What to me was new in this excerpt is that we are better off than Adam, we share in the life of God
The primordial paradise of Adam was lost forever. However, in the "Second Adam," Jesus Christ, the apostles claimed that what had been lost due to the Fall was recovered, and even more, that in Christ communion with God assumed a fullness never known to Adam. Christians continued to live as Adam's descendants within a fallen world. But as the Church, they were given the experience of divine communion as a pledge of the eternal kingdom of heaven. Life in the world could thus become an experience likened to paradise. It was not the primordial blessing, but one incomparably greater insofar as it involved participation in the life of God through Christ and the Holy Spirit.
The primordial paradise of Adam was lost forever. However, in the "Second Adam," Jesus Christ, the apostles claimed that what had been lost due to the Fall was recovered, and even more, that in Christ communion with God assumed a fullness never known to Adam. Christians continued to live as Adam's descendants within a fallen world. But as the Church, they were given the experience of divine communion as a pledge of the eternal kingdom of heaven. Life in the world could thus become an experience likened to paradise. It was not the primordial blessing, but one incomparably greater insofar as it involved participation in the life of God through Christ and the Holy Spirit.
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