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Contents In Christian theology , divinization (deification , making divine, or theosis ) is the transforming effect of
Featured content divine grace ,[1] the spirit of God , or the atonement of Christ . It literally means to become more divine,
Current events or to become God.
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Wikipedia store 1 Patristic writings
2 Biblical citations
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3 Eastern Orthodox
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3.1 Vision of God
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3.2 As a patristic and historical teaching
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3.3 Ascetic practice
Recent changes
4 Western Christianity
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4.1 Catholic theology (including Latin and Eastern Churches)
Tools 4.2 Anglican theology
What links here 4.3 Protestant theology
Related changes 4.4 Christian universalist theology
Upload file 4.5 Western views on hesychasm
Special pages 5 Mormonism
Permanent link 6 Primary source citations
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7 Secondary source citations
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Patristic writings [ edit ]
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Download as PDF There were many varied references to divinization in the writings of the Church Fathers .
Printable version
In the second century, Irenaeus , bishop of Lyons (c. 130202) said that God "became what we are in
Languages order to make us what he is himself."[2] Irenaeus also wrote, "If the Word became a man, It was so men
Afrikaans may become gods."[3] He added:
etina
Dansk Do we cast blame on him [God] because we were not made gods from the beginning, but
Deutsch were at first created merely as men, and then later as gods? Although God has adopted this
Espaol
course out of his pure benevolence, that no one may charge him with discrimination or
Franais
stinginess, he declares, "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are sons of the Most
Italiano
Nederlands
High." ... For it was necessary at first that nature be exhibited, then
after that what was
mortal would be conquered and swallowed up in immortality.[4]
Norsk bokml
Polski At about the same time, Clement of Alexandria (c. 150215), wrote: "Yea, I say, the Word of God
Portugus became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god."[5]
Clement further stated that "

[i]f one knows himself, he will know God, and knowing God will become like God. . . . His is beauty,
Slovenina
true beauty, for it is God, and that man becomes a god, since God wills it. So Heraclitus was right when
/ srpski
Srpskohrvatski / he said, 'Men are gods, and gods are men.'"[6]
Clement of Alexandria also stated that "he who obeys the

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Lord and follows the prophecy given through him ... becomes a god while still moving about in the
Svenska flesh."[7]

Justin Martyr
c. 100165) insisted that in the beginning men "were made like God, free from suffering
Edit links and death," and that they are thus "deemed worthy of becoming gods and of having power to become
sons of the highest."[8]

Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria

(c. 296373), stated his belief in literal deification:"The Word was
made flesh in order that we might be made gods. ... Just as the Lord, putting on the body, became a man,
so also we men are both deified
through his flesh, and henceforth inherit everlasting life."[9] Athanasius
also observed: "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."[10][11]

Augustine of Hippo
(354430) said: "But he himself that justifies also deifies, for by justifying he makes
sons of God. 'For he has given them power to become the sons of God' [referring to John 1:12]. If then
we have been made sons of god, we have also been made gods."[12]
"To make human beings gods,"
Augustine said, "He was made man who was God" (sermon 192.1.1). Augustine goes on to write that "
[they] are not born of His Substance, that they should be the same as He, but that by favour they should
come to Him... (Ibid)".

Other references to divinization in the writings of the Church Fathers include the following:

Irenaeus (c. 130-200)

"[T]he Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become
what we are, that He might bring us to be even
what He is Himself."[Primary 1]
"'For we cast blame upon [God], because we have not been made gods from the beginning, but at
first merely men, then at length gods; although God has adopted this course out of His pure
benevolence, that no one may impute to Him invidiousness or grudgingness he declares, "I have
said, Ye are gods; and all of you are sons of the Most High." "[Primary 2]
"For it was necessary, at first, that nature should be exhibited; then, after that, that what was
mortal should be conquered and swallowed
up by immortality, and the corruptible by
incorruptibility, and that man should be made after the image and likeness of God."[Primary 2]
Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215)
"[T]he Word of God became man, that thou mayest learn from man how man may become
God."[Primary 3]
"For if one knows himself, he will know God; and knowing God, he will be made like
God"[Primary 4]
"[H]is is beauty, the true beauty, for it is God; and that man becomes God, since God so wills.
Heraclitus, then, rightly said, "Men are gods, and gods are men." For the Word Himself is the
manifest mystery: God in man, and man God"[Primary 4]
"[H]e who listens to the Lord, and follows the prophecy given by Him, will be formed perfectly
in the likeness of the teachermade a
god going about in flesh."[Primary 5]
"And to be incorruptible is to participate in divinity..." [Primary 6]

