What is the difference between salvation and religious adherence

Mt When by faith and Baptism we enter the Church, we already share in eternal life. Faith perceives this in ever deepening ways, as through a glass darkly cf. Faith is a free, human act. Faith is a gift of God which enables us to know and love him. Faith is a way of knowing, just as reason is. But living in faith is not possible unless there is action on our part. Through the help of the Holy Spirit, we are able to make a decision to respond to divine Revelation, and to follow through in living out our response.

God never forces his truth and love upon us. He reveals himself to us as free human beings, and our faith response to him is made within the context of our freedom. The same is true with each of us. Faith believes with conviction in a message.

We have seen that faith is a relationship with God. Now we note that it is also belief in a message. This message is found in Scripture and Tradition and is transmitted to us through many means such as liturgical prayers and the Creeds.

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird , by Harper Lee , this challenge is reflected in Atticus' advice to his daughter's complaints about her day in school saying, 'you never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … until you climb into his skin and walk around in it' Lee Although we can never understand each other completely, we can still understand a great deal about each other.

Dialogue is the learning of truths attained by others and coming back with those truths to enrich our own spirituality. It is called 'passing over' from one religion and way of life to another religion, which may differ from our own religion. Then, we 'come back', enriched by new knowledge and perspectives, not only adapted from other religious perspectives but also beneficial for developing our own religious perspective: Coming back with a new horizon enriched by others Dunne xiv.

Learning from other religions, not to be like others but to 'come back' to understand our own faith in a new way, is the goal. Theological and spiritual dialogue will be more valuable only if accompanied by the courage of the participants to question and criticise themselves when encountered by the core of religious experiences of others.

An encounter with other religions does not mean that a person sinks inside forever, forgetting to go out and back to his or her own religion.

Nevertheless, as already mentioned, this 'passing over' from one culture to other cultures, from one way of life to other ways of life, should be followed by the process called 'coming back' with a new horizon to our own culture, our way of life and our own religion. This is what we call 'spiritual pilgrimage'. Thus, 'passing over' here means the courage to undertake the spiritual pilgrimage to other religions wonderland and to 'come back' from the pilgrimage to our own religion motherland with a new perspective to enrich our own religion.

The focus of the study. By studying Isaiah, this article initiates an interreligious discussion on the issue of salvation both in Christianity and Islam. Every religion has salvation as its objective. One of the theological points of Isaiah is salvation, same as the Christian message. It is said that 'Salvation is a gift of grace that humans do not deserve and cannot earn' McKenna Isaiah A universal salvation.

Thus, says the Lord: 'Keep justice, and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this, and the son of man who holds it fast, who keeps the Sabbath, not profaning it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil'.

Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, 'The Lord will surely separate me from his people'; and let not the eunuch say, 'Behold, I am a dry tree'. For thus says the Lord: 'To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name which shall not be cut off'.

Thus, says the Lord God, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered'. Isaiah The Absolute, which is called God, will never reveal Godself in a vacuum. When God revealed Godself, or when the verse is revealed, it is always in a context. Thus, when God revealed Godself to Israel, God intended for very special times and conditions.

God's word:. Through the Prophets, God dealt with the realities of Israel's day-to-day living. Achtemeier Isaiah addressed his sermon to the people in a very small community.

Most of them were the downtrodden, the exploited and the untouchable, who had no control or position within their larger community. In this community, some may have been strangers and castrated men, yet without doubt they considered themselves as the original Israelites, who were 'righteous, chosen, the true servants of Yahweh, his holy people' Achtemeier The Author and the dating of Isaiah The scholars do not know for sure who wrote Isaiah Yet, they now stand by the bible.

The dating of Isaiah 56, the verses that I discuss here, varies. Clinton E. Hammock summarised this array of dates in his article, by referring to the previous author. For example, according to Whybray, the Third Isaiah, including , soon after the return, is possibly dated around B. In this case, Whybray does not agree with Westermann's theory saying that some of the texts were supplemented apparently before and after the main body chapter for they were considered to be too schematic.

For this case, Clinton notes that if Westermann' theory is accurate, then Isaiah and might be dated to a time period later than the body material Hammock Content and structure of chapters The Book of Isaiah, chapters is more problematic than the preceding chapters. Additional examination and analysis of the relationship between these chapters and the earlier chapters are needed.

Paul Hanson and Elizabeth Achtemeier have done a very thorough analysis of the Third Isaiah, but they did not deal with the relation of the Third Isaiah with the Second Isaiah. Brueggemann suggests that there is a different relationship between the Third Isaiah chapters with chapters It is Second Isaiah which makes Third Isaiah possible.

