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christian-ecclesiology-sacramentsfeatured in 6 works

No Salvation Outside the Church

"Outside the Church there is no salvation" — an ancient axiom debated ever since

This axiom, voiced by Cyprian of Carthage, holds that salvation is found within the Church. Christians have understood it in various senses, and its meaning is contested. A strict reading would limit salvation narrowly to visible members, but that interpretation is debated, and modern Catholic teaching has significantly qualified it, allowing that God's grace may reach those beyond the Church's visible boundaries. How broadly or narrowly to read the phrase remains an open question.

How it traveled

  1. The Epistles of Cyprian.
    Carthage · 258
    explains
  2. The Letters of St. Jerome
    Bethlehem · 420
    explains
  3. Letters of St. Augustin
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  4. On Baptism, Against the Donatists
    Hippo Regius · 430
    explains
  5. The Canons of the Synods of Sardica, Carthage, Constantinople, and Carthage Under St. Cyprian, Which Canons Were Received by the Council in Trullo and Ratified by II. Nice
    Constantinople (Istanbul) · 692
    explains
  6. Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church
    Geneva · 1564
    explains

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Modern teachers who discuss this idea

Modern and living teachers whose books take up No Salvation Outside the Church. These works are still in copyright, so we can’t show the text here — each links out to the book.