In religion, salvation is the concept that God or other Higher Power, as part of Divine Providence, saves humanity from spiritual death or Eternal Damnation by providing for them an eternal life (cf. afterlife). The world's religions agree that humanity needs salvation from its present condition. However, they hold irreconcilable positions on what it means from an eternal perspective to become saved, the actual way to get saved, and the resources needed to attain salvation.

The theological study of salvation is called soteriology. It covers the means by which salvation is effected or achieved, and its results. Salvation may also be called "deliverance" or "redemption" from sin and its effects.

Some religions claim that salvation can be attained by using only inner human resources such as meditation, accumulation of wisdom, asceticism, rituals, or good deeds. Other religions teach that humans can be saved only through the grace granted by an external personal agent (God, a bodhisattva, an avatar, etc.) One’s duty is to recognize the impossibility of being saved by one's own efforts, and therefore accept grace unconditionally.

The pantheistic religions of the East regard salvation as an impersonal merging with the Absolute. In contrast, the three largest monotheistic religions of the world─Judaism, Christianity and Islam─associate salvation with freedom from the bondage of sin and the reestablishment of personal communication with the creator. There are some basic differences among those monotheistic religions on how sin is to be overcome by humans, on the identity of Jesus Christ and the role he plays in salvation, and what one's attitude toward him should be.