“Outside the Church there is no salvation”, the reinterpretation the Vatican II has made of a famous theological thesis, seen 50 years from its beginning

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify the main features of the teaching of Vatican Council II on the formula extra Ecclesiam nulla salus. After a brief introduction, numbers 14-16 of Lumen Gentium are analysed, trying to understand the sense in which the terms “ecclesia”, “salus” and “extra Ecclesiam” are used. The conclusion stresses the hermeneutical importance of the context in which the formula has been used in different periods of history, and the strong value accorded by the Council to the christological dimension of the Church in the History of Salvation.