Erdő Péter (szerk.): Bűn és isteni irgalom mint a mai ember problémája - Studia Theologica Budapestinensia 30. (2002)
László Vanyó: The Patristic interpretation of 'Redemptio'
content to redemptio if we disregard its inner motive i.e. the reconciliatio which covers the utmost reason of salvation: the divine love. Despite the distinction, the two belong together. Both redemptio and reconciliatio are carried out in a dramatic way. The dramatic character of redemptio means that Christ launches a struggle against the dominations and principalities of this world and through His victory he ransomes man from their despotic power. The reconciliatio is also a dramatic event because the Redeemer physically dies in the struggle whilst morally remains invulnerable and, transformed His death into an inner sacrificial liturgy, procures the reconciliatio between God and man, God and the world. It is more than a mere liberation from the power of the inimical dominations. The struggle between God and the evil could be considered of dualistic character if the reconciliation were ascribed only to the victory of God. In fact it is not the matter in question, but the reconciliation between God an the world worked by God, i.e. a process in which at the same time God is who is reconciliated and who reconciles. It is God Himself who establishes His new relationship to the world and to man, as He by His will breaks down the resistance of evil powers. The dominations of evil both serve and carry out the divine will, which will is the judge of all of them. The dramatic vision of redemptio presents redemption as a process set out of divine will and since the process returns to God, its dualistic character vanishes. The work of salvation as a realisation of divine will shows a continuity but it will carried out by the sacrifice of Christ as man, which inserts a discontinuity in the process, but He overcomes it immediately because Christ fulfilled the will of the Father with His sacrifice. The redemptio-reconciliatio as an opus obiectivum means the salvation of the whole world as an opus subiectivum concerns man. The redemptio-reconciliatio as an opus obiectivum cannot be separated from the Christology and from the incarnation, as an opus subiectivum is attached to the sacraments and to the teaching of grace. 2. In the writing of the Apostolic Fathers we find also the classic, dramatic redemptio-teaching, which all echo 1 Kor 2,7. There is no detailed teaching of them but their sporadic expressions form the connection to the writing of the apologists and Iraeneus. Such state27