Justin Martyr (c. 100-165)

"[Men] were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided that they kept His
commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His sons, and yet they, becoming
like Adam and Eve, work out death for themselves; let the interpretation of the Psalm be held just
as you wish, yet thereby it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming "gods,"
and of having power to become sons of the Highest."[Primary 7]
Theophilus of Antioch (c. 120-190)
"For if He had made him immortal from the beginning, He would have made him God. Again, if
He had made him mortal, God would seem to be the
cause of his death. Neither, then, immortal

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nor yet mortal did He make him, but, as we have said above, capable of both; so that if he should
incline to the things of immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he
should receive as
reward from Him immortality, and should become God..."[Primary 8]
Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170-235)
"And you shall be a companion of the Deity, and a co-heir with Christ, no longer enslaved by
lusts or passions, and never again wasted by disease. For you have become God: for whatever
sufferings you underwent while being a man, these He gave to you, because you were of mortal
mould, but whatever it is consistent with God to impart, these God has promised to bestow upon
you, because you have been deified, and begotten unto immortality."[Primary 9]
"If, therefore, man has become immortal, he will also be God. And if
he is made God by water
and the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the laver he is found to be also joint-heir with Christ
after the resurrection from the dead."[Primary 10]
Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296-373)
"Therefore He was not man, and then became God, but He was God, and then became man, and
that to deify us"[Primary 11]
"for as the Lord, putting on the body, became man, so we men are deified by the Word as being
taken to Him through His flesh."[Primary 12]
"For He was made man that we might be made God."[Primary 13]
Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-395)
"Since the God who was manifested infused Himself into perishable humanity for this purpose,
viz. that by this communion with Deity mankind might at the same time be deified, for this end it
is that, by dispensation of His grace, He disseminated Himself in every believer."[Primary 14]
"For just as He in Himself assimilated His own human nature to the power of the Godhead, being
a part of the common nature, but not being subject to the inclination to sin which is in that nature
(for it says: "He did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth), so, also, will He lead each person
to union with the Godhead if they do nothing unworthy of union with the Divine."[Primary 15]
Augustine of Hippo (c. 354-430)
"'For He hath given them power to become the sons of God.'[John 1:12] If we have been made
sons of God, we have also been made gods."[Primary 16]
Maximus the Confessor
"Nothing in theosis is the product of human nature, for nature cannot comprehend God. It is only
the mercy of God that has the capacity
to endow theosis unto the existing... In theosis, man (the
image of God) becomes likened to God, he rejoices in all the plenitude that does not belong to
him by nature, because the grace of the Spirit triumphs within him, and because God acts in
him."[13]
Cyril of Alexandria
"For we too are sons and gods by grace, and we have surely been brought to this wonderful and
supernatural dignity since we have the Only Begotten Word of God dwelling within us."[14]
Gregory of Nazianzus
implores humankind to "become gods for (God's) sake, since (God) became man for our
sake."[citation needed].
Likewise, he argues that the mediator "pleads even now as Man for my
salvation; for He
continues to wear the Body which He assumed, until He
make me God by the power of His
Incarnation." [15]
"Through the medium of the mind he had dealings with the flesh, being made that God on earth,
which is Man: Man and God blended. They became a single whole, the stronger side
predominating, in order that I might be made God to the same extent that he was made man."[16]
[17]

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Basil of Caesarea stated that "becoming a god is the highest goal of all"

Biblical citations [ edit ]

Paul the Apostle taught in numerous passages that men are sons of God (as in chapter 8 of Paul's
Epistle to the Romans ). Paul conceives of the resurrection as immortalization of both the body and
the soul (1 Cor 15:42-49). 2 Corinthians 3:17-18
says that "we all, with unveiled face, beholding
the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to
another."
In John 10:34 ,
Jesus defends himself against a charge of blasphemy by stating: "Have I
not said
that ye are gods?" It is widely believed that Jesus is referring to Psalms 82:6 in saying "Ye are
gods and children of the most high."
Christ's defence against the charge of blasphemy includes the following passages from
John 10:3336

The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but
for blasphemy;
and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not
written in your law, I said, Ye are gods?
If he called them gods, unto whom the word of
God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath
sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I
am the Son of
God?

