The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification (continued)
182 Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life part of the church which "has never suffered any fall into evil" (nec ullum malum sui casus experta est).8
The third significant commonality is the reason Augustine attributes to why these bodies of praise remain pristine: the fact that both remain in constant union with God. At Enchiridion 15.56 this union is represented by the terms cohaesit Deo and uinculo caritatis, while throughout Confessions 12 similar images of union—cohibet, inhaerendo (conf. 12.9.9), inhaerendo (yet again at conf. 12.12.12)—are given as the cause of this body's perfection. This creature alone enjoys such supremacy because it is defined by its unbroken union with the divine.
Fourth, both the church and the "heaven's heaven" are described communally. Creaturely worship is never merely individualistic and such a distributive collection of praise cannot help but bring ecclesial images to mind. That is why the church in the Enchiridion passage is no doubt described as a domus, a templum, and as a consortio aeternitatis, while the heaven's heaven in the Confessions is also a domus and a ciuitas (conf. 12.11.12).
Both the caelum caeli and the church indicate that singular sector of creation where the Spirit of charity has undisputed reign and where his effects are fully realized. The church of the angels and the caelum caeli, is known by the consummate union enjoyed by its members and their unceasing fidelity to God. Here the church never tires and never turns away from the pure joy of the divine. Because God is perfectly present here, the church is wholly united to the divine in its affection (ad quem toto affectu se tenet) and is thus one in concord (concordissime).9 This is the same result we saw in the final instance of Augustine's use of deification with the change of the affection of those who have become participants in divin-
8. CCL 46.79. 9. conf. 12.11.12; CCL 27.222.