legislator and Judge. Salvation therefore means healing from this pathological state of the human spirit, liberation from evil, safety and escape from the ever-impending danger of definitive, eternal perdition.
I. CHRISTIAN SOLUTION
Christianity provides a solution to this problem which is a synthesis of opposites, and thus stands at the center between conflicting solutions, harmonizing the elements of truth which they contain.1. The Old Testament
Traces of this solution are already to be found here. In order to escape from sin, it is first of all necessary to observe the Law, which God Himself or Moses and the Prophets recommend in the name of God (cf. Deut. 4:1; 5:6; 4:5 sq.; 12:28 sq.; Lev. 18:5; Ex. 18:5 sq.; cf. Tob. 12:9). At the same time, trust in God who saves is necessary, as the Psalms especially inculcate, and above all faith in God and in Him whom God will send to His people as the Messiah-Saviour (cf. Is. 62:1; 11; 12:3; Zach. 9:9; Mt. 7:7). Circumcision is the sign of entry into the state of righteousness and is prescribed for those who wish to share with the rest of the chosen people in the special governance of God. But he becomes heir to the promises made to Abraham only if the faith of Abraham passes into him.Unfortunately, when the “night of legalism” descended, many reduced the way of salvation to ritualism and formalism, and their expectation of salvation was temporalized into political messianism. St Paul waged a great battle against the idolatry of the Law, affirming the genuine sense of faith and upholding its essential importance and primacy. But even if the bulk of rabbinic Judaism closed its eyes to the true sense of the mission of the future Messiah, there were always pious and God-fearing souls, living by faith and in righteousness, in expectation of the Saviour (cf. Lk. 1:75 sq.; 2:25 sq.; cf. M.-J. Lagrange, Le Messianisme chez les Juifs, Paris 1909).
2. The New Testament
The mystery of salvation was revealed in its integral concept, according to the divine good pleasure, in the hour willed by God (Col. 1:26), with Christianity, which is a great announcement and message of salvation (Lk. 2:11; Rom. 8:3; Col. 1:13-14; Heb. 1:1-3; Jn. 1:29-36). Jesus came as Saviour (Mt. 1:21; Lk. 2:25-30), and presented Himself as such (Mt. 15:24; Mk. 2:17; Lk. 19:10; cf. Mt. 18:12-23; Lk. 15:1-8). This is the very substance of His mission: to heal, to save the lost sheep, to give His life for the world. In the Synoptics this concept of salvation is constant, to which in the Fourth Gospel corresponds that of “life” and “eternal life.” It is a concept which is intertwined with that of Redemption (v.), which, already latent in the Servant of Yahweh poems (Is. 42:1; 58; 49:1-6; 50:4-9; 52:1-3; 53:12), but unknown to the Jews in its full sense, clearly emerges from the Gospel, both in the affirmations of Christ who says He came for sinners (cf. Mt. 9:13; Mk. 2:17), and in the parables of salvation, and in the explicit declaration of the offering of His life “for many” (Mt. 20:28; Mk. 10:45; cf. F. Prat, La théologie de st-Paul, I, 19th ed., Paris 1930, p. 516), for the remission of sins (Mt. 26:27; cf. Mk. 14:24; Lk. 22:19, 20; 1 Cor. 11:24). St Paul developed these concepts further, laying the foundations of the whole theology of Redemption and salvation (cf. J. Rivière, Le dogme de la Rédemption. Etude théologique, Paris 1914, pp. 46-70).Salvation therefore consists in receiving from Christ the messianic goods, constituted not by an earthly kingdom restored according to Jewish hopes, which Jesus rejects, but by the kingdom of God which is spiritual and transcendent (Lk. 17:21; Jn. 18:36) and by eternal life, in which perfect happiness is realized, but which already on earth is initially realized in those who believe in Christ (Jn. 3:36; 5:24; 6:47). Here is the crucial point of the message and work of salvation. If according to Christianity salvation comes from Christ and consists in Christ, it is naturally asked what is required on the part of man, that is to say what are the necessary conditions for being saved.
