The One Christ

5. Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life

Five Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life illi suspirat membrum est enim sponsae et illi zelat amicus est enim sponsi —conf. 13.13.14 Introduction In his centenary address on Augustine at the University of Tübingen, Karl Adam argued that as Augustine grew as a pastor and theologian, he came to see how the sacraments were the necessary agents of unity. As we have seen, Augustine emphasized that it was the Son’s corporeality which drew believers into God. This unity between enfleshed persons is what allowed Karl Adam to argue that Christianity for Augustine is necessarily sacramental: “... for it is by means of the sacraments that our union with Christ is established, renewed and deepened . In his early period Augustine had little use for the sacraments ; he now sees in them the most speaking symbols and most perfect expression of Christianity. For the sacraments are exclusively concerned with the enactment of the central Christian ‘mystery,’ our essential union with the new man Christ.”1 175 1. Karl Adam, Saint Augustine: The Odyssey of His Soul [Die geistige Entwicklung des heiligen Augustinus], translated by Justin McCann (New York: Macmillan Co., 1932), 46. 176 Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life Gerald Bonner echoes the same sentiment, labeling Augustinian deification “an ecclesial process [taking] place within the communion of the Church, to which the Christian is admitted by baptism. For this reason it can be called a sacramental process , in that the Christian grows in grace by being nourished by the eucharist, which he receives as part of the worship of the Church.”2 The Son’s life is transmitted to his faithful by the Spirit in his church, and it is particularly through the sacraments of union the Christian sees in himself Christ. The unifying power of the church and the sacraments celebrated therein cannot be overemphasized for Augustine. This is because the church is nothing other than “the whole Christ,” a continuation of the incarnation where union with the perfect man Jesus Christ is made possible. For this reason we shall root our reflections on the church and the sacraments first in the union of humanity and divinity in Christ. Can the humanity of Christ unite human persons with the Godhead? Do the faithful become one with Christ in his humanity or in his divinity , or both? We must attempt to answer these questions before we move on to the nature and the function of the church and the sacraments celebrated therein. In turning to Augustinian ecclesiology we incorporate the previous chapters. As we have seen, chapter 1 ended by discussing the “quare fecerit?” of creation. God freely chose to act ad extra in order to share his life with a wholly other order of being, and in this way the church appears as the fulfillment of all creation. God created in order to raise up a unified body of praise (chapter 2). In response to these creatures’ disobedience and consequent shattering of the union God offered them, the Son of God took on humanity in order to bestow divinity (chapter 3). To communicate this exchange, he sent 2. Bonner, “Augustine’s Conception of Deification,” 383. For an excellent survey of recent works on Augustinian ecclesiology, see Michael Fahey, “Augustine’s Ecclesiology Revisited,” Augustine: From Rhetor to Theologian, edited by Joanne McWilliam, 173–81. Ecclesial Reception of the Divine Life 177 the Holy Spirit to unite all the divinized into one family of like-minded lovers (chapter 4). This new family is the church, where those now filled with grace and charity are united with both God and one another. This chapter is divided into three main sections. We shall start by examining Augustine’s understanding of the church as the called and gathered people of God. His multivalent notion of ecclesia is crucial to his understanding of deification. Appearing first as a chorus of angelic praise, the church continues in fallen time so as to draw all of humanity into a unified worship. The second section treats the notion of unity of the Godhead and humanity in the person of Jesus Christ. Although this section cannot serve as an exhaustive treatise on Augustine’s Christology, the question of how the union of divinity and humanity in Christ achieves the union of human persons with God must be addressed. Here we shall explore the unity of God and humanity in Christ so as to better understand the...