Trinity and Salvation of the Flesh. Brief Overview Based on Adv. Haer. V,1-14

Abstract

The author offers us a summary of the results of a long research about the salvation of the flesh in Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. V,1-14. Against heretics, for whom the flesh has no salvation, Irenaeus affirms that it is saved by the Spirit. Man is fundamentally body, created in the image and likeness of God, by both hands of God: the Son and the Spirit. And both hands save him. Central to this is the recapitulating Encarnation, which, though the liberating passion, culminates in resurrection. The salvation of man is progressive: flesh and Spirit get used to each other, until the flesh, conformed to the glorious body of Christ, receives the incorruptibility through the vision of the Father. The quotation of 1 Co 15,50 is referred to those who are carnal and not to the flesh itself. The work is introduced by some trinitarian quotes of other parts of the work of Irenaeus, in order to better contextualize the theme.