If Second Isaiah is about the public embrace of pain as the way to return to the old stories, then Third Isaiah may reflect the result of this. Brueggemann Furthermore, he concludes that all segments of the tradition of Isaiah are 'dynamically related to each other' Brueggemann ; cf. Smart It is implausible that the chapters and come from the same prophetic author and yet, current study of chapters seems to inspire awareness of the fact that these chapters are correspondent to chapters However, those are accurately ordered to a period late sixth to early fifth centuries BC: the time when - under the Persian imperial supervision - the restoration of religious and political life was taking place Clements Herbert, a scholar who accepts the theory of more than one Isaiah, is nevertheless filled with surprise at the similarity of literary style between chapters and the earlier chapters written by First Isaiah when he concedes, 'There is much in this section which recalls the language of the eighth-century prophets' McKenna There is also a literary-critical analysis that shows that the contents of chapters have to be attributed entirely to the period of Babylonian captivity in the sixth century BC and the content of chapters come after Clements Theological themes or issues.

It is the same with the Third Isaiah. The Third Isaiah does not use a lot of the word holy , but it introduces a fundamentally identical depiction of the Absolute Reality.

The chapters of the Book of Isaiah describe the people in the gathering that all are one, all are similar and all are welcome in the house of prayer.

This oneness, equality and welcoming attitude is attained by preserving justice, devotion to a sinless life, observing Sabbath and preventing evil. The ethical element echoed in the First Isaiah has returned to the place of prominence in the Third Isaiah. Isaiah is not inviting people to seek salvation by their own works of righteousness but urging those who belong to the Lord to devote themselves to the life that reflect what he has revealed to be right.

Motyer The strangers and the castrated men. The article is discussing the verses on the pronouncement of salvation for strangers and the castrated. Eunuch generally refers to a man who has been castrated and usually made to work as a servant. In Jewish society, eunuchs are considered to be a disgrace because of their inability to bear children. It is said in Deuteronomy chapter 23, verse 1, 'He who is emasculated by crushing or mutilation shall not enter congregation of the Lord'.

By the above code, a eunuch or a castrated person was excluded from the congregation. Contrary to the above code, Isaiah says that there is only one qualification to participate in the society of believers, that is, steadfastness to the religion, practices and ethical principles. In this case eunuchs and the castrated can participate and will have place in the Temple. The eunuchs and strangers will not be excluded and have their places to worship in the Temple.

All the people in the Temple, thus, can share the blessing of Israel's covenant with them. Basically, the Third Isaiah views salvation as nationalistic, but Isaiah Chapter introduces the audiences to a principle that is universalistic, where God's Temple will become a temple for all peoples.

In this case, especially Verse 2 is very inclusive, it embraces the strangers and the castrated which used to be considered as outcast people. The verse also shows that God's grace is unlimited, and the Old Testament has never been exclusivist on the basis of nationalistic divides.

By reading Isaiah, we can see that God sees far into the future and says in the most illuminated and radical statement, 'for My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations' v.

What is inferred in the verse is that the messenger of God promotes the essence of religious universalism, where Jerusalem Temple is considered to be the House of God for all nations, and thus, it must be open to people of all religions and not just the Jews.

Indeed, it is essential that overcoming barriers between believers needs to be done for the survival of human being, it is beyond moral imperative only. The strangers and the castrated men are welcome to the holy mountain, where they can find God.

They are not only allowed but God himself also will guide and accompany them just as any other believer of Israelite. God's House of prayer will be the place where they will feel happy and joyful, as their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted v.

Preconditions for salvation: carry justice and devotion to a sinless life. According to the verses, there are preconditions for believers to be admitted to God's Temple, that is, doing justice and devotion to a sinless life, observing the Sabbath and staying out of evil. The verses also say that for Jews and Gentiles to attain salvation, social justice and personal righteousness are needed.

Thus, in any age and for any people, spiritual religion will never change. God always asks his children to do social justice and personal righteousness with devotion to a sinless life as their virtues, and both are inseparable. When all are done, salvation will come. Oswalt When the verse mentions righteousness, it is interpreted as moral conduct and submission to God's edicts. Furthermore, it is the correct affiliation with God's covenant which will bring them to love others and lead others to do the same to God.

Observation of the Sabbath and staying away from sinful and immoral behaviour. The teachings of Isaiah proclaim that happiness is felt when people experience the true blessing of life, which is revealed and disclosed in two performances: not to disrespect the Sabbath and not to commit any evil.

