Theosis - Divinization

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Theosis

Theosis is " Divinization " ¡ª by the Energies of the divine Nature. It

is the process of a worshiper becoming free of ham¨¢rt¨ªa

(¡°unholiness¡±), being united with God, beginning in this life and

later consummated in bodily resurrection. For Orthodox Christians,

Th¨¦¨­sis (see 2 Pet. 1:4) is salvation. Th¨¦¨­sis assumes that humans

from the beginning are made to share in the Life or Nature of the all-

holy Trinity. Therefore, an infant or an adult worshiper is saved

from the state of unholiness (hamart¨ªa ¡ª which is not to be confused

with ham¨¢rt¨¥ma ¡°sin¡±) for participation in the Life (z¨­¨¦, not simply

b¨ªos) of the Trinity ¡ª which is everlasting.

This is not to be confused with the heretical (apoth¨¦¨­sis) -

" Deification in God¡¯s Essence " , which is imparticipable.

Alternative spellings: Theiosis, Theopoiesis Orthodox theology

The statement by St. Athanasius of Alexandria, " The Son of God became

man, that we might become God " , indicates the concept beautifully. II

Peter 1:4 says that we have become " . . . partakers of divine

nature. " Athanasius amplifies the meaning of this verse when he says

theosis is " becoming by grace what God is by nature " (De

Incarnatione, I). What would otherwise seem absurd, that fallen,

sinful man may become holy as God is holy, has 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 - it is not possible for any created being to

become, ontologically, God or even another god.

Through theoria, the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ, human beings

come to know and experience what it means to be fully human (the

created image of God); through their communion with Jesus Christ God

shares Himself with the human race, in order to conform them to all

that God is in knowledge, righteousness and holiness. Theosis also

asserts the complete restoration of all people (and of the entire

creation), in principle. This is built upon the understanding of the

atonement put forward by Irenaeus of Lyons, called " recapitulation. "

For many fathers, theosis goes beyond simply restoring people to

their state before the Fall of Adam and Eve, teaching that because

Christ united the human and divine natures in his person, it is now

possible for someone to experience closer fellowship with God than

Adam and Eve initially experienced in the Garden of Eden, and that

people can become more like God than Adam and Eve were at that time.

Some Orthodox theologians go so far as to say that Jesus would have

become incarnate for this reason alone, even if Adam and Eve had

never sinned.

All of humanity is fully restored to the full potential of humanity

because the Son of God took to Himself a human nature to be born of a

woman, and takes to Himself also the sufferings due to sin (yet is

not Himself a sinful man, and is God unchanged in His being). In

Christ, the two natures of God and human are not two persons but one;

thus, a union is effected in Christ, between all of humanity and God.

So, the holy God and sinful humanity are reconciled in principle, in

the one sinless man, Jesus Christ. (See Jesus's prayer as recorded in

John 17.)

This reconciliation is made actual through the struggle (podvig in

Russian) to conform to the image of Christ. Without the struggle, the

praxis, there is no real faith; faith leads to action, without which

it is dead. One must unite will, thought and action to God's will,

His thoughts and His actions. A person must fashion his life to be a

mirror, a true likeness of God. More than that, since God and

humanity are more than a similarity in Christ but rather a true

union, Christians' lives are more than mere imitation and are rather

a union with the life of God Himself: so that, the one who is working

out salvation, is united with God working within the penitent both to

will and to do that which pleases God. Gregory Palamas affirmed the

possibility of humanity's union with God in His energies, while also

affirming that because of God's transcendence and utter otherness, it

is impossible for any person or other creature to know or to be

united with God's essence. Yet through faith we can attain phronema,

an understanding of the faith of the Church.

The journey towards theosis includes many forms of praxis. 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.

Comparative considerations

Theosis in the Christian West

Although the doctrine of theosis came to be neglected in the Western

Church, it was clearly taught in the Roman Catholic tradition as late

as the 13th century by Thomas Aquinas, who taught that " full

participation in divinity which is humankind's true beatitude and the

destinty of human life " (Summa Theologiae 3.1.2).

Some Protestant use of the term " theosis "

In addition to the strong currents of theosis in early and some

contemporary Catholic theology, one can find it as a recurring theme

within Anglicanism: in Lancelot Andrewes (17th c.), the hymnody of

John and Charles Wesley (18th c.), Edward B. Pusey (19th c.), and A.

M. Allchin and E. Charles Miller (20th c.). The Finnish school of

Lutheranism led by Tuomo Mannermaa argues that Martin Luther's

understood justification to mean theosis.

Theosis as a concept is used among Methodists [1] especially in

relation to the pietist movement and in the distinctive Protestant

doctrine of entire sanctification which teaches, in summary, that it

is the Christian's goal, in principle possible to achieve, to live

without any sin. In 1311 the Council of Vienne declared this

notion, " that man in this present life can acquire so great and such

a degree of perfection that he will be rendered inwardly sinless, and

that he will not be able to advance farther in grace " (Denziger

¡ì471), to be a heresy. Instead of theosis, sanctification, being set

apart or made holy, is the term that is used more in Protestant

theology. Specifically, progressive sanctification is the term that

is used for the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit, whereby an

individual is made more holy.

The Protestant conceptions of praxis, phronema, ascetical theology,

and sacraments are quite different from Catholic and Orthodox

understandings, but the use of the term theosis may illustrate a

commonality of objective or hope.