3. Errors
There is a position which may be called Pelagian and semi-Pelagian (and which translated into secular terms is rationalism and humanism which asserts human self-sufficiency), according to which salvation comes from man and his works, since with his natural powers alone he can attain to faith, and realize (Pelagius [v.]) or at least begin (semi-Pelagians [v.]) the work of his perfection. The Church has condemned this theory, at the Second Council of Orange (529), affirming the necessity and gratuity of Grace, even for the “beginning of faith,” since without Christ we can do nothing (Jn. 15:5) and all our capacity comes from God (2 Cor. 3:5) who works in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure (Phil. 2:13). According to the Church faithful to the Gospel, salvation cannot come from works alone, nor from man alone (cf. Denz-U, 174-200; 200a, 200b). For the theory of St. Thomas Aquinas V. REDEMPTION.An opposite position is that of the Protestants, who hold that salvation can be attained by faith alone. Luther (v.) and Calvin (v.) distinguished a twofold faith: the dogmatic, intellectual faith, which is adherence to revealed truths; and the affective, or fiducial faith, which rests on the preaching of Christ and on the inward experience of salvation, and is the only one necessary to obtain divine forgiveness and to be saved.
It may be said that almost from the beginning there were resistances and protests even among the followers of Luther and Calvin (cf. J. Rivière, Justification, in DThC, VIII, 11, cols. 2149-52). Today, moreover, there is within Protestantism a strong reaction against this doctrine, even to the admission on the part of some that sin is really cancelled (cf. J. Rivière, ibid., cols. 2203-2207).
4. Catholic doctrine
Defined by the Council of Trent (cf. Denz-U, 792-843), it corresponds to the authentic message of salvation contained in Holy Scripture, and is satisfying for man. The substance of this doctrine is that salvation consists not in a simple non-imputation, nor merely in the remission of sin, but also in the “sanctification” and renewal of the inner man through the voluntary acceptance of Grace and the gifts (cf. ibid., 792, 799). It is a matter of an infusion of Grace and holiness, not of a simple external divine favour (ibid., 821). It is certainly a divine work, but conditioned by a moral preparation on the part of man (ibid., 797, 819), whose first and most important act is faith, “the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification” (ibid., 801; cf. 1793). It is not, however, merely fiducial faith in divine mercy (ibid., 822), but faith which consists in holding as true the divine revelations and promises, especially that the sinner is justified by the Grace of God (ibid., 798). But besides faith, it is also necessary to have the preparation of good works, since faith does not save or justify, nor can it give, as the Protestants claim, the certainty of salvation (ibid., 819; cf. 791, 798, 801, 804).The principal role in the work of human salvation is indeed that of divine Grace, since all are justified freely by the grace of God, through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus (Rom. 3:24). Protestants are wrong to accuse Catholicism of violating this principle. It is firmly believed that “now, apart from the Law, a righteousness of God has been manifested... namely, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe” (Rom. 3:21 ff.; cf. Gal. 3:22). This doctrine is clearly defined by the Council of Trent (cf. Denz-U, 793-94; 811-12), which summarizes and solemnly reaffirms (ibid., 797-98) the position already taken by the Church against the Pelagians regarding the necessity of Grace for salvation (cf. ibid., 103-104), and against the Semi-Pelagians concerning the derivation of even the “beginning of faith,” the first step toward salvation (cf. ibid., 178).
As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, quoting the words of Jesus: “No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him” (Jn. 6:44), “man cannot prepare himself to receive the light of Grace unless with the gratuitous help of God, who moves him entirely” (*Summa Theologiae*, I-II, q. 109, a. 7), and that “man can do nothing unless he is moved by God,” as stated in Jn. 15:5: “Without me you can do nothing.” Therefore, even when it is said that man does all that is within his power, this refers to what is within his power insofar as he is moved by God” (ibid., ad 2; cf. Gaetano, *in h. l.*, n. VI; A. Stolz, *Anthropologia theologica*, Freiburg in Br. 1940, pp. 120-21; R. Garrigou-Lagrange, *De Gratia*, Turin 1947, pp. 67-71). The initiative of salvation comes from the Father, who eternally pre-approves, and “those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brethren; and those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30), that is, brought to salvation in its full and definitive form. “It is written in the Prophets, says Jesus: And they shall all be taught by God. Every one who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (Jn. 6:45).
Protestants accuse Catholicism of detracting from the merits of Christ by positing this requirement of human cooperation. But the accusation is false, for it is in the order of Redemption that salvation is effected through our cooperation, and moreover, this very cooperation, insofar as it is supernatural and salutary, is already an effect of Grace (cf. *Summa Theologiae*, III, q. 49, a. 1, ad 2, 3; a. 2, 3).
Concretely, the role of man in the work of salvation, as defined by St. Thomas Aquinas and the Council of Trent, is determined by the objective laws of human psychology: it is clear that the first necessary disposition is that of faith. Protestants are right to insist on its necessity (cf. S. Harent, *Foi*, in *Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique*, VI, cols. 512-14), but it is precisely the Council of Trent that defines it as the “beginning of human salvation,” the “root of all justification,” and that through it one is justified freely, not by the merit of human works (cf. Denz-U, 801).
