Man as the Topos of the Sacramental Perichoresis of the Present and the Future Life

Authors:

Pages: 60-98
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/KJAP2069

Abstract:

The subject of the present study is the organic synthesis of history and eschatology in the context of St Nicholas Cabasilas’ Eucharistic anthropology. Our point of departure in exploring this theme is the eschatocentric perspective of patristic anthropological thought, its limits being the truth about man as a new creation in Christ. In the theological thought of St Nicholas Cabasilas, this eschatocentric perspective is based on the Christologizing of human iconicity as a constituent of the very ontology of man, and on the eschatologizing of will as an existential striving and movement towards the eschatological fullness of being. On the other hand, this specific eschatologizing of human existence is confirmed in the experience of the Christological ‘topology of closeness’ which, in St Nicholas Cabasilas, is the prerequisite for the sacramental transfiguration of time. This ‘topology’ manifests the sacramental ontology of the life in Christ within a particular anthropological experience where the future life or the eschatological way of existence is experienced as ‘mingled’ with the present life. St Nicholas Cabasilas experiences and understands this ‘mingling’ or ‘perichoresis’ exclusively in the context of the sacramental life of the Church, and seeks its manifestations in the anthropological experience of the Christifying of life. From this perspective, St Nicholas Cabasilas’ sacramental anthropology remains beyond the one-sided ‘eschatologizing’ or ‘historicizing’ of the life in Christ. Presenting man as the topos of the mingling or perichoresis of the present life and the future life reveals the historical-eschatological dynamics of the life in Christ, and the experiencing of this present life as ‘preparation’ for the life to come. From a strongly eschatological perspective, St Nicholas Cabasilas understands the eschatologizing of human existence as a Eucharistic recreation (= anaphora) which gives the event of Christifying profound ecclesiological significance. Thus, St Nicholas Cabasilas’ contribution is found in his theological understanding of the organic synthesis of history and eschatology being exclusively in the discourse of an experiential Eucharistic anthropology.

Keywords:

St Nicholas Cabasilas, life in Christ, ‘topology of closeness’, anthropology, eucharistic anthropology, perichoresis, present and future life, eschatologization, christification

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