1 Divinization
St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote, He was incarnate
that we might be made god ( ,
).[6] His statement is an apt description of the doctrine. What would otherwise seem
absurdthat fallen, sinful man may become holy as God
is holyhas been made possible through Jesus Christ,
who is God incarnate. Naturally, the crucial Christian
assertion, that God is One, sets an absolute limit on the
meaning of theosis: as it is not possible for any created being to become God ontologically, or even a necessary part
of God (of the three existences of God called hypostases),
so a created being cannot become Jesus Christ, the Holy
Spirit nor the Father of the Trinity.[7]
Most specically creatures, i.e. created beings, cannot
become God in His transcendent essence, or ousia, hyperbeing (see apophaticism). Such a concept would be the
henosis, or absorption and fusion into God of Greek pagan philosophy. However, every being and reality itself
is considered as composed of the immanent energy, or
Energeia, of God. As energy is the actuality of God, i.e.
His immanence, from Gods being, it is also the Energeia
or activity of God. Thus the doctrine avoids pantheism
while partially accepting Neoplatonism's terms and general concepts, but not its substance (see Plotinus).[7]
6 ASCETIC PRACTICE
Theoria
4 Stages
Theosis has three stages: rst, the purgative way, purication, or katharsis; second, illumination, the illuminative
way, the vision of God, or theoria; and third, sainthood,
the unitive way, or theosis. Thus the term "theosis" describes the whole process and its objective. By means of
purication a person comes to theoria and then to theosis. Theosis is the participation of the person in the life of
God. According to this doctrine, the holy life of God,
given in Jesus Christ to the believer through the Holy
Spirit, is expressed through the three stages of theosis,
beginning in the struggles of this life, increasing in the
experience of knowledge of God, and consummated in
the resurrection of the believer, when the victory of God
over fear, sin, and death, accomplished in the Crucixion
and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, is made manifest in the
believer forever.[11]
6 Ascetic practice
See also: Desert Fathers, Maximus the Confessor and
Monasticism
The journey toward theosis includes many forms of
praxis. The most obvious form being monasticism
and clergy. Of the monastic tradition the practice of
hesychasm is most important as a way to establish a direct relationship with God. Living in the community of
the church and partaking regularly of the sacraments, and
especially the Eucharist, is taken for granted. Also important is cultivating "prayer of the heart", and prayer that
never ceases, as Paul exhorts the Thessalonians (1 and 2).
This unceasing prayer of the heart is a dominant theme in
the writings of the Fathers, especially in those collected in
the Philokalia. It is considered that no one can reach theosis without an impeccable Christian living, crowned by
faithful, warm, and, ultimately, silent, continuous Prayer
of the Heart.[14]
3
the human being joins his will to receive this transforming grace by praxis and prayer, and as Gregory Palamas
teaches, the Christian mystics are deied as they become
lled with the Light of Tabor of the Holy Spirit in the degree that they make themselves open to it by asceticism
(divinization being not a one-sided act of God, but a loving cooperation between God and the advanced Christian, which Palamas considers a synergy).[15]
This synergeia or co-operation between God and Man
does not lead to mankind being absorbed into the God
as was taught in earlier pagan forms of deication like
henosis. Rather it expresses unity, in the complementary
nature between the created and the creator. Acquisition
of the Holy Spirit is key as the acquisition of the spirit
leads to self-realization.[16]
Western attitudes
8 See also
Apotheosis
Beatic vision
Christian Perfection
Christian Universalism
Consecration
Divine liation
Entire Sanctication
Exaltation (Mormonism)
Hermit
Holiness movement
John of the Cross
Vladimir Lossky
Poustinia
9
Sanctication
Soteriology
Unio Mystica
References
9.1
Notes
9.2
Citations
REFERENCES
[16] Theosis-The deication of man. According to the Orthodox Tradition, mans purpose in life is to achieve union
with God, and to become god by grace. Acquisition of
the Holy Spirit; self-realization.
of grace. Palamas, on the contrary, proclaims the overwhelming novelty of the Kingdom of God revealed in
Christ, and the gratuitous nature of the divine and saving
acts of God. Hence, for him, vision of God cannot depend
on human 'knowledge'. The Triads by Saint Gregory
Palamas, edited by John Meyendor, pp. 1213. Publisher: Paulist Press (Series Classics of Western Spirituality) ISBN 0-8091-2447-5 ISBN 978-0809124473
[26] John Meyendor (editor),Gregory Palamas The Triads,
p. xi
[27] Several Western scholars contend that the teaching of
St. Gregory Palamas himself is compatible with Roman
Catholic thought on the matter (Michael J. Christensen,
Jeery A. Wittung (editors), Partakers of the Divine Nature (Associated University Presses 2007 ISBN 0-83864111-3), p. 243).
[28] Michael J. Christensen, Jeery A. Wittung (editors), Partakers of the Divine Nature (Associated University Presses
2007 ISBN 0-8386-4111-3), p. 243
[29] Michael J. Christensen, Jeery A. Wittung (editors), Partakers of the Divine Nature (Associated University Presses
2007 ISBN 0-8386-4111-3), p. 244
[30] Kallistos Ware in Oxford Companion to Christian Thought
(Oxford University Press 2000 ISBN 0-19-860024-0), p.
186
[31] Pope John Paul II, Orientale Lumen
10
Bibliography
Anstall, Kharalambos (2007). Juridical Justication Theology and a Statement of the Orthodox
Teaching, Stricken by God? Nonviolent Identication and the Victory of Christ. Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans.
George, Archimandrite (2006). Theosis: The True
Purpose of Human Life (PDF) (4th ed.). Mount
Athos, Greece: Holy Monastery of St. Gregorios.
ISBN 960-7553-26-8. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
Lossky, Vladimir (1997). The Mystical Theology of
the Eastern Church. St. Vladimirs Seminary Press.
ISBN 978-0-913836-31-6.
Gross, Jules (2003). The Divinization of the Christian According to the Greek Fathers. A & C Press.
ISBN 978-0-7363-1600-2.
11
Further reading
Bloor, J. D. A. (2015), New Directions in Western Soteriology, Theology 118 (3): 179187,
doi:10.1177/0040571X14564932
12 External links
Theosis_in_the_Christian_West Orthodoxwiki article
Deication online issue of Armation & Critique
devoted entirely to the topic of theosis (Armation
& Critique, Vol. 7 no. 2, October 2002)
"...that we might be made God by Kerry S. Robichaux (Armation & Critique, Vol. 1 no. 3, July
1996)
Deication in Contemporary Theology by Roger Olson (Theology Today, July 2007 Vol. 64 no. 2)
Luther and Theosis by Kurt E. Marquart (Concordia
Theological Quarterly, July 2000)
12
Justication as Declaration and Deication by Bruce
D. Marshall (International Journal of Systematic
Theology 4, no. 1)
Shine As the Sun: C.S. Lewis and the Doctrine of
Deication by Chris Jensen
Partakers of God by Panayiotis Christou
Partakers of the Divine Nature by Norman Russell
Keeping the End in View by James R. Payton Jr.
Partakers of Divinity: The Orthodox Doctrine of
Theosis by Daniel B. Clendenin (Journal of the
Evangelical Theological Society, September 1994)
The Greatest Possible Blessing: Calvin and Deication by Carl Mosser (Scottish Journal of Theology)
Some themes in Christian Mysticism by John Zuck
EXTERNAL LINKS
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13.2
Images
13.3
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