Why Jesus Christ Is The Only Way To Salvation

The Theology Of “Christian Exclusivism” According To The Mind Of St. Thomas Aquinas

By Scott M. Sullivan, PhD

“For you are bought with a great price.”
1 Cor. 6:20

Course Introduction

A lot of people criticize Christianity for being “exclusive” or “narrow minded” because the Christian claim is that Jesus is the only way to salvation. Given the other religions in the world, how can Jesus be the only path?

Can’t there be other ways to Heaven?

To make matters worse, many Christians run around saying things that are true, like “Jesus Saves” and “Jesus is the only way” but without any justification or rationale for this claim.

Just blurting this out, especially to more educated people, is likely to drive more people away from Christianity rather than bring them to it.

All of this is true. However, the problem is that most Christians really have no idea why this is so.

So just saying “Only Jesus saves” sounds arrogant – why only Jesus? What does the death of some guy 2000 years ago have to do with me?

But the doctrine is in fact true and in this course we are going to briefly look at the theological justification behind it.

Although this is a mini-course in Catholic theology, what I have to say will be applicable to many other Christian congregations as well