The question is why Sabbath-keeping is promoted in the verse as a fundamental of spirituality? The answer is that, 'keeping of the Sabbath signaled the covenant relationship with God. By giving God a day for rest and worship, we honor God's name and renew our covenant relationship with God' McKenna Sabbath-keeping is fundamental. It is assumed that the believer 'prevent themselves from conducting all sinful behavior' v. In everyday life, there is a constant allurement to do evil, and thus, being attentive to God's word means self-restraint against allurement to sin.

The essentiality of the verse for today's encounter between people of different religions. The eminent subject of the verses is about salvation, which is the crucial issue in every religious tradition. Salvation constitutes the cause of every religion. The question is who has the right to salvation? Will every believer get salvation or only specific believers? How does Christianity perceive other religious tradition on the subject? Distinctiveness and exclusiveness in Christianity.

The message of the verse discussed above is about salvation, which is very inclusive. Both, Jews and non-Jews, and even strangers and eunuchs, or the castrated, are included. It is not unusual for foreigners to be suspected, but are not excluded: the verses say that they are welcome in God's Temple. Nonetheless, there are many examples of the element of exclusiveness of Christianity or Jesus.

Timothy , for example, says that Jesus is the 'only arbiter' between God and human beings, so there is 'no other name' and no one gets salvation without him as a mediator Acts ; it is only through him that someone can come to the Father John No one else but Jesus who reveals God truly and fully.

He is the genuine Saviour of the world. The question then is what about all the people who do not believe in those teachings, such as the people who have followed other religious figures? There are at least three phases in the history of Christian perception of other religious traditions which show the Christians' inclination towards the acceptance of non-Christian religions declaring salvation as the universal will of God.

First, exclusivism: that there is no salvation outside the Church Race is a total disapproval for other religions. This perspective was introduced and proliferated by Karl Barth. The exclusivists believe that there is only one true, saving religion, that is, Christianity. Thus, the doctrine ' Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus ', meaning that there is no salvation outside the Church, holds a critical role. Those who are outside Christianity, be they heathens, Turks, Jews, or even false Christians and hypocrites, cannot expect either love or any blessing from God and accordingly remain in eternal wrath and perdition Hick , Second, inclusivism: this shows tendencies of Christian thinkers to convince themselves that they have a better understanding of other religious traditions.

Karl Rahner especially promotes this concept, with his 'Anonymous Christian' or 'Unconscious Christianity' in Bonhoeffer's term. This view of the inclusivist theology of religions is described as the notion of Christ implicit within all other faiths; the grace of Christ being a fundamental component for salvation.

Since the idea was announced it has provoked enough discussion, evoking both praise and criticism. Third, pluralism: defining multicultural and multireligious environments and struggles to promote tolerance, harmony and understanding amongst adherents of other religious traditions in creating peaceful conditions. This alternative approach promoted by John Hick shows that non-Christian religions hold the right to salvation as the universal will of God.

Paul Knitter, as one of the proponents of pluralism, argues that Christology was and is evolutionary, which is a continuum of ceaseless interpretation.

The language 'one and only' can be questioned as it is the main content of the belief and experience of the early Church Knitter Antonie Wessels in his book contends that in fact, Acts 'No other name' has nothing to do with the interrelation between Christianity and other religions: it is about comfort ministry for Peter and John.

It can be inferred that it is not an advice about penitence or missionary journey but an advice about a testimony in a court. It is a statement of acknowledgment on the way of Jesus and not a remark on the astuteness of some other religion Wessels Francis Young gives another approach to the discussion saying that 'one and only' for Jesus belongs 'not to language of philosophy, science, or Dogmatics, but rather to the language of confession and testimony' Young In this case, the New Testament author uses the language of enthusiastic believers and not of analytic philosophers.

The religious beliefs and practices of the U. Declining Religiosity. At the same time, the share of the population with low levels of observance e. And the percentage of American adults who are highly observant — at least as measured by traditional indicators, such as their certainty of belief in God, frequency of prayer, self-reported rates of attendance at worship services and self-assessments of the importance of religion in their lives — has declined.

Generational Replacement. To understand what is driving religious change, it is important to recognize trends in American society as a whole, not just how individuals change over their lifetimes. Of course, some individuals grow more religious over time, while others grow less religious. Older generations of American adults who were overwhelmingly Christian by affiliation and comparatively devout in belief and behavior are gradually passing away.

They are being replaced by a new generation of young people who are, on the whole, less inclined to identify with any branch of Christianity and more religiously unaffiliated than older cohorts ever were, even when they were young. And so far, members of the Millennial generation do not seem to be growing more religiously observant as they get older, at least by traditional measures.

