DAY 103
CHALLENGE
“Why should dogmas like the Assumption of Mary be necessary for salvation? That makes no sense.”
DEFENSE
A belief can be related to salvation in more than one way.
Some are directly related. Thus, “whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Heb. 11:6). The belief that God exists and that he will bless those who attempt to please him are directly related to salvation. So are be- lief in Jesus as Savior (Acts 4:12), and the means by which we receive salvation, such as the need for repentance, faith, and baptism (Mark 1:14–15; 1 Pet. 3:21).
We may refer to beliefs directly connected with salvation as soteriological beliefs, since soteriology is the branch of theology that studies salvation (Greek, sōtēria, “salvation”). Beliefs that belong to other branches of theology are non-soteriological, in that they are not directly connected with salvation. However, this does not mean that they are irrelevant to having faith.
“Faith is the theological virtue by which we believe in God and believe all that he has said and revealed to us, and that Holy Church proposes for our belief, because he [God] is truth itself” (CCC 1814).
A non-Catholic may not agree with the Catholic understanding of the Church’s role in communicating God’s teachings, but he should be able to agree with the principle that having faith in God means accept- ing what God reveals because he is all-knowing and utterly truthful. To put it simply: You don’t have faith in God if you refuse to believe what you know God says.
This is why non-soteriological beliefs can be relevant to salvation. Suppose a person knows for a fact that God has taught something—say, the existence of angels. This is not a soteriological belief, but it is something God has taught, and to say, “Yes, I know God teaches that angels exist; I just don’t believe it,” means one does not have faith in God.
Faith in God is ordinarily required for salvation, so to deliberately reject something you know God has revealed—whether the existence of angels, the Assumption of Mary, or anything else—undermines faith itself.
Non-soteriological beliefs are thus important not because they are directly connected with salvation but because God has revealed them.