In (1 John 5:45 ;Revelation 2:7-11 ), the apostle, John the Beloved, speaks about how men can
overcome the world, as Christ did, through Christ's sacrifice.
There are several Bible verses [18]
which, if summarized state that, through Christ, men may become
"heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" and "will inherit all things" just as Christ inherits all things.

Eastern Orthodox [ edit ]

Main article: Theosis (Eastern Orthodox theology)

See also: Glorification

The teaching of deification or theosis in Eastern Orthodoxy

refers to the attainment of likeness of God, union with God or
reconciliation with God. Deification has three stages in its
process of transformation: katharsis, theoria, theosis.
Theosis
as such is the goal, it is the purpose of life, and it is
considered achievable only through a synergy (or cooperation)
between humans' activities and God's uncreated energies (or
operations).[19][20] Theosis
is an important concept in Eastern
Orthodox theology deriving from the fact that Eastern Orthodox
theology is of an explicitly mystical character. Theology in the
Icon of The Ladder of Divine
Eastern Orthodox Church is what is derived from saints or
Ascent (the steps toward theosis as
mystics of the tradition, and Eastern Orthodoxy considers
that described by St. John Climacus)
"no one who does not follow the path of union with God showing monks ascending (and
can be a theologian."[21] In Eastern Orthodoxy, theology is falling from) the ladder to Jesus,
Saint Catherine's Monastery.
not treated as an academic pursuit, but it is based on revelation
(see gnosiology ),
meaning that Eastern Orthodox theology and
its theologians are validated by ascetic pursuits, rather than academic degrees (i.e. scholasticism ).

According to the Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, as quoted by Millet and Reynolds:

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Deification (Greek theosis) is for Orthodoxy the goal of every Christian. Man, according
to the Bible, is 'made in the image and likeness of God.' ... It is possible for man to become
like God, to become deified, to become god by grace. This doctrine is based on many
passages of both OT and NT (e.g. Ps. 82 (81).6; II Peter 1.4), and it is
essentially the
teaching both of St Paul, though he tends to use the language of filial adoption (cf. Rom.
8.917; Gal. 4.57), and the Fourth Gospel (cf. 17.2123).

The language of II Peter is taken up by St Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, 'if the Word has
been made man, it is so that men may be made gods' (Adv. Haer V, Pref.), and becomes
the standard in Greek theology. In the fourth century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus
almost word for word, and in the fifth century St Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall
become sons 'by participation' (Greek methexis). Deification is the central idea in the
spirituality of St. Maximus the Confessor, for whom the doctrine is the corollary of the
Incarnation: 'Deification, briefly,
is the encompassing and fulfillment of all times and
ages,' ... and St.
Symeon the New Theologian at the end of the tenth century writes, 'He
who is God by nature converses with those whom he has made gods by grace, as a friend
converses with his friends, face to face.' ...[22]

Vision of God [ edit ]

According to Hierotheos Vlachos, divinization, also called theosis, "is the participation in the Uncreated
grace of God" and "is identified and connected with the theoria (vision) of the Uncreated Light".
"Theoria is the vision of the glory of God. Theoria is identified with the vision of the uncreated Light,
the uncreated energy of God, with the union of man with God, with man's theosis. This vision, by which
faith is attained, is what saves: "Faith comes by hearing the Word and by experiencing theoria (the
vision of God). We accept faith at first by hearing in order to be healed, and then we attain to faith by
theoria, which saves man." It is also one of the means by which Christians came to know the Trinity:
"The disciples of Christ acquired the knowledge of the Triune God in theoria (vision of God) and by
revelation."[23]

As a patristic and historical teaching [ edit ]

For many Church 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 Jesus' 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 Eastern 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.[24]

Ascetic practice [ edit ]

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 (hesychast ),
continuous Prayer of the Heart. The

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"doer" in deification is the Holy Spirit, with whom the human being joins his will to receive this
transforming grace by praxis and prayer, and as Saint Gregory Palamas teaches, the Christian mystics are
deified as they become filled 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).[25] This
synergy
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 deification 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 .