On the contrary, the oldest Millennials, now in their late 20s and early 30s, are generally less observant than they were seven years ago. If these trends continue, American society is likely to grow less religious even if those who are adults today maintain their current levels of religious commitment.

While several key indicators of traditional forms of religious observance are declining, the Religious Landscape Study shows that the U. Roughly six-in-ten adults now say they feel a deep sense of spiritual peace and well-being at least once a week, up 7 percentage points since Groups that exhibit the highest levels of traditional forms of religious observance also are most likely to say they regularly experience a sense of spiritual peace and well-being.

To explore other aspects of spirituality, the survey included two new questions that were not asked in the Religious Landscape Study. The first question asked respondents how often they feel a strong sense of gratitude or thankfulness.

The study finds that regularly feeling a strong sense of gratitude is most common among those who are highly religiously observant. But gratitude also is experienced regularly by many people who are not very religiously observant. In addition to asking about feelings of gratitude, the new study also asked respondents how often they think about the meaning and purpose of life.

The new study shows that most Americans continue to view organized religion as a force for good in American society. Nearly nine-in-ten adults say churches and other religious institutions bring people together and strengthen community bonds and that they play an important role in helping the poor and needy. And three-quarters say churches and other religious institutions help protect and strengthen morality in society. Attitudes on these questions are little changed from , when they were first asked in a Pew Research Center survey.

In addition to saying that churches and other religious institutions perform good works, large numbers of the unaffiliated also say religious institutions are too concerned with money and power, too involved in politics and too focused on rules.

Half of the public expresses mixed views. For more details on American views of religious institutions, see Chapter 3. But the changing religious composition of the U. Fewer than two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults now identify with any branch of Christianity, down 11 percentage points since Meanwhile, nearly three-in-ten Democrats say they have no religion, up 9 points in recent years.

As recently as , mainline Protestants, evangelical Protestants and Catholics were each about as numerous as — or more numerous than — the religiously unaffiliated among Democrats and Democratic-leaning adults.

More than eight-in-ten Republicans continue to identify with Christianity, including nearly four-in-ten Republicans and Republican-leaning adults who identify with evangelical Protestant denominations. The new survey also asked respondents about their views on a number of social issues, including homosexuality. The survey finds that acceptance of homosexuality is growing rapidly even among religious groups that have traditionally been strongly opposed to it.

For instance, more than a third of evangelical Protestants now say homosexuality should be accepted by American society, up 10 points since And acceptance of homosexuality has jumped by 12 points among Mormons.

Views on abortion have changed little across most major religious groups, although those who are unaffiliated and those who belong to historically black Protestant churches are somewhat more likely to support legal abortion than in the recent past. The shifts in attitudes toward homosexuality among the largest religious groups are being driven partly by young adults, who are much more accepting of homosexuality than older Americans.

Similar patterns are seen among mainline Protestants, in the historically black Protestant tradition and among Catholics. The survey also finds generation gaps within many religious groups in attitudes about a variety of other social and political issues. Young adults generally express more politically liberal opinions than older people when asked about the environment, the proper size and scope of government, and immigration. One exception to this pattern is abortion; here, generational differences within religious groups are less consistent.

And while Catholics in the Silent generation are more opposed to legal abortion than other Catholics, there is little difference in the views of Catholic Baby Boomers, Generation Xers and Millennials. For more details on the social and political views of religious groups, see Chapter 4. Other key findings include:. This is the second report on findings from the U. Religious Landscape Study, the centerpiece of which is a nationally representative telephone survey of 35, adults.

It also summarized patterns in religious switching and intermarriage. The new report describes the religious beliefs and practices of the U. It also documents the social and political values of the religious groups that populate the U. The first was conducted in , also with a telephone survey of more than 35, Americans.

With more than 35, interviews each, both the and studies have margins of error of less than 1 percentage point, making it possible to identify even relatively small changes in the U.

Other findings from the Religious Landscape Study will be released later this year. Many individuals from Pew Research Center contributed to this report. Alan Cooperman, director of religion research, oversaw the effort and served as the primary editor. Gregory A. Smith, associate director for religion research, served as the primary researcher and wrote the Methodology. Cooperman, Smith and Sandra Stencel associate director, editorial co-authored the Overview.

The chapter on religious beliefs was written by Senior Researcher Besheer Mohamed. Research Associate Becka A. Alper wrote the chapter on religious practices and experiences and co-wrote, with Smith, the appendix comparing findings from the Religious Landscape Study with other religion surveys.

Senior Writer Caryle Murphy wrote the chapter on views of religious institutions. The chapter on social and political attitudes was written by Mohamed and Research Assistant Claire Gecewicz.