Till hell freezes over

Salvation Outside The Church?
Tracing The History of The Catholic Response
By Francis A. Sullivan, S.J.


The axiom "outside the Church no salvation, " proudly proclaimed by Catholics (and many other Christians) in earlier centuries, has fallen on hard times. Vatican II teaches that God's saving grace is offered to every human being, including those who have never been evangelized and those who sincerely deny God's existence. This apparent reversal is a crucial test for the standard theories of development of doctrine. Can the concept of "development" encompass such an about-face?

For those already familiar with the subject matter, the book contains few surprises. Omitting the biblical data, it starts with Justin and Irenaeus. Sullivan shows that until the mid-fourth century, the necessity of belonging to the Church was employed only in controversy with heretics and schismatics, but the later fathers taught that Jews and pagans would be lost if they did not enter the Church. Under the influence of Augustine, many medieval theologians took the view that since apostolic times salvation was impossible without explicit belief in the Trinity and the incarnation. The fact some persons had not been evangelized was taken as evidence that God foreknew that they would have rejected the gospel, had it been preached to them. Thomas Aquinas seems to accept this view.

Pope Boniface VIII in his bull Unam sanctam (1302) and several medieval councils (notably Lateran IV and Florence) embraced an apparently rigid interpretation of the maxim that one must belong to the Catholic Church to be saved. After the discovery of the new world, Jesuits such as Suarez, de Lugo, and Bellarmine interpreted the papal and conciliar decrees as not requiring actual membership in the Church on the part of persons who had no opportunity to know the true faith. It became common to say that non-Catholics of good will belonged to the soul, but not to the body, of the Church. Pius XII distinguished between membership in fact (in re) and in desire (in voto). When Leonard Feeney, in 1949, adopted a harsher interpretation, his doctrine was condemned by Rome.

The last chapter deals with the teaching of Paul VI and John Paul II on the salvific value of non-Christian religions. Paul VI, influenced by Danie'lou and others, denied that these religions mediated salvation. John Paul II, while insisting that all salvation is mediated through Christ, apparently leaves room for subordinate mediation by other religions. While recognizing that the present Pope has spoken very circumspectly, Sullivan interprets him as being more optimistic than Paul VI about non-Christian religions.

The axiom "outside the Church, no salvation," Sullivan concludes, is an imperfect way in which Christians have expressed their belief that the Church plays a necessary role in God's salvific plan. While the belief itself is a dogmatic truth, not subject to change, the formulations have been historically conditioned and require revision.

Avery Dulles, S.J.

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