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What are the salvation religions? Encyclopedia Britannica’s definition of salvation as it relates to religions is as follows: also called Redemption, in religion, the deliverance of mankind from fundamentally negative or disabling conditions, such as suffering, evil, finitude, and death; also, in some religions, the restoration or raising up of the natural world to a higher realm, or state.
It could be argued that the primary purpose of all religions is to provide salvation for their adherents, and the existence of many different religions indicates that there are a great variety of opinions about what constitutes salvation and the means of achieving it. The term salvation can be meaningfully used in connection with so many religions, however, shows that it distinguishes a notion common to men and women of a wide range of cultural traditions.
The fundamental idea contained in the English word salvation, and the Latin salvatio and Greek soteria from which it derives, is that of saving or delivering from some dire situation. The term steriology denotes beliefs and doctrines concerning salvation in any specific religion, as well as the study of the subject. The idea of saving or delivering from some dire situation logically implies that mankind, as a whole or in part, is in such a situation. ... 2
The hope of salvation has naturally involved ideas about how it might be achieved. These ideas have varied according to the form of salvation envisaged; but the means employed can be divided into three significant categories: (1) the most primitive is based on belief in the efficacy of ritual magic-initiation ceremonies, such as those of the ancient mystery religions, afford notable examples; (2) salvation by self-effort, usually through the acquisition of esoteric knowledge, abstinent discipline, or heroic death, has been variously promised in certain religions-Orphism, Hinduism, Islam, for example; and (3) salvation by divine aid, which has usually entailed the concept of a divine savior who achieves what man cannot do for himself-as in Christianity, Judaism, Islam.
While salvation or redemption is a universal religious notion, the doctrine is perhaps most characteristic of Christianity, in which context it signifies the action of God within history whereby mankind is delivered from sin and death through the life, death, and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. ... The biblical metaphor is that of buying back a parcel of land or of purchasing someone from slavery. ... 4
Judaism posits a collective salvation for the people of Israel. In the Old Testament, redemption is usually described as deliverance from material disasters, but in Ps. 130 it is promised that God “will redeem Israel from all his iniquities. ... 4
Among other religions of Middle Eastern origin, the concept of salvation from future punishment by submission to Allah appears as the ultimate aim of the faithful in Islam. Zoroastrianism and Parsiism envision a universal salvation of mankind through the ultimate triumph of good over evil.4
While religions of the East tend to regard salvation or deliverance from the bondage of life and death as a matter of self-effort through practice and discipline, there have appeared in these contexts notions of intervening divine aid. ... 4
The word Salvation signifies deliverance from actual trouble or threatening danger. Salvation is the gift of god given by a covenant with man where God acts by grace to save man from the slavery and evil effects of sin.
There are many salvation religions in the world today; in fact most of today’s world religions are salvation religions. Although there are many salvation religions this paper will focus on two specific salvation religions, Buddhism and Christianity.
Before comparing and contrasting Buddhism and Christianity an understanding of the fundamental beliefs between these two religions must be understood. ...
Christianity
Christianity is one of the world’s major religions, stemming from the life, teachings, and death of Jesus of Nazareth (the Christ, or the Anointed One of God) in the 1st century AD. It has become the largest of the worlds religions. ...
The course of the Christian Church’s history during the first four centuries was tied very closely to the political evolution of the Roman Empire. ... From the third century onwards Rome and the Church of Rome were gradually latinized, and that threatened to estrange them from the eastern part of the empire. From the time of Constantine the imperial palace at Constantinople was the focus of ecclesiastical unity much more than the Apostolic Chair of Rome. Constantine’s successor paved the way for the Caesaropapism of a later time when he made the Church of the Eastern Provinces a state Church, answerable to the imperial government.
It is interesting to consider what, if anything, the two great world-religions of Christianity and Buddhism have to say about the nature of the soul and salvation.
According to Christianity, man is irredeemably imperfect, a helpless sinner, separated from God and lacking all Divinity, and totally unable to save himself through his own efforts alone. Yet God still loves this sinful being, and so he sent Christ as an expression of his love and the means for man to attain salvation. Salvation does not mean transcending the personality or ego; the personality remains as an imperfect little creature, the only difference being it is no longer separated from God. ... That tradition, viewed as a system of belief and behavior, leads people to see Christianity as one of the world religions, alongside Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and others. ... 10
Insofar as they began to separate or be separated from Judaism, which did not accept Jesus as Christ, these earliest Christians not only experienced salvation but also expressed certain ideas about the one on whom their faith focused. ... It is presumed that “the simple Jesus” and the “primitive faith” emerge from these documents as the core of the essence.10
Buddhism
It is clear that in entering the world of the Buddha we are confronted by something more than a religion, if by religion is meant a system of personal salvation. ... It is possible from the historical perspective to answer both ‘yes’ and ‘no’ to this question. ... The Buddha was not a god and the philosophy of Buddhism does not entail any theistic world-view until after it was introduced into China. ... These good or bad actions or karma can be carried from one life to the other.
Approximate Word count = 5242
Approximate Pages = 21
(250 words per page double spaced)
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