What is “Salvation” and how do we receive it?

Catholic (Roman Catholic Church)

• Core Idea: Jesus’ death is a sacrifice of atonement that satisfies divine justice and heals the rupture between God and humanity caused by sin. His resurrection is the victory over death that opens eternal life.
• Theological Models:
  • Satisfaction (Anselm, Aquinas): Humanity owed God a debt of justice because of sin, but only a perfect human-divine mediator could repay it. Christ offers himself in obedience and love.
  • Participation: Catholics emphasize the sacraments (especially Eucharist) as ways believers share in Christ’s saving death and resurrection.
• Focus: The cross both reconciles us to God and transforms us through grace, drawing us into Christ’s risen life.

Eastern Orthodox

• Core Idea: Jesus’ death and resurrection heal human nature, conquer death, and restore communion with God.
• Theological Models:
  • Christus Victor / Paschal Mystery: The focus is less on legal guilt and more on Christ’s victory over the powers of sin, death, and the devil.
  • Theosis (divinization): By uniting divinity and humanity in himself, Christ makes it possible for humans to share in the divine life.
• Focus: Salvation is cosmic healing and transformation; Easter (Pascha) is the central celebration, because the resurrection is the true defeat of death.

Protestant (mainline / Reformation traditions)

• Core Idea: Jesus’ death justifies sinners by dealing decisively with sin and guilt; his resurrection vindicates him and secures hope for believers.
• Theological Models:
  • Penal Substitution (especially in Reformed/Calvinist thought): Christ takes the penalty we deserve, satisfying divine justice so we can be forgiven.
  • Lutheran: Emphasis on the happy exchange — our sin is laid on Christ, his righteousness is given to us by faith.
  • Methodist/Arminian: Similar, but more stress on free will and sanctification (being made holy) through the Spirit.
• Focus: Faith alone (not works) unites believers to Christ’s death and resurrection, bringing forgiveness and new life.

Evangelical (across denominations, often within Protestantism)

• Core Idea: The cross is central: Jesus dies in our place, bearing the punishment for sin. His resurrection proves the victory and assures eternal life.
• Theological Models:
  • Heavily emphasizes Penal Substitutionary Atonement — Christ is punished so sinners don’t have to be.
  • Often combine this with Christus Victor (victory over death/Satan).
• Focus: Personal conversion (“being saved”) by accepting Jesus’ death and resurrection as effective for oneself, leading to transformed life and mission.

Summary Comparison

• Catholic: Sacrifice + grace through sacraments → reconciliation and transformation.
• Orthodox: Victory + healing → restored communion and divinization.
• Protestant: Substitution + justification by faith → forgiveness and renewal.
• Evangelical: Penal substitution + personal faith response → assurance of salvation and eternal life.

Here is an illustration of the difference in focus between Evangelical Protestant and Eastern Orthodox traditions towards salvation and how God see us as humans.

Eastern Orthodox Critique of Satisfaction and PSA

Orthodox theologians often see both Anselm’s satisfaction model and Protestant penal substitution as overly legalistic, framing the relationship between God and humanity in terms of law, punishment, debt, and transactions.

• They argue this misrepresents God’s character:
  • God is not bound by human categories of law or honor.
  • God does not need to punish in order to forgive.
  • Divine justice is restorative, not retributive.
• They also worry that these models make salvation too individualistic (focused mainly on guilt and forgiveness) and too narrow (dealing only with the problem of sin’s penalty, not the deeper problem of death and corruption).

Orthodox Alternative: Christus Victor / Theosis

Instead of focusing on debt or punishment, the Orthodox emphasize two key themes:

1. Christus Victor (Victory over Death and Evil)

• Problem: Humanity is enslaved by death, corruption, and the devil.
• Solution: By dying and rising, Christ enters into death itself, destroys its power, and liberates humanity.
• Resurrection is central: The cross is not just a payment, but the moment God overthrows the tyranny of death and evil.

2. Theosis (Deification / Participation in Divine Life)

• Problem: Humans are cut off from God’s life because of sin.
• Solution: In the Incarnation, Christ unites divine and human natures. By dying and rising, he heals human nature and opens the path for humans to “become partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).
• Salvation is participation: Through baptism, Eucharist, and life in Christ, believers share in his death and resurrection, becoming gradually transformed into God’s likeness.

Contrast in a Nutshell

Cosmic vs. Individual Salvation

Salvation is both something which can happen to an individual and also to the whole Cosmos since both are out of step with God. A look around at world events as well as individual behaviour need leave us in no doubt about that.

But some traditions focus on one or the other of these aspects although they are affirmed by most of them

1. Biblical Roots

• Scripture presents salvation not only as rescue of individuals but as the renewal of all creation:
  • Romans 8:19–23 → creation groans, waiting for liberation.
  • Colossians 1:19–20 → God reconciling all things through Christ.
  • Revelation 21 → New heaven & new earth, not just souls in heaven.
• So, salvation is both personal (forgiveness, new life) and cosmic (restoration of creation).

2. Orthodox View

• Very strong on cosmic salvation.
• Theosis is not only about humans becoming united to God, but the transfiguration of all creation.
• Icons, liturgy, and sacraments all reflect this — matter itself participates in redemption.
• Evil and death are defeated not just for humans but universally.

3. Catholic View

• Official teaching (esp. Vatican II, Catechism) affirms the renewal of creation.
• The resurrection of the body and new heavens/new earth are central.
• Liturgical life emphasizes cosmic scope: Easter Vigil, prayers for the whole world.
• Still, in popular Catholic spirituality, the individual journey (heaven/hell/purgatory) often dominates people’s imagination.

4. Protestant View

• Varies by tradition:
  • Lutheran & Reformed confessions do affirm the new creation (resurrection of the body, new heavens/new earth).
  • Evangelical preaching in the modern West often reduced salvation to “going to heaven when you die,” but there’s now a strong recovery of the cosmic aspect (thanks in part to N. T. Wright, Richard Middleton, etc.).
  • Many Protestants today stress that salvation is about God’s kingdom come on earth (Lord’s Prayer) and the healing of all things.

5. Why the Shift?

• Medieval/modern debates about justification and personal assurance often narrowed focus to the individual.
• The last century, with ecological crisis and global injustice, pushed theologians to recover the big picture: salvation as renewal of creation, society, and history.
• Wright and others argue: if resurrection is bodily and creation is renewed, then salvation cannot be reduced to “souls leaving earth.”