THE PRIMAL STATE OF MAN IN PARADISE (PARADISE AND DESERT AS THE STATES OF HUMAN LIFE AND MIND)
/PRVOTNÝ STAV ČLOVEKA V RAJI (RAJ A PÚŠŤ AKO STAVY ŽIVOTA A MYSLE ČLOVEKA)/

Miroslav ZUPINA

lecturer, Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Presov in Presov, Masarykova 15, 080 01 Presov, Slovakia, miroslav.zupina@unipo.sk, 00421517724729

Abstract

This particular study brings a biblically-patristic view of the primal state of man in paradise. The Bible narrative about the creation of man, including his life in paradise, is understood above all as a revealing God's mystery and truth. Based on the Holy Scriptures and the teaching of the Church Fathers, we point out that the characteristic feature of a person's way of life in Paradise was a very close, immediate relationship and direct communion with his Creator. The entire life of man was directed towards God, and because of this rela­tion­ship all his psychosomatic activities have been proceeded harmo­niously ensuring and guaranteeing the balance of his nature. Finally, we examine the interrelation of the biblical conceptions of paradise and desert, which we perceive as the states of human life, especially his mind and communion with God.

Keywords

Man, communion, relationship, nature, perfection, freedom, will, paradise, desert

SUMMARY

The life of the first man in paradise was characterized by dispassion, intactness and immortality, but they were not given by nature, but by God's grace. Not even his sinlessness and holiness were absolute but relative, they were determined by his free will. We come to the conclusion that the characteristic of the first person prior to his fall was relative and incomplete imperfect perfection of his nature. Initially, it was directed and turned to its Creator, but that orientation was gradually becoming conscious and purposeful, meaning that a man should freely choose to unite with God as the goal of his life. Thus man would have reached the state of irreversible and definitive perfection – deification. Examining the paradisiacal way of life of the first humans, we come to yet another conclusion that a paradise also means the state of man's mind and the blessedness of his soul, which stems from the over-abundance of God's love and light. It represents the real state of human life and his relation to God – if it is natural and built for love, it remains a paradise, but if for sin there is a denial of such a way of life, the absence of love, everything becomes desolate and unnatural, changing into desert.

(Language: slovak)

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