Western Christianity [ edit ]

Catholic theology (including Latin and Eastern Churches) [ edit ]

The importance of divinization (theosis) in Roman Part of a series on

Catholic teaching is evident from what the Catechism Christian mysticism

of the Catholic Church says of it:

The Word became flesh to make us

"partakers of the divine nature": "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." "For the Son of God
Theology Philosophy [show]
became man so that we might become
Practices [show]
God." "The only-begotten Son of God,
People (by era or century) [show]
wanting to make us sharers in his
Literature Media [show]
divinity, assumed our nature, so that he,
made man, might make men vte

gods."[Primary 17]

Arguably the most prolific of the medieval scholastic theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas , wrote:

Now the gift of grace surpasses every capability of created nature, since it is nothing short
of a partaking of the Divine Nature, which exceeds every other nature. And thus it is
impossible that any creature should cause grace. For it is as necessary that God alone
should deify, bestowing a partaking of the Divine Nature by a participated likeness, as it is
impossible that anything save fire should enkindle.[Primary 18]

He also wrote of God's "special love, whereby He draws the rational creature above the condition of its
nature to a participation of the Divine good".[Primary 19] and he ultimately roots the purpose of the
Incarnation in theosis. [Primary 20]

Of a more modern Roman Catholic theologian it has been said: "The theological vision of Karl Rahner ,
the German Jesuit whose thought has been so influential in the Roman Catholic Church and beyond over
the last fifty years, has at its very core the symbol of theopoiesis. The process of divinization is the
center of gravity around which move Rahner's understanding of creation, anthropology, Christology,
ecclesiology, liturgy, and eschatology. The importance of this process for Rahner is such that we are
justified in describing his overall theological project to be largely a matter of giving a coherent and

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contemporary account of divinization."[26]

Joshua Bloor in his article reveals the rise in deification from
an array of Western traditions, looking closely at the Catholic Theologian Catherine LaCugna, arguing
that LaCugna sees deification as "personal communion with God, which deifies the human in the
process, conforming him/her into being Christ-like"[27]

The Roman Rite liturgy expresses the doctrine of divinization or theosis

in the prayer said by the deacon
or priest when preparing the Eucharistic chalice: "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.")[28][29][30]

The Catholic Church teaches that God gives to some souls, even in the
present life, a very special grace
by which they can be mystically united to God even while yet alive: this is true mystical
contemplation.[31] This is seen as the culmination of the three states, or stages, of perfection through
which the soul passes: the purgative way (that of cleansing or purification, the Greek term for which is
, katharsis), the illuminative way
(so called because in it the mind becomes more and more
enlightened as to spiritual things and the practice of virtue, corresponding to what in
Greek is called
, theoria), and the unitive way
(that of union with God by love and the actual experience and
exercise of that love, a union that is called , theosis).[32]

The writings attributed to St. Dionysius the Areopagite were highly influential in the West, and their
theses and arguments were adopted by Peter Lombard , Alexander of Hales , Albert the Great , St. Thomas
Aquinas and St. Bonaventure .[33]
According to these writings, mystical knowledge must be distinguished
from the rational knowledge by which we know God, not in his nature, but
through the wonderful order
of the universe, which is a participation of the divine ideas. Through the more perfect knowledge of God
that is mystical knowledge, a knowledge beyond the attainments of reason even enlightened by faith, the
soul contemplates directly the mysteries of divine light. In the present life this contemplation is possible
only to
a few privileged souls, through a very special grace of God: it is the (theosis),
(mystical union).[31] Meister Eckhart too taught a deification of man and an assimilation of the
creature into the Creator through contemplation.[31]

Deification, to which, in spite of its presence in the liturgical prayers of the West, Western theologians
have given less attention than Eastern, is nevertheless prominent in the writing of Western mystics.[1]

St. Catherine of Siena

had God say: "They are like the burning coal that no one can put out once it is
completely consumed in the furnace, because it has itself been turned into fire. So it is with these souls
cast into the furnace of my charity, who keep nothing at all, not a bit of their own will, outside of me but
are completely set afire in me. There is no one who can seize them or drag them out of my grace. They
have been made one with me and I with them."[Primary 21]

St. John of the Cross ,

OCD wrote: "In thus allowing God to work in it, the soul ... is at once
illumined
and transformed in God, and God communicates to it His supernatural Being, in such wise that it appears
to be God Himself, and has all that God Himself has. And this union comes to pass when God grants the
soul this supernatural favour, that all the things of God and
the soul are one in participant transformation;
and the soul seems to be God rather than a soul, and is indeed God by participation; although it is true
that its natural being, though thus transformed, is as distinct from the Being of God as it was
before."[Primary 22]

