The Concept of Redemption in the Patristic Tradition

Irenaeus has given a precise sense to the term "recapitulation"; but in this way, he only focalizes a doctrine already present before him and hinted at in the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians.¹ The comparison between Eve and Mary is prepared by the work of St. Justin who hints at the importance of the Annunciation: "in the same way as the disobedience caused by the serpent was initiated, so it was fitting that its destruction should also follow the same course."² In this way, Mary is strictly linked to the central event that is the Incarnation: the salvation of mankind already begins, when the Divine Word becomes flesh.³ Irenaeus stresses the relation of the Holy Virgin with the saving activity of Christ when he states that Mary, by her obedience, became "cause of salvation ... to the whole human race."⁴ In this affirmation we find a culminating point of the ancient doctrine about Mary as New Eve, an important, recurring theme of Patristic theology.⁵

2. 2 The Mediation of Christ

Whereas the concept of "recapitulation" is only hinted at in the New Testament, the "mediation" of Christ is described with greater precision in the biblical texts. According to the Epistle to the Hebrews, Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new alliance (Hebrews 8:6; 9:15; 12:24). He is the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek, an expression which embraces the humanity and the divinity of the eternal Son of God. The First Epistle to Timothy describes the "man Christ Jesus" as the "unique mediator between God and mankind" who has given Himself as a ransom (1 Tim 2:5-6).⁶

Irenaeus, the first Church Father to reflect at length on the mediation of Christ, points to the unity of the human nature and the divinity in the same subject, the incarnate Son of God: "He ... united man to God. If man had not defeated his enemy, the enemy would not have been defeated in a just way. On the other hand, if salvation had not come from God, we could not have enjoyed it in a stable manner ... It was necessary ... that the 'mediator between God and mankind'-because of his kinship with both the parties-restored the friendship and concord, so that God assumed man and man gave himself to God."⁷

Thus, mediation comports a descending and an ascending aspect (God saves man and man gives himself to God): the Lord made "God descend to man by the Spirit and ... man ascend to God by the Incarnation."⁸ In this way there comes about a holy change: "This is, in fact, the reason why the Word become flesh and the Son of God Son of man: that he who unites himself to the Word of God and accepts adoption becomes a son of God."⁹

The mediation of Christ, based on the two natures, is also stressed by Tertullian and Origen.¹⁰ Tertullian coined the important adage: "the flesh is the hinge of salvation" (caro salutis est cardo),¹¹ or in other words: the humanity of Christ is the centre for the communication of God's gifts to mankind.

The most fully developed doctrine about the mediation of Christ is to be found in Augustine who, to some extent, anticipates and prepares the medieval synthesis of Thomas Aquinas.¹² The Pauline text about Jesus Christ as unique Mediator (1 Tim 2:5) is one of the most cited passages in the works of the greatest Church Father¹³ and furnishes the central theme of his soteriology.¹⁴ This evidence can be found for instance in the Enchiridion, a work of his maturity, where he attempts a synthesis of the Christian faith. Its main theme is reconciliation with God through the sacrifice of Christ, the Mediator.¹⁵ Here we find an excellent synthesis of the doctrine of mediation:

We could not be redeemed, even through the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, if He were not also God. Now when Adam was created, he, being a righteous man, had no need of a mediator. But when sin had fixed a wide gulf between God and the human race, it was expedient that a Mediator, who alone among men was born, lived, and died without sin, should reconcile us to God, and procure even for our bodies a resurrection to eternal life, in order that the pride of man might be exposed and cured through the humility of God; that man might be shown how far he had departed from God, when God became incarnate to bring him back; that an example might be set to disobedient man in the life of obedience of the God-Man; that the fountain of grace might be opened by the Only-begotten taking upon Himself the form of a servant, a form which had no antecedent merit; that an earnest of that resurrection of the body which is promised to the redeemed might be given in the resurrection of the Redeemer; that the devil might be subdued by the same nature which it was his boast to have deceived, and yet man not glorified, lest pride should again spring up; and, in fine, with a view to all the advantages which the thoughtful can perceive and describe, or perceive without being able to describe, as flowing from the transcendent mystery of the person of the Mediator.¹⁶

Augustine accentuates, in a clear way, that Jesus Christ is Mediator as man (mediator homo), who in His humanity is linked to the divine Person of the Son by the Incarnation. It is not enough to speculate about the divine Word in the reflection of the Neo-Platonist philosophers who wanted to construct their systems without the Incarnate Mediator.¹⁷ To avoid these philosophical deviations, Augustine uses the term mediator normally in the biblical sense of redemptor and reconciliator.¹⁸ Nowadays, we can find similar errors in the pluralistic "theology of religions" which isolate the operation of the divine Word from historical engagement as the Incarnate Word and from the saving community of the Church.¹⁹ According to Augustine, we can speak of the universal mediation of Christ also in the sense that the gift of grace is offered to all human beings, even if only predestined persons really accept grace and become definitively saved.²⁰ Jesus Christ has offered His life on the Cross for the mankind of all times.²¹ In this way, His human mediation has a universal effect. The mediation of Christ comprehends not only the Incarnation, but also His saving Passion and his glorious Resurrection.²²

