WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE? 5

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE?

Session 5: Conversations about Salvation

1. Humanity’s Fallenness

► Western: Original Sin

 By his sin, Adam (as the first man) lost the original holiness and justice he had received from God, not only for himself but for all human beings.

 Original sin is contracted, not committed. It is a state, not an act. It is the inheritance of a wounded nature from our forefathers.

 Original sin, although involving no personal responsibility or personal guilt, causes an inclination to commit personal sin ("concupiscence").

► Eastern: Ancestral Sin

 There is no original sin. The introduction of ancestral sin into the human race affected the subsequent environment for mankind.

 Adam’s act is not the responsibility of all humanity, but the consequences of that act changed the reality of this present age of the cosmos. The present reality of the cosmos inclines us to sin by choice, not by birth.

2. Humanity’s Spiritual Goal

► Catholics: Salvation as Process

 In Cathholicism, “salvation” means being saved from the condition of sin.

 Through his life, death and resurrection, Jesus has provided the Church with the fullness of the means of salvation.

 Salvation has a “dynamic” indication: we are saved, we are being saved, we will be saved. It is not a clearcut “cross-the-line” procedure.

 The means of salvation is given together with the means to preserve salvation, so the on-going participation in this means is non-negotiable.

► Protestants: Salvation as Event

 For Protestants (particularly Evangelicals), “salvation” implicitly refers to one’s privilege of entering heaven. It has a more “static” indication, where a man “makes a decision for Christ” and secures a position for himself in heaven.

 Salvation is by faith alone through grace alone in Christ alone.

 In receiving salvation by faith through grace, the righteousness of Christ is imputed externally (iustitia Christi aliena), not imparted internally.

► Orthodox: Theosis

 Eastern Christianity views salvation in less legalistic terms (grace, punishment, etc) and in more medical terms (sickness, healing, etc.).

 Each person is called to theosis or deification or divinisation, the infinite process of becoming more and more like God. “God became man so that man might become god” (St Athanasius the Great).

 Orthodox theology teaches prevenient grace: God enables man to receive salvation, because salvation is impossible from our own will alone.

3. Humanity’s Eternity

► Catholics: Heaven and Hell

 Upon dying, each soul goes to what is called "the particular judgement" where its own afterlife is decided (purgatory, straight to heaven, or to hell).

 Purgatory is a state of cleansing where souls who have died in Christ but have yet to expiate venial sins are cleansed before entering Heaven.

 Heaven is a state of divine life with God, hell a state of eternal separation.

► Protestants: Heaven and Hell

 The Protestant conception of heaven and hell is similar to the Catholic understanding, although most Protestants tend to literally understand heaven and hell as physical places (perhaps most Catholics do as well).

 Some major Evangelical figures have recently advocated the view that there is no eternal hell - the wicked will simply be annihilated.

 Protestants remain unclear about the intermediate state of the soul.

► Orthodox: Kingdom of God

 The Kingdom of God is the reality of God's presence among His people through Christ and the Holy Spirit. It is given to men by Christ in the Church.

 The Kingdom of God will become the universal, final cosmic reality for all of creation at the end of the ages when Christ comes in glory (1 Cor 15:28).

 When we die, we face the particular judgement and experience a "foretaste" of the Final Judgement when Christ appears in Glory.

 All will be raised from the dead into everlasting life. For those who hate God, resurrection from the dead and the presence of God will be hell.

 Some believe in toll-houses, but this remains at the level of personal piety.

4. Humanity’s Means of Grace

► Catholics: The Church as Sacrament

 The Church is the ordinary means of grace. Outside the Church there is no salvation (from the CCC, quoting Eastern Church Father, Cyprian).

 The Church contains and communicates the invisible grace she signifies. It is like a sacrament of Christ, an instrument of communion with God.

 However, this affirmation is not aimed at those who through no fault of their own do not know Christ and his Church. Such people may still achieve eternal salvation if they have sought God with sincere hearts.

 Still, it is the sacred obligation of the Church to evangelise all men.

► Orthodox: The Church as Spiritual Hospital

 The Church is the great sacrament of salvation that Christ has instituted in the world. She is where the saving and deifying grace of God is at work.

 God's saving power is mediated to man in the Church. Outside the Church there is no salvation (Cyprian). It is a spiritual hospital (Chrysostom).

 A life of participation in the sacraments is the means by which man cooperates with God (synergeia) for his own journey towards theosis.

 Participating in the relationship of love that exists among the persons of the Trinity is the very thing that leads to salvation.

► Protestants: Christians as God’s Instruments

 Unlike the Catholics and Orthodox, Protestants have never defined salvation as being contingent upon one’s participation in the work of the Church.

 The Church, for them, is basically a gathered community of people who are “in Christ”, not dogmatically a means of salvation for humanity. Its role is therefore to proclaim the Gospel and bring people to faith in Christ.