What is theosis?

[ConstantineTG]

This is Theosis

[BIBLEDRB]John 14:15-21[/BIBLEDRB]

 

[Vico]

Greetings, brethren in Christ!

I just finished listening to talks by Phil Krill on theosis, and from what I can understand, it seems to me that theosis is this: When Christ unites me to Him, He imparts to me His two natures, human and divine. So like God who is three persons but one being, Christ and I are two persons but one being—Him, divine, and me, human. Furthermore, it seems to me that one of the reasons Christ is not a human person is that if He is also a human person, then He would not be able to unite me to Him without replacing me, the human person, in the process since He is already a human person.

To be honest, though, I’m truly troubled by what I understood from all this discussion on theosis. If anyone could point out to me the errors in my understanding (which I’m sure there are), please, for the love of God, do so.

Thank you and God love you all.

The essence of God is absolutely incommunicable per the eastern theology, but God shares His live with us. The source and the power of *theosis *is the grace of God, sharing not the Divine essence, but the Divine actions called energia (uncreated grace). Per Latin theology theosis is called divinization (see the Catechism). Fr. John Hardon states in his dictionary, on “uncreated grace”:

There are three forms of uncreated grace: the hypostatic union, the divine indwelling, and the beatific vision. … In the second and third communications, the souls of the justified on earth and of the glorified in heaven are elevated to a share in God’s own life.

 

[preyoflove]

The essence of God is absolutely incommunicable per the eastern theology, but God shares His live with us. The source and the power of *theosis *is the grace of God, sharing not the Divine essence, but the Divine actions called energia (uncreated grace). Per Latin theology theosis is called divinization (see the Catechism). Fr. John Hardon states in his dictionary, on “uncreated grace”:

There are three forms of uncreated grace: the hypostatic union, the divine indwelling, and the beatific vision. … In the second and third communications, the souls of the justified on earth and of the glorified in heaven are elevated to a share in God’s own life.

Thanks for your replies, Vico and ConstantineTG.

So by partaking “of the divine nature” really means partaking of the divine energies then, I guess.

Thank you and God love you all.

 

[Diak]

This is the citation from the *Catechetical Directory * of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, from 2000:

1. Deification or Theosis
2. God said: «Let us make a human being in our image and likeness» (Gen 1,26). Eastern theology teaches that divine life is a permanent inheritance, and it is inherent that humanity grow in God’s life. Even when humanity turned away from God, God did not turn away from humanity. God planned to send a redeemer to return humanity to its original state. «God loved the world so much that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost but may have eternal life» (Jn 3,16).

1. Deification is a process of transforming and returning to the original gift of being like God and growing in God. Deification is the goal of human life. This was God’s plan from the moment of the creation of the world. The Bible often speaks of the human heart longing for God: «As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God» (Ps 42,1). This great longing gives witness to the fact that human nature has never been disconnected from God. The whole human reality was made to participate in the trinitarian life. A human being is given the grace to become what God is by nature. St. Athanasius said that God became a human being in order that a human being may become god. The purpose of one’s life is to «be perfect just as your Father in heaven is perfect» (Mt 5,48). It is God who makes one perfect, inviting one to be «a partaker of the divine nature» (2 Pt 1,4). While perfection may seem impossible, what is « impossible with human beings, is possible with God» (Lk 18,27). Perfection, here, is not speaking of the moral life, but about God’s infinite love in which human beings are to participate.

1. Theosis is precisely that theological concept by which the Fathers and Byzantine theologians have explained the process of the deification of the human person - the revelation which was given to Adam at creation and lost by him as a result of the Fall, but followed to perfection by Our Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Deification is impossible without the Incarnation. «The Word was made flesh and he lived among us» (Jn 1,14), so that we may have life to the full. The Word became flesh so that we might share in the divine life. As St. Athanasius has written: «He became a human being so that the body may be sanctified and transformed together with the soul». Our bodies, which are an essential element of who we are, are created in the likeness and image of God. From the moment of creation a human being was an image of God. The likeness is related to the divine adoption of humanity (sonship). Accepting Christ in faith may also be regarded as a process of development of the divine likeness. Im¬age and likeness are both the goal and task of a hu¬man being.

