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Essay on Salvation in Hinduism and Christianity
Salvation is arguably one of the most important Christian spiritual concepts, perhaps second only to the deity of Jesus Christ. For many Christians, the primary goal of religion is to attain salvation. Others maintain that the primary goal of Christians is to do the will of God, or that the two are equivalent. In many traditions, attaining salvation is synonymous with going to heaven after death, while most also emphasize that salvation represents a changed life while on Earth as well. Many elements of Christian theology explain why salvation is needed and how to attain it.
The idea of salvation rests upon there being some sort of unsaved state from which the individual (or mankind) is to be redeemed. To most Protestant and Catholic Christians, this is the judgment of God upon mankind due to the guilt of original sin (inherited from the Fall of Adam) and actual committed sins, recognizing that all have sinned.
Orthodox Christian churches totally reject the concept of "original sin" as unbiblical, but view salvation as a ladder of spiritual improvement and healing of a human nature that was damaged or injured in the Fall (for which see theosis). Most Christians agree that humanity was created sinless, but after the Fall, needed a Savior to restore us into a right relationship with God. This Savior redeems people from sin, and Jesus was (and is) this Savior.
In Western Christianity the doctrine of salvation, or soteriology, involves topics such as atonement, reconciliation, grace, justification, God's sovereignty, and the free will of human beings. Various understandings on each may be found in Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. Especially within Protestantism, this may be seen in the differences between the theologies of Calvinism and Arminianism as well as mediating versions of the two.Among evangelical Christians, salvation means that all have sinned and are justly under God's condemnation......
