SUPERNATURAL ADOPTION. - Among the hagiographers of the New Testament, only s. Paul uses the juridical term a. (υλοθεσία), elevating its meaning to the supernatural order. To the Christians of Rome he wrote (Rom. 8, 15 ff.): «You have received the spirit of adoption as sons, by which we cry out: Father! For the same Spirit bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God. And if children, then heirs also, heirs indeed of God and fellow heirs with Christ».
All the characteristics of s. a. that the Fathers and theologians would take care to illustrate and develop are summarized in this text. Such a. is not resolved into a juridical fiction, as is human adoption, but into a living reality, arising from a mysterious rebirth, from a true regeneration of man by God. S. John speaks of it repeatedly with striking realism: «The Word — he says in the prologue to his Gospel — gave those who received him and believed in him the power to become children of God, born of God, not of flesh and blood». And in chap. 3 he records the words that Jesus addressed to Nicodemus: «It is necessary that man be born a second time of water and the Holy Spirit» (baptism). Finally, in I Io. 3, 1 he writes: «See what love the Father has shown us, that we should be called and truly be children of God».
Evidently, here and in the parallel texts, the matter is neither physical, natural generation, nor creation, but a regeneration of the human spirit, made participant in the light and life of God, indeed in the divine nature itself, according to the vigorous expression of s. Peter (II Pt. 1, 4). This rebirth, which s. Paul calls (II Cor. 5, 17) καινὴ κτίας, that is, a new creation in Christ, is brought about through Grace, which establishes a vital communion with God (Io. 6, 57), who comes to dwell in the sanctified soul (ibid., 14, 23).
The Fathers, especially those of the East, render these lofty concepts in an expression that may seem bold: deification. Through it man enters the sphere of the Divinity, into the bosom of the divine family, and therefore acquires the right to inherit the divine riches. And all this is accomplished by virtue of the Incarnation and Redemption of the Word. This profound thought recurs frequently in the writings of the Fathers: «The Word, the natural Son of God, becomes the son of man, so that man may become the adopted son of God, the brother of Christ». Thus ss. Irenaeus, Athanasius, Cyril of Alexandria, and Augustine, the last of whom gathers the tradition in a beautiful passage of De Civit. Dei, 21, 15.
In conclusion, s. a., according to Catholic doctrine, is an imitation of the natural sonship of the Word: He is the Son of God by nature, while man becomes a child of God through Grace. Regeneration and spiritual rebirth through the power of Christ the Redeemer; the fatherhood of God, who bends down to embrace once more his creature, made a child, placing in its heart the certainty of an infinite inheritance: these are the elements of s. a., which also constitute the innermost fabric of the evangelical message.