1. St. Athanasius never relinquished his thinking regarding the full meaning of the Incarnation and perpetually repeated that a human being is deified through the Word. He also emphasized that deification is the goal of the Incarnation. From this it follows that deification is also the fulfilment of the Incarnation. Therefore, in order that a person may attain deification, the Incarnation is necessary, for it restores to the human creature God’s grace which was originally enjoyed but from which it had fallen through sin.

1. God participates in the life of a human being through an uncreated divine nature; no one can become fully a partaker of God’s essence except through this uncreated energy. The Church Fathers clearly differentiate between essence and energy. Human creatures cannot participate in God’s essence, but they can participate in God’s uncreated energies. Energy is an outward manifestation of the Most Holy Trinity before creation: for example - divine love, divine wisdom, divine truth, etc. If a human being were in union with the essence of God, no longer would he/she be a creature.

1. God watches over and cares for us. God desires not only that we be saved, but that we become «children of God». Through union with Christ, we become by grace what God is by nature. This is the plan of God for humanity, and this is the plan of God for each of us as individuals. That is why we pray in the Our Father: «Thy will be done». For it is only in living according to the plan of God that we can attain true happiness. True eternal bliss is the living in the incessant circulation of God’s love which exists among the persons of the Triune God. This is the kingdom of heaven. This is the kingdom of God, where humanity becomes one in life and love with its Creator. «Whoever sees God has obtained all the good of which one can conceive».

1. Deification involves the body. Since a human being is a unity of body and soul, and since the Incarnate Christ has saved and redeemed the whole person, it follows that a person’s body is deified at the same time as the soul. In that divine likeness which a human being is called to realize within himself or herself, the body has its place. The full deification of the body must wait, however, until the Last Day, for in this present life the glory of the saints is, as a rule, an inner splendour; but when the righteous rise from the dead and are clothed with a spiritual body, then their sanctity will be outwardly manifest.

 

[Diak]

Continuation:

1. By sinning, human beings «forfeited God’s glory» (Rm 3,23). From that time on, God manifested his holiness by revealing and giving his name, in order to restore humans to the image of the Creator (cf. Col 3,10). This process of redemption is accomplished, by the grace of God, through human choice. As St. John Chrysostom wrote: «Ours is to choose and to wish; but God’s to complete and to bring to an end». In the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom we pray: «You brought us from nothingness into being and after we fell, You raised us up again. You did not cease doing everything until You led us to heaven and granted us Your future kingdom».

1. Clement of Alexandria coined the word «synergy», which indicates the cooperation between the divine energy and the human will. The greatest example of this is the fiat of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Such cooperation exists between God and a human person and in the communion of people among themselves. We share our life within the Church, which is a source of divine energy. Those on earth pray together with those in heaven. This communion of saints binds us all together in love. As we ask others on earth to join us in prayer, so, too, we ask the saints in heaven to join us in prayer.

1. Based on the writings and insights of the Cappadocian Fathers, the Eastern Church stresses that God is absolutely transcendent and the human mind is incapable of identifying or defining God. By saying what God is not, it is speaking the truth, for no human word can define what God is. Therefore, the Eastern Church prays not in definitions, but in lofty forms, beyond superlatives: «Your power is beyond comparison, Your glory is beyond comprehension, Your mercy is beyond measure, and Your love for mankind is beyond expression». This is the basis of apophatic theology. This does not mean that the Eastern Church does not uphold cataphatic forms of theology; she simply stresses one form over the other.

 

[Ahimsa]

“For the Romans, heaven consists of being
with God, seeing him face to face, and experiencing the pleasure
that comes from being in his presence. For the Greeks, it is
becoming one with God in Jesus Christ and participating in his
essence and activity by the power of the Spirit acting through us.”

 

[benedictus2]

Greetings, brethren in Christ!

