What was the status of Adam and Eve before the Fall, in the Eastern and Western general trends? Fr. John Morris said on a thread that in the West, it is more common to think of them as having been deified before the Fall, and therefore having fallen farther, but that in the East, it is more common to think of them as having been in a kind of innocent spiritual infancy (as far as spiritual maturity level goes, not biology) before the Fall, and therefore not falling quite as far. This piqued my curiosity, because as a Latin I had been taught Fr. Johns Eastern version - that they had a choice between choosing grace and choosing sin, and they chose sin. Then when I became Byzantine I was taught that the Greek Fathers distinguished between image and likeness, using image to mean the reflection of the Logos in human nature, and likeness to mean the image of God through theosis, and since Adam was created in both the image and likeness of God, he was created clothed in the robes of glory, deified. Im pretty certain this is Nyssas understanding, at any rate. Thoughts?
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 21:43:19 +0000
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