Theosis

[steve_b]

Hello
I am confused about some things and I don’t know how to ask it. Deification. It includes three stages katharsis, theoria, theosis. Does this occur after baptism and continue to develop after death? Is one stage specific during life and another after death or not necessarily?

Thanks

Theosis is a process by which we participate in Our Lord’s Divine nature. Here’s how it happens. Without this, as Peter said, it won’t happen

2 Pet 1:
3 His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. 4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.

5 For this very reason,* make every effort to add to your faith goodness;* and to goodness,** knowledge**; 6 and to knowledge,* self-control*; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance,*** godliness***; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection***, lo**ve*. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But *whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins. *10 Therefore, my brothers and sisters, make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble, 11 and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

 

[Ghosty]

Is any of this the same as Sanctification?

Basically, yes.

Peace and God bless!

 

[Khalid]

Maybe it wasn’t St. Jerome. Anyway, here’s a bunch of cut and pasted quotes from Wikipedia.

I was thinking of the Cappadocian Fathers: I had no idea such a wide range of Fathers had said similar things. One of the many reasons I’d love to learn more Patristics, but I have no idea where to start, and the few things I can find are ridiculously expensive and incomplete (say, a few homilies by a father for $10, or a work of philosophy or theology for $40). I looked in to the Ancient Christian Commentary series but it was expensive, and lousy. I’m stuck with mainly St Vladimir’s Seminary Press’s Popular Patristics Series and some of the books of the “Theology and Life” series, but I’d love to read, if I could find them, the original writings of Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, Ambrose, Anselm, more Thomas Aquinas (esp. his commentaries on Aristotle), Cyril, Jerome, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Basil, the two Gregories, etc.: I can’t find them either in the original Greek or Latin or in English translation (I can handle the Greek and Latin if necessary). Or the Philokalia, of which much of the Greek is unreadable to me. I’m especially interested in all of the philosophy, theology, history, and writings of the individuals and heresiarchs involved in the controversies, heresies, orthodoxy, and finally defined resolutions of the ancient Ecumenical Councils.

It’s very easy to find all of the works of the latter Doctors and Fathers, not so much the earlier ones.

I found a four-volume set of the Sentences of Petrus Lombardus and think it’s outstanding - learning theology the way it was taught to the Angelic Doctor himself - and the best Patristic resource I’ve yet to come across.

 

[Aelred_Minor]

Is any of this the same as Sanctification?

That’s a really difficult question, for me anyway. I’ve usually thought about the two ideas separately. I’ll try and work it out here and now.

For one thing we need to realize that there are two things going on in theosis. St. John of the Cross’s analogy of the window that someone gave already could be a good way to look at it. On the one hand there’s the light coming through the window, and on the other hand there’s the cleaning of the window. If we take the window analogy too far it starts to fail (like any analogy) because how you clean a window would have nothing to do with the source of light whereas our purification is by God’s grace, but the point there is our own purification and the experience of God’s grace, and experience divine presence which increases with that purification.

The purification would be the result of the synergy between actual grace and our free will, so no, I’d say that part is not the same as sanctification in the Catholic sense (as opposed to the Wesleyan sense of the word). But what about the actual work of sanctifying grace?

Here for good measure we should probably make another distinction, whether or not it turns out to be necessary to answer the question. Some theologians (Scotus I think was one) equated the Divine Indwelling with sanctifying grace, but Aquinas, and the mainstream thought of the Western Church I think, have distinguished between the two. Divine Indwelling is the special presence of the Holy Spirit (actually of the whole Trinity) in the soul while sanctifying grace is the gift of habitual holiness which always accompanies that presence.

Now, theosis would be the process by which we come to participate in the divine nature. Would final theosis or divinization only be able to happen at the Beatific Vision, when we see God “face to face”? I would think so. But certainly there are lesser degrees of spiritual perfection and even mystical experience that may be made available here and now.

Hmm, and there’s another complication- mystical experiences. In both Eastern and Western Catholicism there have been those who have described mystical experiences of God that in the West we call “infused contemplation”. Where does this fit in to the picture?

