Theosis - to become God

[Guest guest]

Dear Jagbir, Violet and all,

 

One month ago we had a few posts regarding this topic, here is one more...

 

Love from

nicole

 

 

THEOSIS* - DEIFICATION AS THE PURPOSE OF MAN'S LIFE

By Archimandrite George

Abbott of the Holy Monastery of St. Gregorios on Mount Athos

 

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DEIFICATION AS THE PURPOSE OF MAN'S LIFE

The issue of the destiny of our lives is very serious, because it concerns the

most important question for man: the purpose for which we are placed on

earth. If man takes a correct stance on this subject, if he finds his actual

destiny, he can then take also a correct stance regarding particular questions,

and those that arise in his daily life, such as his relationships with other

people, his studies, profession, marriage and the bearing and upbringing of

children. However, if he does not take the correct stance on this basic issue,

then he will also fail in his particular goals. Because what meaning can

particular goals have, if human life as a whole has no meaning?

The purpose of our life is declared already by the first chapter of the Holy

Bible, when the holy author tells us that God created man `in His image and

likeness'. We thus ascertain the great love that the Triune God has for man:

He does not wish him simply to be a being with certain gifts, certain qualities,

a certain superiority over the rest of creation, but He wishes him to be a god

by Grace.

Externally, man seems to be just a biological being, like other living beings,

the animals. Of course, he is an animal, but `an animal ... which can be deified

through its inclination towards God', as St. Gregory the Theologian

characteristically says (Homily on the Epiphany MPG 36, 324, 13). He is the

only being that stands apart from all creation; the only one which can become

a god.

`In His image' refers to the gifts which God gave only to man, alone among all

His creatures, so that he constitutes an image of God. These gifts are: a

rational mind (gr. nous), conscience, and self-authority, in other words

freedom, creativity, eros, and the yearning for the absolute and for God,

personal self-awareness, and anything else which puts man above all other

living beings in creation, and makes him a man and a personality. In other

words, everything that makes man a person. These are the gifts of the `in His

image'.

Having been formed `in His image', man is called upon to be acquire the `in

His likeness', in other words, deification (gr. theosis). The Creator, God by

nature, calls man to become a god by Grace.

The gifts of `in His image' were given to man by God so that that he may

ascend very high; so that through them he may attain a likeness to his God

and Creator; so that he may have not an external, moral relationship, but a

personal union with his Creator.

Perhaps it is very daring for us even to say or think that our purpose in life

is to

become gods by Grace. However, neither the Holy Bible nor the Church

Fathers have hidden this from us.

Unfortunately, there exists ignorance in people outside the Church, but also in

many within the Church, because they assume that the purpose of our life is,

at best, simply moral improvement, to become better men, whereas this is not

what is given to us by the Gospel, by the Tradition of the Church, and by the

holy Fathers: that man should only improve, become more moral, more just,

more self-controlled, more mindful. All these must be done, but they are not

the great purpose, the final purpose for which our Maker and Creator formed

man. What is this purpose? Deification (gr. theosis) – for man to be united with

God, not in an external or a sentimental way, but ontologically, really.

This is how high Orthodox anthropology places humanity. If we compare the

anthropologies of all the philosophies, social and psychological systems with

Orthodox anthropology, we will ascertain very easily how poor these are; how

they fail to respond to man's great yearning for something very great and true

in his life.

Since man is `called to be a god', i.e. he was created to become a god, as

long as he does not find himself on the path of deification (gr. theosis) he

feels

an emptiness within himself; that something is not going right; he feels no joy,

even when he is trying to cover the emptiness with other activities. He may

numb himself, create a fancy world, but at the same time poor, small and

limited, and cage and imprison himself inside it. He may organise his life in

such a way that he is never quiet, alone with himself. He can try, through

noises, tension, television, radio, continuous information about this and that,

as if with drugs, to forget, to not think, not worry, not remember that he is

not

on the right path, that he has strayed from his purpose.

In the end, however, the wretched, contemporary man finds no rest until he

finds that `something else', the greatest thing that actually exists in his

life, the

truly beautiful and creative.

Can man unite with God? Can he commune with Him? Can he become a god

by Grace?

 

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A new English translation of the Greek text will soon be published, with

commentary by Robin Amis, Director of Praxis Research Institute, where he

explains the same concepts in terms of modern Western thought.

 

 

 

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