“Deification” and “adoption”: two models of salvation in the works of the Russian theologians of the synodal period

Biblical revelation testifies to the intertwining in God’s plan of deification and adoption by God. These lines in Christianity were comprehended in their “mode” and participated in the discussion of the economy of salvation. In church thought we see tendencies not only towards the identification of adoption and deification, but also towards their irreducibility to each other. The relevance of the topic is beyond doubt: the establishment of a clear conceptual difference between these two concepts is long overdue. In light of this, the article examines the concepts of deification and adoption in their relationship in Russian theological thought of the Synodal Period. The author does not focus on other aspects that the economy of redemption implies (liberation from the curse, destruction of the partition between man and God, reconciliation of man with God, justification, etc.). The emphasis on the two selected images of salvation is not due to the desire to single out private and isolated concepts of the content of salvation, but only to the interest in their relationship with each other. As a result of the study, it can be stated that in the presence of references to a pair of concepts - adoption and deification - none of the Russian dogmatists of the period under consideration was interested in their relationship to each other, and the patristic doctrine of deification (in connection with adoption) lost its relevance in the academic environment.