Erdő Péter (szerk.): Bűn és isteni irgalom mint a mai ember problémája - Studia Theologica Budapestinensia 30. (2002)

László Vanyó: The Patristic interpretation of 'Redemptio'

a superhuman power, as well as such a single action which provokes the enmity between God and man and which needs a recontiliation. All these do not mean the negligation of moral aspects. The question is rather: what is the relation between sin and death, sin and corruption, sin and evil according to the Greek Fathers? It is a matter of fact, emphasizes also Irenaeus, that is a death which separates man from God.31 We have to show the adventage of this idea, too: it protects from the purely moralizing idea of sin. Sin has namely its natural consequences, like corruption and death. The person of the Redeemer could not get in immediate touch with sin, but trough the experience of suffering and death He could get in touch with it.

The recapitulation as restauration of God's image and likeness:

The deliverance of the man from the domination of Satan, the recapitulation of the previous history of mankind, the "anakephalaio- sis" is still the "terminus a quo" of the redemptio, his terminus "ad quem" is that of the restoration of God's image and likeness, which gives the positive aspect of the redemptio-salvation. The matter at issue is not only the restoration of the original state, because the original state of the first Adam was still a childhood before the sin- according to Irenaeus -,w the state of the redeemed Adam however was that of the growth and mature age. The line of the “oikonomia" is ascending in this sense, the end transcends the beginning.

The first Adam carrys in itself the germ of the whole human race, the second Adam by means of the incarnation recapitulates not only every individual lived until that, but also his revelation is adressed to all peoples and languages. The "peoples" and "languages" refers to the Pentecost, to the role of the Holy Spirit in the recapitulation. The "anakephalaiosis" looks at not only the past, but means an overture towards the future. It contain :the "oeconomia lignis" (the tree of the knowledge of the good and of the wrong, to them corresponds the tree of the cross); the “oeconomia primi et secundi Adae" (Adam-Christ); the "oeconomia pimae et secundae Evae" (Eva, the listnes to the Serpent, Mary, the receiver with faith the words of the Angel). Irenaeus speaka about four testaments: l. before the fall of Adam; 2. after the Deluge; 3. The Law given to Moses; 4.

31 AH V, 27,2

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