The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification (continued)
200 Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life implies a perfect unity of divinity and humanity unique to the incarnate Son. For example, we hear how, "The truth is that he who is the only Son of God by nature, not by grace, took man (suscepit hominem) to himself by grace into such a unity of person that he was also the Son of Man."39 This manner of union is reserved for the incarnate Son alone, for only he can be said to assume a once alien nature to himself. What distinguishes the unique unity of divinity and humanity in Christ from the manner of how the elect are made divine, is that the Son assumes humanity to himself in a way essentially different from how humans appropriate divinity. In other words, while the Son's union with humanity is explained as a susceptio, humanity's "contact" with divinity is explained in terms of, most often, participatio.
Many of these terms and images come into focus in a passage from the end of Augustine's well-known letter to Dardanus on the divine presence, which we treated in part in the preceding chapter. In explaining the essential difference between how Christ is divine and how divinity dwells in the saints, Augustine writes:
Or, apart from the fact that the fullness of divinity dwells in that body as in a temple, is there another difference between that head and the excellence of any member? There clearly is, because the singular assumption of that man formed one person with the Word. For no saint could or can or will it be able to be said, And the Word became flesh (John 1:14). No saint by any excellence of grace has received the title "the Only-Begotten" in the same way that he who was the very Word of God before all ages bears this same title after assuming the man. . . . For who would be so sacrilegious as to dare to say that some soul could bring it about by the merit of his free choice that he be another Christ?40
39. ench. 11.36; Harbert, Enchiridion (I/8), 296: "Veritas quippe ipsa, unigenitus dei filius non gratia sed natura, gratia suscepit hominem tanta unitate personae ut idem ipse esset etiam hominis filius."; CCL 46.70.
40. ep. 187.13.40; Teske, Letters (II/2), 249: "an etiam praeter hoc quod, tamquam in templo, in illo corpore habitat omnis plenitudo diuinitatis, est aliud, quod intersit
Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life 201
When we examine this passage on how the Son's assumption of humanity is "singular," we can ascertain three important insights in helping us understand the different types of divine "presence" between the Christ and Christians.
The first involves the citing of Col. 2:9. Unlike any Christian, the Son is the entire fullness of divinity (omnis plenitudo diuinitatis); the elect participate in divinity and could never be said to be its fullness. Second, the Son's union of divinity and humanity is inimitable because it alone involves only one person both before and after the Assumption. Here again we encounter the importance of the term susceptio and how it is used solely in the union of divinity and humanity in the Word. In his line to Dardanus, quod singulari quadam susceptione hominis illius una facta est persona cum Verbo, Augustine is affirming that the Word's assumption of humanity did not result in a new person. There was one (divine) person before the assumption of humanity and one person after, something utterly unrepeatable and unique to the Word's becoming flesh. Third, only the Son is the unigenitus. While others may be made adopted sons and daughters, theirs is not the type of natural filiality Christ enjoys before the Father. We saw this back in chapter 3 when examining divine adoption: the first person of the Trinity is "Father" to his Son in a fundamentally different fashion from what the Father is to his created sons and daughters. As such, these three points are consistent with the rest of Augustine's Christology and soteriology, but does he not contradict himself here on one central point?
inter illud caput, et cuiuslibet membri excellentiam? est plane, quod singulari quadam susceptione hominis illius una facta est persona cum uerbo. de nullo enim sanctorum dici potuit, aut potest, aut poterit: Verbum caro factum est, nullus sanctorum qualibet praestantia gratiae unigeniti nomen accepit, ut, quod est ipsum dei uerbum ante saecula, hoc simul cum adsumpto homine diceretur. singularis ergo est illa susceptio nec cum hominibus aliquibus sanctis quantalibet sapientia et sanctitate praestantibus, ullo modo potest esse communis. ubi diuinae gratiae satis perspicuum clarumque documentum est. quis enim tam sit sacrilegus, ut audeat affirmare aliquam posse animam per meritum liberi arbitrii, ut alter sit Christus, efficere?"; CSEL57.117.