I just finished listening to talks by Phil Krill on theosis, and from what I can understand, it seems to me that theosis is this: When Christ unites me to Him, He imparts to me His two natures, human and divine. So like God who is three persons but one being, Christ and I are two persons but one being—Him, divine, and me, human. Furthermore, it seems to me that one of the reasons Christ is not a human person is that if He is also a human person, then He would not be able to unite me to Him without replacing me, the human person, in the process since He is already a human person.

To be honest, though, I’m truly troubled by what I understood from all this discussion on theosis. If anyone could point out to me the errors in my understanding (which I’m sure there are), please, for the love of God, do so.

Thank you and God love you all.

I don’t think what you have written above is correct.

Christ IS a human person - that is what the doctrine on the Hypostatic union is all about - He is fully human and fully divine. Even after the resurrection He is still fully human. He has a Body, a glorified human body. The resurrection did not anihilate the humanity of Jesus.

Theosis simply means our transformation into the image of Christ.

 

[benedictus2]

Thanks for your replies, Vico and ConstantineTG.

So by partaking “of the divine nature” really means partaking of the divine energies then, I guess.

Thank you and God love you all.

I don’t think this is quite correct either. Speaking of God interms of energies smacks of new ageism.

 

[benedictus2]

Theosis roughly means “to deify”, “to divinize”. It is referred to as the final and complete union with God.

Now, what does this mean? First off it is most important to say what it is not. It is the absolute union of the self with the Divine which results in the extinguishing of the person, as in other religions. You may perhaps be most familiar with the idea of union with the Divine from perhaps Hinduism or maybe even Buddhism (in the doctrine of Nirvana). This is, again, not the meaning of theosis.

Theosis is the teaching that we are made like God. What God is by nature, we become by grace. To put it in a simple manner, Western Christians usually refer to this process as sanctification, as distinct from justification. In the East, these terms are not primarily used and thought about; it is all part of the same work of God- namely, salvation.

It is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is the transformation of the person by the Grace of God. It is the putting off of the Old Adam and the putting on of Christ. It is conformity to the way of the Cross. It is the restoration of the likeness of the Trinity within us.

That is very well said.

However, I think a small correction is in order. Theosis is not the teaching that we are made like God. If this were so then there not be a need for theosis which is in essence a the transformation. More like we will be transformed and become like God.

 

[benedictus2]

Sometimes I wonder what it is like to be God. It is a weird question. I mean like, really, like I don’t even know how to put this question. I don’t mean like, if I could be God myself. I am never God, and will never be God can never be God. But what is His life like? He must have a lot of fun, don’t you think?

What is His life like? Love.

God IS LOVE. Not just that He loves but God is Love itself for in God is the the Lover (Father), the Beloved (Son) and the Love (Holy Spirit) between the two.

 

[Ahimsa]

I don’t think this is quite correct either. Speaking of God interms of energies smacks of new ageism.

You should really study Eastern Theology, since you post on the Eastern Catholic sub-forum.

 

[RyanBlack]

I don’t think this is quite correct either. Speaking of God interms of energies smacks of new ageism.

No, it does not smack of new ageism. Great and revered theologians of the Church have spoken of the energies of God at least as far back as St. Basil the Great, a Doctor of the Church, who lived in the 4th century.

 

[Vico]

"For the Romans, heaven consists of being

with God, seeing him face to face, and experiencing the pleasure
that comes from being in his presence. For the Greeks, it is
becoming one with God in Jesus Christ and participating in his
essence and activity by the power of the Spirit acting through us."

Latin Church

1970 Mass (Liturgy of the Eucharist):
The deacon (or the priest) pours wine and a little water into the chalice saying quietly:
Per huius aquae et vini mysterium eius efficiamur divinitatis consortes, qui humanitatis nostrae fieri dignatus est particeps.
By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.

Byantine Church

Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Prothesis:
PRIEST: One of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance and immediately there flowed out blood and water; and he who saw it has borne witness and his witness is true.
*Then the deacon takes wine and water and says to the priest: *
DEACON: Reverend Father, bless this holy union.
The deacon, having obtained the blessing over them, pours wine together with a little water into the holy chalice.

