In the last issue of this article I suggested that our Eastern spirituality interprets Paul’s letter to the Romans as saying: “because of death all sin” instead of “because of sin all die.” Because of linguistic limitations of Latin, St. Jerome had to choose one or the other meaning of this phrase. He wrote it in Latin as “because of sin all die.” This has become the standard position of the Latin tradition. As a result, the Latin tradition, following Saint Augustine and Saint Anselm, tends to view the relationship between sin and death in a more juridical sense. That is, death is punishment. This led St. Anselm to say that the purpose of the Incarnation was to produce a suitable victim for a sacrifice which would appease the justice of God. Through his death Jesus pays the ransom for our offenses.

Byzantine spirituality tends toward a more existential or psychological understanding of the relationship      between sin and death. If death is “punishment” in the Latin tradition, it is “consequence” in the Byzantine, and this distinction is important. Gregory of Nyssa can say that “death is the final remedy.” He comments in a most    nonwestern way on the “garments of skin” with which God vested Adam and Eve. Gregory teaches, therefore, that with the “garments of skin” God implanted in Adam and his descendants our physical nature (as opposed to human    nature), our physical needs, our appetites and instincts, as medicine so that we can make our way to Him. Therefore, our   incompleteness is the means presented to us to allow us to develop a deeper union with God and transform ourselves so that we are more like Him, as seen in the Person of Jesus.

The East and West interpret salvation in a much different way. Instead of seeing our incompleteness as only being corrected through true obedience as the Western Church does, the Eastern Church sees the attainment of our completeness through knowledge of the meaning and purpose of life. The Eastern position is based on the biblical admonition and exhortation: “You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Again, I am not trying to suggest that one approach is right and the other wrong. I am, however, saying that they are different and either can lead to salvation if we understand them and attempt to live by them.