Page 103 - Orthodoxy Zizioulas

T H E FA L L F R O M T H E F U T U R E
Christ.
Adam, in his fall, is typus futuris—a figure of what is to
come. Irenaeus reads Genesis not protologically but christo-
logically, and his anthropology is inseparable from the idea of
theosis. Humanity cannot be understood as sinful except in
the light of the One who is without sin.
For Irenaeus, Adam did not fall from a state of perfection,
but from a calling. His original condition was that of immatu-
rity, like that of a child whose perfection lay in the future. The
fall, therefore, is not the loss of a completed state, but the fail-
ure to attain the fullness to which humanity was destined. The
perfect human being is not Adam, but Christ—the last Adam.
Even death itself is not simply a punishment, but becomes
part of the divine economy. God permits humanity to pass
through corruption and mortality so that it may come to res-
urrection and, through experience, know from what it has
been delivered. The fall acquires meaning only when seen
from the perspective of the end.
Thus, Irenaeus dares to reverse the usual logic: the Savior
does not exist because there are humans to be saved; rather,
humanity exists because the Savior preexists.
The last Adam is, therefore, the ontological cause of the
first.
This insight would later be deepened by St. Maximus the
Confessor, who fully developed this eschatological vision.
Thus, the fall cannot be understood simply as a deviation
from an original state. It must be seen in light of the end for
which humanity was created. It is not merely a fall from the
past—but a fall from the future.
If the fall is not simply a loss of an original perfection, but
a failure to move toward the fullness of life for which human-
ity was created, then we must now ask how this failure is ex-
103