Comparative Theology
Salvation Compared
The doctrine of salvation in the three traditions: eight dimensions, grace and freedom, the final state
The doctrine of salvation is the central ground of divergence among the three traditions. Each answers differently three fundamental questions: who saves, by what means, and on what conditions.
Salvation across eight dimensions
| Dimension | Reformed Protestant | Catholic | Orthodox |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original sin | Total corruption of human nature; the will is in bondage (Luther, De servo arbitrio). Man cannot of himself seek God. | A wounding of nature rather than total corruption: the will and intellect are weakened, not destroyed. Natural reason remains operative (Trent). | Ancestral sin (προπατορικὸν ἁμάρτημα): the transmission of mortality and a bent toward sin, not of Adam’s guilt. Less juridical than the Latin account. |
| Divine initiative | Divine monergism: God alone is the efficient cause of salvation, and election is unconditional. | Prevenient grace disposes the will. Synergism: the will freely cooperates with grace (Trent, canons 4-5). | Synergism (συνεργεία): cooperation between divine grace and human freedom, neither monergist nor semi-Pelagian. |
| Justification | Forensic: a declaration of righteousness by the imputation of Christ’s righteousness, instantaneous and complete. | A real infusion of righteousness making the believer inwardly just; progressive and sacramental. | The term is less central than salvation, deification or transformation; no elaborated forensic doctrine. |
| Works | No merit. Works follow justification as its necessary fruit, not as its condition (Rom 6:22; Eph 2:10). | Meritorious good works cooperate in salvation (Trent, sess. VI, can. 32), grace nevertheless remaining prior. | Works and ascetic practice, fasting, prayer and almsgiving, are means of cooperation with grace and of progressive deification. |
| Sacraments | Two: instruments rather than causes of grace, their efficacy requiring faith. | Seven, operating ex opere operato; grace is conferred by the sacramental act itself. | Seven mysteries, with far less scholastic formalism about their mode; the whole liturgy is mystagogy. |
| Purgatory | Rejected. Justification is complete, and no post-mortem purification is required (Heb 9:27). | Defined dogma: a final purification for those who die in grace but imperfectly purified (2 Macc 12:46; 1 Cor 3:13-15). | No purgatory in the Latin sense. Prayer for the dead is retained, resting on divine mercy rather than on purgative suffering. |
| Assurance | Assurance is possible and normal, resting on the gospel promise rather than on works (Westminster XVIII; Heidelberg Q/A 1). | Certainty of one’s own predestination is not ordinarily attainable (Trent); final perseverance depends on continued cooperation. | Assurance is not framed propositionally; confidence in divine mercy takes the form of the Jesus Prayer. |
| Final state | Bodily resurrection, judgement, new heavens and new earth (Rev 21). | Resurrection; particular judgement at death and general judgement at the end. Hell, purgatory, heaven. | Resurrection and judgement by Christ. Hell is affirmed, though Orthodoxy is reticent about its population, and prayer for the dead expresses a tempered hope. |
Grace and freedom
Augustine and Pelagius
The debate over grace and free will reaches back to the fifth century. Pelagius held that man retains the natural capacity to choose the good and that grace facilitates without being indispensable. Augustine held that after the fall the will is enslaved to sin and that only efficacious, prevenient grace can reorient it toward the good. The Council of Orange condemned Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism in 529, in a moderately Augustinian formulation. The Reformation radicalised Augustine against the semi-Pelagianism it discerned in late medieval theology.
| Position | Role of grace | Role of free will | Representatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pelagianism | Auxiliary and facilitating | Entire and determining | Pelagius; condemned at Carthage (418) and Orange (529) |
| Semi-Pelagianism | Necessary but not prior | Initiates the movement toward God | John Cassian; condemned at Orange (529) |
| Augustinianism | Prevenient, efficacious and prior | Restored by grace in order to cooperate | Augustine, Prosper of Aquitaine |
| Molinism | Prevenient, joined to middle knowledge (scientia media) | Free and determining within circumstances foreknown by God | Luis de Molina (sixteenth century) |
| Calvinism | Irresistible and efficacious for the elect | The regenerate freely wills what God has decreed | Calvin, Beza, Dort (1619) |
| Arminianism | Universal prevenient grace restores freedom | May accept or refuse grace | Arminius (†1609), Wesley, Methodism |
The final state
Inaugurated eschatology: Cullmann and Dodd
Two paradigms have governed New Testament eschatology in the modern period. Oscar Cullmann proposed an inaugurated eschatology: the decisive victory has been won at Easter, while its consummation remains future, so that the whole New Testament is structured by an “already and not yet.” C. H. Dodd proposed a realised eschatology in which the Kingdom is already fully present in the ministry of Jesus, as in John 5:24, where the one who hears and believes has passed from death to life. The prevailing view, represented by Ladd and Wright, holds the tension: the Kingdom is inaugurated but not yet consummated.
The universalist question
The final destiny of the non-Christian remains among the most contested questions. Exclusivism holds that only explicit faith in Christ saves (Matt 7:13-14; John 14:6; Acts 4:12). Inclusivism allows that Christ’s salvation may reach those who have not explicitly confessed him, as in Rahner’s “anonymous Christians.” Universalism holds that all will finally be saved (Rom 5:18-19; 1 Cor 15:28); Barth in Church Dogmatics II/2 neither affirms nor excludes it. Annihilationism, defended by some evangelicals such as Edward Fudge, holds that the lost cease to exist.
Bibliography
- McGrath, Alister E. Iustitia Dei: A History of the Christian Doctrine of Justification. 4th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020.
- Cullmann, Oscar. Christ and Time. London: SCM, 1951.
- Wright, N. T. Surprised by Hope. London: SPCK, 2007.
- Sanders, E. P. Paul and Palestinian Judaism. London: SCM, 1977.
Quiz — Salvation Compared
What does E. P. Sanders mean by “covenantal nomism”?
- A medieval doctrine of condign merit
- That one enters the covenant by grace and remains within it by obedience, so that Second Temple Judaism is not a religion of merit
- The system of indulgences denounced by Luther
- The Arminian account of prevenient grace
Sanders, Paul and Palestinian Judaism (1977)