Clearness concerning the doctrine of Christ's mediation had been favored by the condemnation of Arius at the Council of Nicaea (325). According to Arius, the divine Word is not divine in the strict sense, but the most excellent being created at the beginning of times; the Word is collocated ontologically as an intermediate between God and the inferior creatures.²³ Catholic theologians, for instance, St. Augustine, stress the fact that Christ as Mediator is not an "intermediate" being between God and us, but truly God and truly man at the same time.²⁴

The culminating point of the reflection about the mediation of Christ in the Greek Fathers can be found in the works of Cyril of Alexandria, the great theologian of the hypostatic union, which manifests itself in the title "Theotokos," defined by the Council of Ephesus (431) against Nestorius. According to Cyril, Jesus Christ is our Mediator because He has the same essence with the Father and with us, existing "naturally" (phusikós) in the Father and in us.²⁵ The Incarnation of the Word has linked God and mankind in order to bridge the intervening divide. Cyril says that the hypostatic union is the basis for being sons of God by grace.²⁶ This stress, nevertheless, does not lessen the importance of the entire work of salvation for Redemption. In a precious text about the priesthood of Christ, Cyril distinguishes three aspects of mediation: Jesus Christ, in His humanity, offered Himself to the Father as an immaculate sacrifice; next, by His resurrection, He presents rebellious mankind purified in His blood and transformed to the newness of life by the Holy Spirit; as Priest and Mediator, He obtains every good thing for us by His intercession with the Father communicating divine and spiritual gifts.²⁷

The most famous Marian sermon of antiquity, which probably concluded the Council of Ephesus, is attributed to Cyril of Alexandria. This notable text ascribes to the Mother of God, an association with the universal activity of Christ the Mediator, for instance in the following invocations: "Through thee ... the fallen creature is raised to heaven ... through thee, churches are founded throughout the world, through thee, peoples are led to conversion."²⁸

The dogmatic definition of the title "Theotokos" sparked an ever-increasing Marian devotion which became more aware of the universal mediation of the Blessed Virgin, particularly underscored in the eighth century by St. Germanus of Constantinople.²⁹ The word "Mediatrix," in various linguistic forms (such as mesítes or mesiteuoúsa), begins to appear after the fifth century.³⁰ The first testimony comes from Basil of Seleucia, in the context of the Annunciation: "Hail full of grace: appointed as Mediatrix (mesitéuousa) of God and man, so that the walls of enmity should be torn down, and heavenly and earthly things come together as one."³¹ As with the concept of "recirculation," the Greek use of mediation terminology, in connection with Mary, focuses attention on the event of the Incarnation, paralleling analogous stress in Patristic Christology.

3. Saving Events

3. 1 Incarnation

The saving work of Christ embraces His whole life on earth, from His Incarnation to His death on the Cross, and is completed by Resurrection. In liberal Protestant research on the history of dogma during the nineteenth century, especially that of Adolph von Harnack, the concept of the so-called "physical" doctrine of Redemption was introduced. According to this influential view, the "physical" event of Incarnation, that is, the union between the divine and the human natures (physis) in the Person of Christ, is the decisive, redemptive event in the Eastern Fathers, particularly in Gregory of Nyssa, but as already anticipated by Irenaeus and Athanasius. Only Western theology, as in Augustine, regarded the death of Jesus Christ on the Cross as the decisive event, whereas Incarnation was only seen as a presupposition.³² Whereas Augustine, according to this view, presents a "moral" concept of satisfaction which includes the human will, the Greek theologians teach a "physical" or "mystical" redemption, where everything is already saved by the mystery of hypostatic union, without the sacrifice on the Cross. The "mystical" approach of the Eastern Fathers is linked to the theology of St. John, whereas the "juridical" conception of the Latin theologians is influenced by the letters of St. Paul.

Can this schematic view be verified by the ancient sources? In Patristic theology, we can discover varying accents in the description of the redemptive work of Christ. There can be an approach which reflects the importance of Incarnation more, such as the Gospel of John, or the role of the Cross, such as the letters of Paul. These diverse accents, alas, do not justify any arbitrary opposition between "physical" or "moral" Redemption, between the Greeks and Augustine. A typical example of erroneous interpretation is the so-called "Greek" concept of "Incarnation" (enanthrópesis). It is not correct, in fact, to identify this word simply with that single event when Christ's human nature was created and assumed by the eternal Word. To realize this, it is enough to consider, for example, a passage of Gregory of Nazianzus, among the most renowned of the Fathers in the Byzantine world.³³ In one of his great poems, Gregory says: "The Incarnation of Christ is a new formation of me, when God suffers

in his flesh my suffering, the God who has restored everything for everyone in a vicarious way."³⁴