My best guess is that theosis would be an umbrella term to include personal purification (through the interaction of actual grace and free will), the gift of habitual holiness through sanctifying grace (obtained through the sacraments, especially baptism and the Eucharist), the Divine Indwelling, and finally the mystical vision of God, possibly through partial experiences in this life and then more fully in the life to come. Or at least a term to describe the later, “unitive” stages of this journey.

I just worked that out as I was writing it and may come to change my mind, but that’s my guess for now.

 

[Qwikness]

I was thinking of the Cappadocian Fathers: I had no idea such a wide range of Fathers had said similar things. One of the many reasons I’d love to learn more Patristics, but I have no idea where to start, and the few things I can find are ridiculously expensive and incomplete (say, a few homilies by a father for $10, or a work of philosophy or theology for $40). I looked in to the Ancient Christian Commentary series but it was expensive, and lousy. I’m stuck with mainly St Vladimir’s Seminary Press’s Popular Patristics Series and some of the books of the “Theology and Life” series, but I’d love to read, if I could find them, the original writings of Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, Ambrose, Anselm, more Thomas Aquinas (esp. his commentaries on Aristotle), Cyril, Jerome, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Basil, the two Gregories, etc.: I can’t find them either in the original Greek or Latin or in English translation (I can handle the Greek and Latin if necessary). Or the Philokalia, of which much of the Greek is unreadable to me. I’m especially interested in all of the philosophy, theology, history, and writings of the individuals and heresiarchs involved in the controversies, heresies, orthodoxy, and finally defined resolutions of the ancient Ecumenical Councils.

It’s very easy to find all of the works of the latter Doctors and Fathers, not so much the earlier ones.

I found a four-volume set of the Sentences of Petrus Lombardus and think it’s outstanding - learning theology the way it was taught to the Angelic Doctor himself - and the best Patristic resource I’ve yet to come across.

Are you familiar with this website?
ccel.org/fathers.html

 

[Qwikness]

Thank you Aelred Minor, I’ll have to spend some time studying your answer.
Another part of my original question(s) was: Does this begin at baptism and continue after death? Which I guess the answer to second part is yes. This is where prayers for the dead in this process is efficacious.

 

[Khalid]

Are you familiar with this website?
ccel.org/fathers.html

That’s awesome.

 

[Qwikness]

That’s awesome.

It is isn’t it.

 

[Cavaradossi]

I was thinking of the Cappadocian Fathers: I had no idea such a wide range of Fathers had said similar things. One of the many reasons I’d love to learn more Patristics, but I have no idea where to start, and the few things I can find are ridiculously expensive and incomplete (say, a few homilies by a father for $10, or a work of philosophy or theology for $40). I looked in to the Ancient Christian Commentary series but it was expensive, and lousy. I’m stuck with mainly St Vladimir’s Seminary Press’s Popular Patristics Series and some of the books of the “Theology and Life” series, but I’d love to read, if I could find them, the original writings of Origen, Athanasius, Augustine, Ambrose, Anselm, more Thomas Aquinas (esp. his commentaries on Aristotle), Cyril, Jerome, Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Basil, the two Gregories, etc.: I can’t find them either in the original Greek or Latin or in English translation (I can handle the Greek and Latin if necessary). Or the Philokalia, of which much of the Greek is unreadable to me. I’m especially interested in all of the philosophy, theology, history, and writings of the individuals and heresiarchs involved in the controversies, heresies, orthodoxy, and finally defined resolutions of the ancient Ecumenical Councils.

It’s very easy to find all of the works of the latter Doctors and Fathers, not so much the earlier ones.

I found a four-volume set of the Sentences of Petrus Lombardus and think it’s outstanding - learning theology the way it was taught to the Angelic Doctor himself - and the best Patristic resource I’ve yet to come across.

Have you checked out CCEL? Philip Schaff’s series on the antenicene and postnicene Fathers is a good place to start (and you can read it for free on CCEL).

St. Basil: ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf208.html
Sts. Cyril and Gregory Nazianzen: ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf207.html
St. Gregory of Nyssa: ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf205.html

There are plenty of others, like St. Athanasius, St. John of Damascus, and a bunch of the Early Latin Fathers. You can find a list of all of his works here: ccel.org/ccel/schaff?show=worksBy