 

[ThatOneGuy92]

That is very well said.

However, I think a small correction is in order. Theosis is not the teaching that we are made like God. If this were so then there not be a need for theosis which is in essence a the transformation. More like we will be transformed and become like God.

When I say “made like God”, it is in reference to that very transformation. If that was not clear, I apologize.

 

[Ahimsa]

Latin Church

1970 Mass (Liturgy of the Eucharist):
The deacon (or the priest) pours wine and a little water into the chalice saying quietly:
Per huius aquae et vini mysterium eius efficiamur divinitatis consortes, qui humanitatis nostrae fieri dignatus est particeps.
By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ, who humbled himself to share in our humanity.

Byantine Church

Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, Prothesis:
PRIEST: One of the soldiers pierced his side with a lance and immediately there flowed out blood and water; and he who saw it has borne witness and his witness is true.
*Then the deacon takes wine and water and says to the priest: *
DEACON: Reverend Father, bless this holy union.
The deacon, having obtained the blessing over them, pours wine together with a little water into the holy chalice.

Yes, OK. But everyone knows that the East speaks quite openly of becoming God, while the West speaks of seeing the Beatific Vision.

 

[ThatOneGuy92]

Yes, OK. But everyone knows that the East speaks quite openly of becoming God, while the West speaks of seeing the Beatific Vision.

Oh there you go again, speaking about becoming God!

 

[andrewstx]

I don’t think this is quite correct either. Speaking of God interms of energies smacks of new ageism.

It is not new age at all. The Eastern Orthodox speak of the essence of God which we can’t share in.

And…

The energies of God that we can share.

 

[Vico]

Yes, OK. But everyone knows that the East speaks quite openly of becoming God, while the West speaks of seeing the Beatific Vision.

There are writings both about the Beatific Vision and about sharing in the divine nature, through the gift of sanctification of the Holy Spirit, putting on Christ, which is becoming the likeness of God (which we are created in).

St.Irenaeus says: “If the Word was made man, it is that men might become gods” (Against Heresies, Bk. V. Pref. col. 1035).

St. Athanasius says: “God became man so that man might become a god.” (cf. St. Athanasius, De Incarnatione or On the Incarnation 54:3, PG 25:192B

2 Peter 1:3-4 (NAB)
His divine power has bestowed on us everything that makes for life and devotion, through the knowledge of hima who called us by his own glory and power. Through these, he has bestowed on us the precious and very great promises, so that through them you may come to share in the divine nature, after escaping from the corruption that is in the world because of evil desire.

Pope Benedict XVI writes:
And lastly, just a brief reference to the last developments of St Paul’s Christology in his Letters to the Colossians and to the Ephesians. In the former, Christ is described as the “first-born of all creation” (1: 15-20). This word “first-born” suggests that the first of numerous children, the first of a great many brothers and sisters, came down to draw us and make us his brothers and sisters. In the Letter to the Ephesians we find a beautiful exposition of the *divine plan of salvation, *when Paul says that in Christ God desired to recapitulate everything (cf. Eph 1: 23). Christ is the epitome of all things, he takes everything upon himself and guides us to God. And thus he involves us in a movement of descent and ascent, inviting us to share in his humility, that is, in his love for neighbour, in order also to share in his glorification, becoming with him sons in the Son. Let us pray the Lord to help us conform to his humility, to his love, in order to be rendered participants in his divinization.
vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20081022_en.html

CCC 460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”:78 "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."79 "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."80 "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."81

 

[benedictus2]

You should really study Eastern Theology, since you post on the Eastern Catholic sub-forum.

Not necessarily. I am probably on the Eastern Theology sub-forum for that very reason: to learn about Eastern theology.

 

[benedictus2]

No, it does not smack of new ageism. Great and revered theologians of the Church have spoken of the energies of God at least as far back as St. Basil the Great, a Doctor of the Church, who lived in the 4th century.

I don’t think we say that God is energy. THAT is newageism. So I don’t think that partaking of the divine nature means partaking of the divine energies for that reduces nature to energy.