Christ's human nature..

[Fides_et_Ratio]

I love you, Apotheoun! Your posts VERY MUCH so helped to clear up much of that.

I shall return later if I think of anything else.

[Fides_et_Ratio]

can I cite/quote you, Apotheoun?

[Cure of Ars]

So would the Orthodox/Eastern position agree that through original sin human nature was cut off from sanctifying grace?

Edited May 30, 2005 by Cure of Ars

[phatcatholic]

so, does Jesus not sin b/c of his divinity or b/c of the human nature he received from Mary, or both?

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='Cure of Ars' date='May 29 2005, 07:45 PM']So would the Orthodox/Eastern position agree that through original sin human nature was cut off from sanctifying grace?  [/quote]
Eastern Orthodox theologians, and the Byzantine theological tradition in general, would simply deny that there is any "hereditary guilt" involved in the fall of Adam from grace in the Garden of Eden, but Byzantine theologians would not deny that man lost his participation in the uncreated divine life through the ancestral sin.

That being said, Byzantine theologians have a somewhat different understanding of the nature of man as he was created in innocence, holding that there is a distinction to be made between the image of God ([i]eikon Theô[/i]) and the likeness of God ([i]omoíosis Theô[/i]); the former was given to man in full act, while the latter was only in potency to act. As a consequence, what was deformed by the fall of Adam was the potentiality for assimilation ([i]omoíosis[/i]) to God, and not the divine image ([i]eikon[/i]) itself.

Thus, at the time of his creation in the garden, Adam was expected to assimilate himself to God by his own ascetic practice, but he failed in his mission and disfigured the likeness ([i]omoíosis[/i]) to God which he had received from the first moment of his existence. In other words, by his act of disobedience Adam disfigured the likeness to God he had received in his initial creation, and no longer participated in God's deifying grace ([i]energy[/i]).

Now a man's assimilation to God (i.e., [i]divinization[/i]) can only be accomplished through the power of the divine energies ([i]grace[/i]) in cooperation with his own energies. But because of the ancestral sin, man is no longer able to properly cooperate with the divine energies, and so he is unable to achieve his true end, which is to be assimilated to God (i.e., [i]divinized[/i]). All of this explains the reason for the incarnation of the eternal Logos, for He comes, as a man among men, in order to restore the gift of the uncreated energies of God to mankind. To put it another way, the incarnate Logos energizes man, allowing him to become divine through a synergistic assimilation of his own energy to the uncreated divine energy, and the fruit of this process is a real participation by man in God's own uncreated life and glory.

[Apotheoun]

[quote name='phatcatholic' date='May 30 2005, 04:57 AM'] so, does Jesus not sin b/c of his divinity or b/c of the human nature he received from Mary, or both? [/quote]
The human nature of Christ is perfect and immaculate because it is hypostatically united to the Eternal Logos. As St. John Damascene said, "Of a truth our natural passions were in harmony with nature and above nature in Christ. For they were stirred in Him after a natural manner when He permitted the flesh to suffer what was proper to it: [i]but they were above nature because that which was natural did not in the Lord assume command over the will. For no compulsion is contemplated in Him but all is voluntary. For it was with His will that He hungered and thirsted and feared and died[/i]." [St. John Damascene, [u]De Fide Orthodoxa[/u], 3:20]

[DemonSlayer]

He was fully sinless and never sinned (though he did bore the sins of all the world), he became man (while still God) to bridge the division between God and man.

Edited June 1, 2005 by DemonSlayer