The integral concept of this faith certainly includes trust, hope, abandonment, and obedience as well (cf. Rom. 4:20-22; 1:6, 15, 18; 2 Cor. 10:4-6). For justification, it must be “living” faith, accompanied by love. But fundamentally, it has an intellectual character, as a response to the preaching of the evangelical truth (cf. Rom. 8:13-17; 2 Cor. 10:5; 1 Thess. 3:13; Heb. 11:1), which involves the submission of the mind to God, a rectification of reason, so that both the vision of life and moral practice are divinely theocratic, purposeful, and quasi-divine (cf. Vatican Council, in Denz-U, 1787; cf. Mouroux, *Je crois en Toi*, Brescia 1950; R. Spiazzi, *La civiltà cerca Cristo*, Milan 1949, pp. 262 ff., 302 ff.).
Protestants hold that the “works” required for salvation are understood by us in a formalistic sense, as mere external observances, and that by positing this requirement we place man in the place of God in the work of salvation, falling into Semi-Pelagianism. But the Church proclaims that external acts have no value unless animated by faith and charity, that the primacy belongs to the spirit of faith and love, which must enliven all outward works. And all this human activity, this cooperation in the work of salvation, already proceeds from Grace, which, like a torrent, carries man along and elicits his adherence to Christ.
Protestants, however, appeal to St. Paul, whom they consider the herald of salvation through faith alone, in contrast to St. James, who insists on works. But one must not isolate St. Paul nor give his words a meaning they do not have, nor remove from Scripture what one does not like (such as the Letter of St. James). It should be noted: “the faith” of which St. Paul speaks must be understood in its full sense, in harmony with his usual thought, that is, as an adherence to God and to the new economy of salvation inaugurated by Christ, in which “neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6). And St. Paul adds: “If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing” (1 Cor. 13:2). There is no difference between these statements of St. Paul and that of St. James, when he says that “as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead” (Jas. 2:26). When St. Paul opposes faith to works (Rom. 3:27 ff.), he is not treating the practical conditions of salvation as if he had set out to write a treatise on morals, but only developing his theological vision of the plan of Redemption, according to which, in the economy of faith, the Mosaic law with its prescribed works is surpassed. In substance, from St. Peter’s exhortation: “Brethren, be the more zealous to confirm your call and election, for if you do this you will never fall” (2 Pet. 1:10) to the Council of Trent, the same message resounds in the Tradition and Magisterium of the Church as that announced by Jesus, who demands from men a response to his work as Savior—not merely vague sentiments or purely intellectual adherence, but appealing to their good will, to the ethical effort of sinners whom he wishes to convert and of the just whom he wishes to bring to definitive salvation in heaven.
With Grace operating in man, disposed by faith and works to its action, Christ works as a kind of ferment, a leaven of the human spirit, which is both his work and the work of man. Then he truly remits and cancels sins (Denz-U, 792, 799), for what matters to him is not external legalism, the righteousness of whited sepulchres, but the interior renewal of man, who, like a tree, bears good or bad fruit according to his inner state (cf. Mt. 12:33-35; 7:16-20; Lk. 6:43-46). The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (Jn. 1:29) cannot be satisfied with merely covering human sins but brings about a true interior purification and works an interior sanctification.
The Catholic solution to the problem of salvation is thus found in this communication to the soul of the fruits of the Redemption accomplished by Christ. The Sacrament of Baptism effects this communication by incorporating us sacramentally (ex opere operato) into Him and giving us salvation; but beyond this sacramental incorporation, there is also what St. Thomas calls a "mental" incorporation, through which the Head communicates to the members "His spiritual sense, which consists in the knowledge of truth, and the spiritual movement that occurs through the instinct of grace" (Sum. Theol., 3ª, q. 69, a. 5, ad 1). Thus, through the "institution of salvation," the Church as a visible society organized for the realization of the plan of salvation, man enters into the "community of salvation," which begins on earth and completes the work of our salvation in heaven. Ultimately, the solution to the ancient and tormented problem is found in the Church, founded and governed invisibly by Christ and vivified by the Spirit; in and through her, man receives the messianic gifts and participates in eternal life.
pp. 210-25; H. Lange, De Gratia, Friburgo in Br. 1920, pp. 230-250; M. J. Scheeben, I misteri del cristianesimo, trad. it., Brescia 1949, pp. 475-81. Raimondo Spiazzi