But, if this condition is observed, attempts to know, in part (1 Cor 13:12), to bring the content of dogmatic teaching closer to human reason, or, rather, attempts to bring the fickle human mind closer to the eternal Divine truths, can be extremely fruitful. And the Holy Fathers never gave up such attempts.

And the understanding of no truth has such a close, immediate relation to the human soul as the truth of redemption, the truth of the salvation of this soul by the house-building feat of the Only-begotten Son of God, Who became incarnate, died on the Cross and rose from the dead. The reverent attention of Christian thought and patristic theology was constantly drawn to this understanding.

The truth of the salvation of man by the Son of God was tangible and obvious to the first Christians and the Holy Fathers, so when interpreting it, the Holy Fathers sought an answer to the question: why did God choose this and not another means for the salvation of man?

Recognizing the unlimited freedom and infinite omnipotence of God, they always asserted that God had many other ways of saving man, and only "partially" penetrated into the ways of God's economy for the world and man.

Just as patristic theology explains and sees the origin of all evil and suffering in the world in the freedom of man, and not in God, Who is good by nature, good from Himself and through Himself, so they sought the answer to the above question in the doctrine of man. In patristic theology, the truth of redemption is explained from the teaching of God's love and human freedom.

"Out of love for creation, He gave His Son over to death on the cross. For God loved the world, as He also gave His Only-begotten Son to eat for it unto death (Jn 3:16), not because He could not redeem us in any other way, but because He taught us thereby to abound in His love, and by the death of His Only-begotten Son He brought us closer to Himself. And if He had anything more precious, He would have given it to us, so that by this He might gain our race for Himself. And out of His great love He did not deign to restrict our freedom, although He is able to do so, but He pleased that through the love of our own hearts we should draw near to Him" [1201].

The teaching about the freedom of man and about God, who preserves "the trait of His image" (Metropolitan Philaret) in the very salvation of man, constitutes the essential difference between Orthodox theology and non-Orthodox theology: "Freedom in man is more important than essence" [1202]. It is "the best that God has given him"[1203]. «… How God is free and does what He wills... so are you free"[1204]. "God has no violence"[1205]. "God, being infinite in goodness, desires for us every good and bestows upon us without violating the most essential privilege — our free will"[1206].

Much more such evidence can be cited. The statements of the most outstanding Russian theologians, Metropolitan Philaret (Drozdov) and Patriarch Sergius, fully correspond to them. "Man is created in the image of God. An important feature of this image is in his will: this is the rational freedom that distinguishes man from the lower creatures of God, who do not have the image of God. For this reason God preserves the inviolable freedom of will, preserving in it the trait of His image" [1207].

"Grace, although it acts, although it accomplishes everything, is necessarily within consciousness and freedom. This is the basic Orthodox principle, and it must not be forgotten in order to understand the teaching of the Orthodox Church about the very method of man's salvation" [1208].

Another Orthodox principle, which is no less important for understanding the truth of redemption and which should also not be forgotten, is the teaching about the mysterious unity of the human race in Adam and about the new unity in Christ in Adam the Second. From the Epistles of the Apostle Paul to the "Long Catechism" in all Orthodox interpretations of the dogma of redemption, the transition of the sin of the forefathers and the salvation of all in Christ are explained by this unity. But as long as this truth is set forth in the "legal" terms of imputing sin to sinful descendants and assimilating redemptive merit to believers, as long as the unity of the human race is presented only as a unity of physical origin, these explanations raise and will raise many perplexing questions. Without repeating what has been stated earlier (Chapter IV, 5, 8, 9), it should be noted that the Holy Fathers understood the unity of all in Adam as something more real and more mysterious than the unity of origin. Adam — "the whole Adam" — is the entire human race, and Adam's sin is the sin of all people. "Since all men were in Adam in a state of innocence, as soon as he sinned, all sinned in him and fell into a state of sin" [1209].

Therefore, the sin of Adam is the sin of man, and the Church confesses this on behalf of all the departed in the service for the departed" [1210].

The loss of this unity, the dissection of the "whole man" is a consequence of original sin, which is not sufficiently noted in dogmatic manuals. In this loss lies the destruction of human nature by the power of sin—corruption—no less than in the mortality of the individual, in the loss of innocence, and in the propensity to sin.

Therefore, the healing of this mortal illness, the restoration of the unity of mankind, is the effect of Christ's salvific economy on man.

"The main thing in the salvific economy in the flesh is to bring human nature into unity with itself and with the Saviour, and, having destroyed the evil dissection, to restore the primitive unity, just as the best physician by healing means rebinds the body, which has been torn into many parts" [1211].