Soteriology (/soʊˌtɪriˈɒlədʒi/; Ancient Greek: σωτηρία sōtēría "salvation" from σωτήρ sōtḗr "savior, preserver" and λόγος lógos "study" or "word") is the study of religious doctrines of salvation. Salvation theory occupies a place of special significance in many religions. In the academic field of religious studies, soteriology is understood by scholars as representing a key theme in a number of different religions and is often studied in a comparative context; that is, comparing various ideas about what salvation is and how it is obtained.

Buddhism is devoted primarily to awakening or enlightenment (bodhi), Nirvāṇa ("blowing out"), and liberation (vimokṣa) from all causes of suffering (duḥkha) due to the existence of sentient beings in saṃsāra (the cycle of compulsory birth, death, and rebirth) through the threefold trainings (ethical conduct, meditative absorption, and wisdom). Classical Indian Buddhism emphasized the importance of the individual's self-cultivation (through numerous spiritual practices like keeping ethical precepts, Buddhist meditation, and worship) in the process of liberation from the defilements which keep us bound to the cycle of rebirth. According to the standard Buddhist scholastic understanding, liberation arises when the proper elements (dhārmata) are cultivated and when the mind has been purified of its attachment to fetters and hindrances that produce unwholesome mental factors (various called defilements, poisons, or fluxes).

However, the Pure Land traditions of Mahāyāna Buddhism generally focus on saving "other power" of the celestial Buddha Amitābha. The Pure Land tradition relies on the Buddha's power or blessings (adhiṣṭhāna) to achieve rebirth in a Buddha's "Pure Land", a superior divine realm where one can easily train for full Buddhahood by meeting the Buddha. Birth in the Pure Land is accomplished through the practice of mindfulness of the Buddha, which is called niànfó and entails reciting the name of the celestial Buddha Amitābha with a mind of faith, which links us to the Buddha's power. At the moment of death, the Buddha then transports us to the Pure Land. The Chinese and other mainland Pure Land traditions teach a synergistic soteriology in which one's own self-power links us to the Buddha's other power (which is still the main or "dominant condition" for salvation). This is called the doctrine of sympathetic resonance or "stimulus-response" (ganying). The Japanese Pure Land traditions meanwhile, teach that we must rely solely on other-power and abandon all self-powered efforts (which are useless and ego-centered).

The doctrine of salvation in Christianity, also called "deliverance" or "redemption", focuses on the saving of human beings from sin and its consequences. Variant views on salvation are among the main lines dividing the various Christian denominations, being a point of disagreement between Eastern Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism; in the history of the Protestant Reformation, the Calvinist–Arminian debate has been particularly influential. These lines include conflicting definitions of depravity, predestination, atonement, and most pointedly, justification. Christian soteriology ranges from exclusive salvation to universal reconciliation concepts.

Christology plays a key role in debates about soteriology. In the Catholic tradition, the Roman Catholic Church claims soteriological authority. In his Ninety-five Theses (1517), the Protestant Reformer Martin Luther rejected the soteriological authority of the Roman Catholic Church. Against this backdrop, the role of Christ's divinity takes so central a place in the theology of Søren Kierkegaard that it provides the basis for the proposition of Christ's power to save, and so in this way of thinking Christology precedes soteriology. In the debates over the ancient authorities of the Early Church, Christ's divinity and power over salvation are interconnected theological concepts.

More than a century after the establishment of the Garden, the school in which Epicurus taught philosophy, some people in the Greco-Roman world regarded Epicurus as their "Savior" (Koine Greek: Σωτήρ, Sōtḗr). The most prominent soul saved by Epicurus was the Roman Empress Pompeia Plotina.^{[citation needed]} Lucretius, author of De Rerum Natura, also depicts the salvific power of philosophy, and of his Scholarch Epicurus, by employing literary devices like the "Broken Jar parable" (where the Scholarch is credited with helping mortals to easily enjoy pleasure), poetry, and imagery.^{[citation needed]}

The salvation of Epicurus has no otherworldly connotations whatsoever. Judging from his Principal Doctrines and Letter to Menoeceus, he salves his disciples from supernatural fears and excessive desires for what is not natural and gives his disciples clear ethical guidelines that lead to happiness. Lucretius says Epicurus has set the boundaries for the limits of nature. His followers in Roman times developed Epicurus into a cultural hero and revered him as the founding figure of his School, and as the first to have developed a fully naturalistic cosmology that emancipated mortals from all fear-based superstition.^{[citation needed]}

Soteriology is discussed in Hinduism through its principle of moksha, also called nirvana or kaivalya. "In India", wrote Mircea Eliade, "metaphysical knowledge always has a soteriological purpose." Moksha refers to freedom from saṃsāra, the cycle of death and rebirth. Soteriology is one of the four primary aims of human life (purusarthas), alongside dharma (duty), artha (wealth), and kama (pleasure). Rooted in the belief that existence is marked by suffering caused by ignorance, desire, and karma, moksha is seen as the ultimate liberation, often described in terms of nirvana (cessation), apunar-janma (non-return), or kaivalya (isolation). In Indian philosophy, different traditions such as Vedanta, Samkhya, and Yoga offer varied paths to moksha through knowledge, meditation, ethical action, or devotion (bhakti), but all regard it as the final resolution to human suffering and bondage.