Pre-Cosmological and Anthropological Dualisms:
The "first edition" of the Divine Institutes (DI) accentuates the voluntary depravation of Satan, who is seemingly procreated,not created by God, whereas the dualistic addition to this book affirms his genuine wickedness. In my view this correction is implied in the doctrine of the short version, for even this assigns a crucial role in the machinery of divine providence to the agitation and seduction of Evil, in the absence of which the plan of salvation cannot be accomplished. The anthropological terminology of Lactantius reveals that he, while accentuating the createdness of the body, conceives the coming into being of the soul as a kind of emanation. And yet, also on the level of anthropology, we should avoid attributing a sharp dualism to the theologian, for the body’s belonging to Satan is to be understood as a kind of metonymy -- it is up to the soul to devote, or to refuse to devote, the body to Evil.
The Distinction Between Wisdom and Virtue:
According to Lactantius, true wisdom and true religion (the latter originating in the former) are inseparable from and inconceivable without each other. Nevertheless, they are not the same. True religion is the primordial virtue, which relates to God. It is the source of all the other virtues that relate to our fellow human beings. The difference between true wisdom and religion becomes manifest in Lactantius’ account in the distinction between wisdom (defined as the knowledge of good and evil) and virtue in general (i.e. the actual capability of doing good rather than evil). The difference lies in the volitional component of the latter: that is, in autonomy, which is a component of man’s similitude to God. This idea makes Lactantius a forerunner of the Augustinian concept of will.
Christ, the Master of Wisdom and Virtue.
The Pre-existent Son, conceived as both subordinated to and consubstantial with the Father, is characterized by his love and faithfulness to him. The Incarnate Christ is frequently described by Lactantius as the envoy of God, who refrained from declaring himself God, but who deserved to be called God for having taught the truth among human beings. On my interpretation, this doctrine, rather than being either Arianist or adoptianist, affirms that even after having assumed human body and sensibility, Christ kept his love and faithfulness to God, which traits make him deny his equality with his Father. Jesus Christ is enabled to be a real master by his double nature, for his teaching activity consists mainly in setting an example to follow and imitate by overcoming all kinds of human passions and enduring all kinds of blows. He has also demonstrated the existence of human autonomy -- the distinctive trait of virtue -- and made it possible for man to resist despair and deterministic opinions. As several textual parallells between the Christological section of book 4 of the DI and the account of the „two ways” in book 6 show, it is because of this that the Incarnate Christ can play the role of guide and leader (dux) on the path to Heaven. From this, it follows that the mechanism of divine providence serves on the one hand to conceal real values behind apparent ones, and on the other hand also to help to overcome this deceit through the teaching and the example of Jesus Christ.
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