Orestes Brownson
wrote: "The principle of the order founded by the incarnation of the Word is the
deification of the creature, to make the creature one with the Creator, so that the creature may participate
in the divine life, which is love, and in the divine blessedness, the eternal and infinite blessedness of the
holy and ineffable Trinity, the one ever-living God. Creation itself has no other purpose or end; and the
incarnation of the Word, and the whole Christian order, are designed by the divine economy simply as
the means to this end, which is indeed realized or consummated
in Christ the Lord, at once perfect God

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and perfect man, indissolubly united in one divine person. The design of the Christian order is, through
regeneration by the Holy Ghost, to unite every individual man to
Christ, and to make all believers one
with one another, and one with him, as he and the Father are one. All who are thus regenerated and
united, are united to God, made one with him, live in his life, and participate in his infinite, eternal, and
ineffable bliss or blessedness."[Primary 23]

Anglican theology [ edit ]

Out of the English Reformation ,

an understanding of salvation in terms closely comparable to the
Orthodox doctrine of theosis was recognized in the Anglican tradition, J. Bloor examines
deification/theosis in the late Anglican Priest and theologian Canon A. M. (Donald) Allchin,[34] but it is
also explored in the writings of Lancelot Andrewes , who described salvation in terms vividly reminiscent
of the early fathers:

Whereby, as before He of ours, so now we of His are made partakers. He clothed with our
flesh, and we invested with His Spirit. The great promise of the Old Testament
accomplished, that He should partake our human nature; and the great and precious
promise of the New, that we should be "consortes divinae naturae", "partake his divine
nature," both are this day accomplished.[Primary 24]

C.S. Lewis , speaking on his personal belief in the subject of literal deification, stated as follows:

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that
the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if
you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.[35]

In a more complete statement on his beliefs in literal deification, C.S. Lewis stated in his book, "Mere
Christianity" as follows:

The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible.
He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible)
that we were "gods" and He is going to make good His words. If we let Himfor we can
prevent Him, if we chooseHe will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or
goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and
joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which
reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless
power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but
that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said.[36]

Protestant theology [ edit ]

Theosis is not emphasized in Protestant theology except among Quakers

who believed that they
experienced celestial inhabitation and Methodists/Wesleyans, whose religious tradition has always
placed strong
emphasis on entire sanctification ,
and whose doctrine of sanctification has many
similarities with the Catholic/Eastern Orthodox concept of theosis or divinization.

Early during the Reformation , thought was given to the doctrine of union with Christ (unio cum
Christo) as the precursor to the entire process of salvation and sanctification . This was especially so in
the thought of John Calvin .[37]

Henry Scougal 's work The Life of God in the Soul of Man
is sometimes cited as important in keeping
alive among Protestants the ideas central to the doctrine. In the introductory passages of his book,

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Scougal describes "religion" in terms that evoke the doctrine of theosis:

... a resemblance of the divine perfections, the image of the Almighty shining in the soul of
man: ... a real participation of his nature, it is a beam of the eternal light, a drop of that
infinite ocean
of goodness; and they who are endued with it, may be said to have 'God
dwelling in their souls', and 'Christ formed within them'." [38]

Based on their spiritual experiences and tested against the testimony

of scripture, George Fox and early
Quakers believed that celestial inhabitation was a normal experience within the early church where
individuals and communities were led by the living presence of Christ dwelling within them. George Fox
wrote:

"The scriptures saith God will dwell in men, and walk in men
Doth not the Apostle say, the saints
were partakers of the divine nature? And that God dwells in the saints, and Christ is in them, except
they
be reprobates? And do not the saints come to eat the flesh of Christ? And if they eat his flesh, is it not
within them?"[39]

Theosis as a doctrine developed in a distinctive direction among Methodists ,[40] and elsewhere in the
pietist movement which reawakened Protestant interest in the asceticism of the early Catholic Church,
and some of the mystical traditions of the West. Distinctively, in Wesleyan Protestantism theosis
sometimes implies the doctrine of entire sanctification which teaches, in summary, that it is the
Christian's goal, in principle possible to achieve, to live without any (voluntary) sin (Christian
perfection). In 1311 the Roman Catholic 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 471), to be a heresy .
Thus this
particular Protestant (primarily Methodist) understanding of theosis is substantially different from that of
the Roman Catholic, Orthodox, or Anglican Churches. This doctrine of Christian perfection was sharply
criticized by many in the Church of England during the ministry of John Wesley and continues to be
controversial among Protestants and Anglicans to this day.[Primary 25]

