Znaczenie patrystycznej idei przebóstwienia dla soteriologii chrześcijańskiej

Abstract

The article deals with the idea of theosis, i.e. deificaltion, which in the writings of the Greek Fathers plays an important soteriological rale. Its true significance, however, has been very often misunderstood, especially by Western interpreters. Following the line of recent patristic studies in this area, the author tries to justify his conviction that Christian soteniology, integrally understood, has to take into account the two poles of the salvific work of Christ, both the Incarnation and the Paschal Mystery. There are no two distinct soteriologies with the Church Fathers, one based on the Incarnation (so-called physical theory of redemption, divinisation of human nature as a whole), another on the redemptive deeds of Christ, esp. on His suffering and death. The Greek Fathers did not advance any conception of theosis of mankind, based exclusively on the Incarnation. Their insistence on the theandric reality of Christ has to be understood in the context of early christological controversies in the Church. The Fathers had bo defend the theandrism of the Incarnation for soteriological reasons. This view of the Incarnation may seem to us today too theoretical and too abstract. One has to remember, however, that it was kept in a real balance by the paschal spirituality of the early Church. Therefore the Greek Fathers understood the Incarnation dynamically as a reality, which aims at its fulfilment in Christ’s death and resurrection. According to this, the theosis of man must not be unilaterally related to the Incarnation. Neither the Incarnation nor the death and resurrection constitute an autonomous reality of redemption. These two poles form but one undivided mystery of human salvation, i.e. theosis, whose beginning is the Incarnation, and fulfilment the blessed Passover. Christis Paschal Mystery is nothing else than the mystery of the Incarnation in its full accomplishment. Consequently the theosis has also to be understood in its full dimension. It has its final basis in the Incarnation, but takes its effect, by the power of the Holy Spirit, only after Christ’s glorification.