We are wholly Divinely Determined as Divine Images & partly Self-Determined as Divine Likenesses
theoanthropo thoughts
In the same way that there are logical & evidential problems of evil, respectively solved by defenses & theodicies, perdition presents both logical & evidential problems.
My universalism – not only does not attempt to solve those problems of perdition, but – does not even recognize the concept of perdition as a successful reference to reality. That applies, of course, to terms like mortal sin, which presuppose perdition.
My universalism does recognize the realities of venial & serious sin.
Our secondary sinful natures can grow & harden from such vicious habits as can hinder the reduction of our inalienable divine potencies by virtuous acts.
Those vicious habits can obscure but never obliterate our primary natures as divine images, although, at times, our reflections of the light of Christ may dim to mere penumbral illuminations.
I do subscribe to a certain theological determinism vis a vis our primary natures, essentially, as imagoes Dei. What we otherwise self-determine, autopoietically, are our secondary natures, as we grow (or not) in degrees of likeness to Christ.
As we grow from image to likeness, each will uniquely manifest the divine glory & variously merit increasing measures of divine beatitude.
Temporally, our primary nature is indeed placed at risk as we self-determinedly soul-craft our secondary natures.
Notwithstanding the extent that our vicious natures may have eclipsed them, purgative graces will restore our primary natures & original beatitude. So, ultimately, due to purgative restoration, our manifesting as an image of God is never placed at an eternal risk.
Both in degree & in kind, our likenesses unto Christ, then, will involve our self-determined accidental being, while our substantal being as imagoes Dei remains divinely determined.
Choosing to authentically act or not as the divine image we were made to be (being a child of Christ) is, by definition, morally fraught, but not always culpable.
How & how much we become like Christ (becoming a lover of Christ or not to varying degrees of intimacy) in response to divine invitations need not always involve only morally fraught choices.