More recently, the Finnish school of Lutheran thought has drawn close
associations between theosis and
justification. Primarily spearheaded by Tuomo Mannermaa ,
this line of theological development grew
out of talks between the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Russian Orthodox Church
between 1970 and 1986.[41] Mannermaa argues in his book, Christ Present in Faith,
that the real
exchange between Christ and sinful humanity, a theme prevalent in Luther's writing, is synonymous with
Eastern views of theosis. It is in this real exchange which Mannermaa says "the union between Christ
and the believer makes the latter a completely divine [person] [sic]."[42] While this departure from
traditional Lutheran thought is sometimes hailed as "the threshold of a third Luther Renaissance,"[43]
other Lutheran scholars disagree and argue that the idea of theosis violates Luther's theology of the cross
principles by ignoring the real distinction that is axiomatic for not only Luther, but for orthodox
Christianity as a whole. One of the most prominent scholars is Robert Kolb, who primarily roots this
critique in Luther's use of marriage metaphors concerning the Christian's relationship with God. Kolb
writes "This view ignores the nature of the union of bride and bridegroom that Luther employed so
far."[44]

Evangelical scholarship has yielded yet another view of theosis. Patristic scholar Donald Fairbairn has
argued that theosis in the Greek Fathers is not an ontological
exchange between the Son and the
Christian. In general Fairbairn argues
that the change that occurs in theosis is "something more than mere
status but less than the possession of God's very substance."[45] In his book, Life in the Trinity,
he argues
that through our relationship with the Son we are brought into the same kind of relationship with the
Father (and Spirit) that the
Son has. He supports this argument by identifying a distinction between
the
Son's warm-fellowship with the Father, and his ontological union with the Father. He argues that the

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Greek Fathers, primarily Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria were clear that we never share ontological
union with God, but only this intimate fellowship.

Like Athanasius, but with much more precision, Cyril distinguishes two kinds of unity
between the Father and the Son. The first is a unity of substance, and the Father and the
Son do not share this kind of unity
with us in any way whatsoever. The second, though, is
a unity of love or fellowship that the father and the Son have enjoyed from all eternity
precisely because of their unity of substance.[46]

Christian universalist theology [ edit ]

Main articles: Christian Universalism and Universal reconciliation

There has been a modern revival of the concept of theosis (often called "manifest sonship" or
"Christedness") among Christians who hold to the doctrine of universal reconciliation or apocatastasis,
especially those with a background in the charismatic Latter Rain Movement or even the New Age and
New Thought movements. [47] The statement of faith of the Christian Universalist Association includes
theosis in one of its points.[48][49]

A minority of charismatic Christian universalists believe that the "return of Christ "
is a corporate body of
perfected human beings who are the "Manifested Sons of God" instead of a literal return of the person of
Jesus, and that these Sons will reign on the earth and transform all other human beings from sin to
perfection during an age that is coming soon (a particularly "universalistic" approach to millennialism ).
Some liberal Christian universalists with New Age leanings share a similar eschatology .

Western views on hesychasm [ edit ]

The practice of ascetic prayer called hesychasm in the Eastern Orthodox Church is centered on the
enlightenment or deification, theosis of man.[50]

While Constantinople experienced a succession of councils alternately

approving and condemning
doctrine concerning hesychasm, the Western Church held no council in which to make a pronouncement
on the issue, and the word "hesychasm" does not appear in the Enchiridion Symbolorum et
Definitionum (Handbook of Creeds and Definitions), the collection of Roman Catholic teachings
originally compiled by Heinrich Joseph Dominicus Denzinger.

