s fitted
to replace the material eschatological expectations that were fading
away. (4) It was in keeping with the mystic and Neoplatonic current of
the time, and afforded it the highest imaginable satisfaction. (5) For
the vanishing trust in the possibility of attaining the highest
knowledge by the aid of reason it substituted the sure hope of a
supernatural transformation of human nature which would even enable it
to appropriate that which is above reason. (6) Lastly, it provided the
traditional historical utterances respecting Christ, as well as the
whole preceding course of history, with a firm foundation and a definite
aim, and made it possible to conceive a history of salvation unfolding
itself by degrees [Greek: oikonomia Theou]. According to this conception
the central point of history was no longer the Logos as such, but Christ
as the _incarnate God_, while at the same time the moralistic interest
was balanced by a really religious one. An approach was thus made to the
Pauline theology, though indeed in a very peculiar way and to some
extent only in appearance. A more exact representation of salvation
through Christ has, however, been given by Irenaeus as follows:
Incorruptibility is a _habitus_ which is the opposite of our present one
and indeed of man's natural condition. For immortality is at once God's
manner of existence and his attribute; as a created being man is only
"capable of incorruption and immortality" ("_capax incorruptionis et
immortalitatis_");[490] thanks to the divine goodness, however, he is
intended for the same, and yet is empirically "subjected to the power of
death" ("sub condicione mortis"). Now the sole way in which immortality
as a physical condition can be obtained is by its possessor uniting
himself _realiter_ with human nature, in order to deify it "by adoption"
("_per adoptionem_"), such is the technical term of Irenaeus. The deity
must become what we are in order that we may become what he is.
Accordingly, if Christ is to be the Redeemer, he must himself be God,
and all the stress must fall upon his birth as man. "By his birth as man
the eternal Word of God guarantees the inheritance of life to those who
in their natural birth have inherited death."[491] But this work of
Christ can be conceived as _recapitulatio_ because God the Redeemer is
identical with God the Creator; and Christ consequently brings about a
final condition which existed from the beginning in God's plan, but
cou