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Philosophy

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Jan 9, 2024

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An interesting fact about the word salvation is that it began as a secular term, originating from Soviet writers in the late 1920s as someone who is looking to restore the way of life that others are used to in times of strife. However, over time one of the core themes within Christianity is that human salvation was forever transformed by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. When a person of Christian faith regards their salvation and what they hope for the time after their human death, they are often referring to this very specific meaning despite it being used in a more general sense on an everyday basis. Understanding that the term salvation does not necessarily mean the exact same thing each time it is expressed it's important when discussing various theories of salvation that have been brought forth by the Christian faith. One approach to understanding salvation that has become an inherent principle within Protestantism is the idea that those who follow God must be righteous in His sight. When Luther began his journey with faith, he was looking to find a “gracious God”, one who would provide hope to sinners in the sight of a truly righteous figure (McGrath, 2019). Luther described his theory of salvation in that it is a present, living experience and not something that occurs in the future. Though his primary concern was how an individual can feel the assurance of salvation and create an immediate and personal relationship with God. Luther's idea of faith was largely dependent on his own religious experience that he felt should be passed on to others in an effort to partake in grace and righteousness and seek eternal salvation. Another theory of salvation that is often utilized comes from Rufinus of Aquileia, a theologian and monk who is credit with writing his exposition of the Apostles’ Creed. In this, Rufinus alludes to the bait and fish analogy in that Christ’s humanity is the bait and divinity is the hook. In this comparison, the devil is equated to a sea monster that snaps at the bait and discovers the hook before it's too late. In the Apostles’ Creed, Rufinus details that the “divine

virtue of the Son of God might be like a kind of hook hidden beneath the form of human flesh”, used to lure followers (McGrath, 2019). This theory of salvation hinges upon Jesus offering his flesh to rid people of their sins; if people took the Son up on his offer of salvation, the divinity of God lies underneath this concept and holds them fast to Christianity. These two theories correlate in that they individualize the experience of salvation and recognize that while Jesus came to rid the world of their sins, humans must accept this gift for what it is. Luther was focused immensely on ensuring that the God he gave his time to was gracious in handling His followers, providing safety and serenity before death occurred. In contrast, Rufinus seemed to allude to the fact that God used Jesus to lure His followers back to him in their rightful place as His children. These theories hinge on Jesus being the only point of salvation that could be offered to humans following the exile from the Garden of Eden, something that is shared with the final theory discussed by Anselm. A final theory that is typically discussed when deliberating salvation is Anselm’s theory. Anselm takes a harder approach to salvation when contributing the idea that humanity has committed a grave sin against God, one that could not be overcome easily. Anselm believed that God created a feudal society where an offender is required to compensate, or satisfy, the person they offended based on that status of the offended. In this case, a crime that's committed against a king would require far more satisfaction than a crime against a servant. According to this thought process, people would never be able to satisfy an infinite god and could only expect eternal death. Keeping this in mind, with the understanding that God was hoping to bring humans back into a relationship with Him, His Son was sent to give his life to reconcile the world was God. Anselm’s Theory is one of the first that discusses atonement through Christ in which humanity is purified in a single act of cooperative recreation. He rejected the view that humanity

owes a debt to the devil and place the idea of redemption for individuals on a union with Christ that is signified through the sacrament of baptism. Unlike the other two theories, Anselm’s theory of salvation was significant for presenting a type of interrelationship between God, Jesus, and humans. This specific theory has been utilized throughout the Roman Catholic Church and even in orthodox Protestant ideas still today.

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Reference McGrath, A. E. (2019). Theology: The Basics . John Wiley & Son, Inc.

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