“Extra ecclesiam nulla salus,” a Latin phrase implying a single, true faith, means “outside the church there is no salvation” and has been at the heart of religious ? and often civil ? strife from time immemorial.
It contributed to the Israelites? Egyptian bondage, Christ?s crucifixion, Islam?s conquest of Byzantium, Roger Williams? expulsion from Massachusetts in the 1600s, and even ? in a twist of usage ? Father Leonard Feeney, S.J.?s excommunication fromthe Catholic Church in 1949.
Feeney taught that there was no salvation outside the Roman Catholic Church ? no exceptions. The opposite of indifferentism, which holds that all religions ? or none at all ? are equally valid, Feeney?s teaching, was condemned by his church as too restrictive and intolerant.
Its opposite, however, is also condemned ? as too expansive and a precursor of moral relativism and the collapse of all ethical standards.
“There is no salvation outside the church, but there is salvation outside the visible Catholic Church ? just no salvation outside the body of Christ,” explained Fr. Joseph Fessio, S.J., editor of Ignatius Press.
Though no argument for indifferentism, implicit communion is one basis for civil religious tolerance, which, in varying degrees, other faith views ? from Protestantism?s private interpretation of scripture, Islam?s respect for “people of the book” and Judaism?s refuge tenets ? embrace.
“There are truths in other faiths,” said Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg, an Orthodox senior rabbi of Pikesville?s Beth Tfiloh synagogue. “But Judaism represents the purest form of a relationship between a human being and God. It [therefore] does matter what religion a person follows.”
And, according to some, it matters in the temporal realm as well as in the spiritual. All of which leads others to question the basis of tolerance when fundamental beliefs clash ? and even its logic in one-God traditions.
“Religious beliefs affect not only one?s view of God but also one?s place in society ? and have consequences in the way people act,” said Rabbi Barry Freundel of Baltimore Hebrew University. “The idea that God is absolute truth is correct. But does God run the world with absolute truth? I don?t think truth is the only value in the world.”
