A Perichoretic Model of the Church by Danut Manastireanu

Author:Danut Manastireanu
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Christian Theology
Publisher: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing
Published: 2012-04-09T22:29:53+00:00

9.3 Imago Dei and Deification

One important aspect that defines the particular Orthodox understanding of the doctrine of humanity is the way in which Orthodoxy conceives of the imago dei in the context of creation, fall and redemption, particularly from the perspective of deification. Burgess explains correctly that, unlike the western understanding of human depravity, deriving from the Tertullian-Augustinian tradition, Orthodoxy emphasises the goodness of creation in general and of humanity in particular. Certainly, the image of God in humanity was ‘tarnished’ or weakened because of the Fall, and, as a result, ‘nature became subject to Satan’, but the Spirit is the one who ‘liberates humankind from dependence of nature’.[836]

Commenting on this aspect of Staniloae’s anthropology, Bartos argues correctly that the author ‘does not want to ignore the alteration of the image but only to stress its potentiality to continue its dialogue with God. The concept of deification, therefore, regards personal relationships as a matrix of communion according to the trinitarian model’.[837] In the context of a similar discussion, Bobrinskoy points out that in Cyril of Alexandria, and, we would add, in most Orthodox theology, we find ‘a descending trend’, one where trinitarian grace is communicated “from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit”, and an ascending trend, one where the Spirit, in turn, acts and makes us conformed to the Son, true image of the Father’.[838]

The history of theology provides a wide variety of interpretations of the image of God in human beings. Ferguson mentions five such positions: (1) the anthropomorphic view, held by the Audiani in the fourth century, that ‘man is physically the image of God’;[839] (2) the somewhat dualistic view, held by Augustine, that God’s being as Trinity is the prototype of humanity, and thus ‘looks for vestigia Trinitatis in man’, more precisely in the rational ‘soul’ of man;[840] (3) the functional view, according to which image can be defined in terms of man’s dominion over the created order; (4) the ethical view, favoured by Calvin, among others, which describes man as being in the likeness of God’s holiness and righteousness; (5) the relational societal view, favoured by Barth, according to whom, explains Ferguson, God’s image ‘is reflected in man-and-woman created as a sign of hope of the coming Son of God who is himself the image of God’.[841]

Even if a clear consensus does not exist,[842] many contemporary theologians,[843] including Staniloae, are opting for a combination of these positions, with an emphasis on the relational view. Thus, writes Grenz, ‘because God is the triune one, the three persons-in-relationship, the imago dei must in some sense entail humans-in-relationahips as well’.[844] What makes the difference, however, is the specific soteriological paradigm within which each particular theologian works.

Thus, explains Staniloae, in a manner similar to Barth’s,[845] man is a communitarian relational entity. Indeed, ‘the fact that Genesis speaks of the image in connection with the creation of the human person as a couple may have significance for the communitarian character of the image and for its development in common’.

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