588. What significance, if any, is there ...

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What significance, if any, is there to the fact that orthodoxy distinguishes media salutis into media s. exhibitiva and medium s. apprehensivum?

The first thing that may be significant is that faith, which is to say, Christian faith, is itself understood to be a medium salutis, specifically, the medium s. apprehensivum. But in what sense, exactly, is specifically Christian faith a means? Relative to what end is it a means? Well, in one sense, certainly, it is a means to the end of salvation, or, more generally and formally, ultimate transformation. But in another sense, it may be said to be a means to the end of saving faith itself, i.e., of the authentic faith through which salvation or ultimate transformation is mediated. In other words, authentic faith and specifically Christian faith may not be simply identical, any more than God's immediate and direct action as the Savior is simply identical with God's mediate and indirect action as the Savior through the Christian means of salvation -- primal as well as primary and secondary. In each case, the second is a (or the) means to the end of the first.

A second thing that may be significant appears once Jesus Christ himself is understood to be the primal medium s. exhibitivum. Of course, for orthodoxy, the media s. salutis exhibitiva are word and sacraments (and, by implication, ministry), as distinct not only from the visible church itself, as what I speak of as the primary means of salvation, but also from Jesus Christ, as the primal means thereof. But allowing that the analogy I thus imply between means of salvation, on the one hand, and Jesus Christ, on the other, is sound, one could reasonably argue that the (primal) medium s. exhibitivum is himself a means of God's immediate and direct saving action, corresponding to the way in which the (primal) medium s. apprehensivum of faith, which is to say, specifically Christian faith, is itself but a means of the immediate and direct action on the part of a human being that is properly called "authentic faith."

In sum: Could it be that the significance of this orthodox distinction is that it helps to elaborate the distinction between Christianness (die Christlichkeit), on the one hand, and authenticity, on the other? The analogia proportionalitatis that seems to suggest itself is that Christianness is to authenticity somewhat as the media salutis -- exhibitiva(um) and apprehensivum(a) --  are to the salvation, or ultimate transformation, of which they are the means.

30 November 1988; rev. 1 February 2002; 24 June 2009