Despite the fact that the hesychast doctrine of Gregory Palamas has never been officially condemned by
the Catholic Church, Western theologians tended to reject it, often equating it with quietism .
This
identification may have been motivated in part by the fact that "quietism" is the literal translation of
"hesychasm". However, according
to Kallistos Ware, "To translate 'hesychasm' as 'quietism', while
perhaps etymologically defensible, is historically and theologically misleading." Ware asserts that "the
distinctive tenets of the seventeenth century Western Quietists are not characteristic of Greek
hesychasm."[51] Elsewhere too, Ware argues that it is important not to translate "hesychasm" as
"quietism".[52][53]

For long, Palamism won almost no following in the West,. [54] and the distrustful attitude of Barlaam in
its regard prevailed among Western theologians, surviving into the early 20th century, as shown in
Adrian Fortescue 's article on hesychasm in the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia .[54][55]
In the same period,
Simon Vailh described some aspects of the teaching of Palamas as "monstrous errors", "heresies" and
"a resurrection of polytheism", and called the hesychast method for arriving at perfect contemplation
"no more than a crude form of auto-suggestion "[56]

The 20th century saw a remarkable change in the attitude of Roman Catholic theologians to Palamas, a
"rehabilitation" of him that has led to increasing parts of the Western Church considering him a saint,
even if uncanonized.[57]
John Meyendorff describes the 20th-century rehabilitation of Palamas in
the

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Divinization (Christian) - Wikipedia

Western Church as a "remarkable event in the history of scholarship."[58]

Andreas Andreopoulos cites
the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia article by Fortescue as an example of how Barlaam's distrustful and
hostile attitude regarding hesychasm survived until recently in the West, adding
that now "the Western
world has started to rediscover what amounts to a
lost tradition. Hesychasm, which was never anything
close to a scholar's pursuit, is now studied by Western theologians who are astounded by the profound
thought and spirituality of late Byzantium."[59]

Some Western scholars maintain that there is no conflict between Palamas's teaching and Roman
Catholic thought,[60] and some have incorporated the essence-energies distinction into their own
thinking.[61]
For example, G. Philips asserts that the essence-energies distinction as presented by
Palamas is "a typical example of a perfectly admissible theological pluralism" that is compatible with the
Roman Catholic magisterium.[62]

Jeffrey D. Finch claims that "the future of East-West rapprochement appears to be overcoming the
modern polemics of neo-scholasticism and neo-Palamism".[63]

Pope John Paul II

repeatedly emphasized his respect for Eastern theology as an enrichment
for the whole
Church, declaring that, even after the painful division between the Christian East and the See of Rome,
that theology has opened
up profound thought-provoking perspectives of interest to the entire Church.
He spoke in particular of the hesychast controversy .
The term "hesychasm", he said, refers to a practice
of prayer marked by
deep tranquillity of the spirit intent on contemplating God unceasingly
by invoking
the name of Jesus. While from a Catholic viewpoint there have been tensions concerning some
developments of the practice, the Pope said, there is no denying the goodness of the intention that
inspired its defence, which was to stress that man is offered the concrete possibility of uniting himself in
his inner heart with God in that profound union of grace known as theosis, divinization. [64][65]

Among the treasures of "the venerable and ancient tradition of the Eastern Churches" with which he said
Catholics should be familiar, so as
to be nourished by it, he mentioned in particular "the teaching of the
Cappadocian Fathers on divinization (which) passed into the tradition of
all the Eastern Churches and is
part of their common heritage. This can
be summarized in the thought already expressed by Saint
Irenaeus at the
end of the second century: God passed into man so that man might pass over to God. This
theology of divinization remains one of the achievements particularly dear to Eastern Christian
thought."[Primary 26]

Mormonism [ edit ]

Main articles: Exaltation (Mormonism) and Degrees of glory

Mormonism includes a belief in the doctrine of exaltation ,

by which is meant a literal divinization.
According to Mormon scholars,
there are similarities between the Mormon belief of eternal progression
and the beliefs found in the patristic writings of the first, second, and third centuries A.D.[22]

According to Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith ,

through obedience to Christ and the gradual
acquisition of knowledge, the faithful may eventually become heirs of God in the afterlife and "inherit all
things" as Christ himself "inherited all things." Mormons believe they will continue to worship and be
subject to God the Father in the name of Christ in the afterlife.

Mormons do not characterize the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in terms
of an immaterial, formless
substance or essence that sets godhood apart
as a separate genus from humanity. They believe this
classification of divinity was originated by post-apostolic theologians, whose speculations on God were
influenced by Greek metaphysical philosophers[66] such as the Neoplatonists , who described their
notions of deity in similar terms of a divine substance/essence (ousia )i.e.,
terms which were unknown
to the pre-Nicean Christian world. Mormons believe that through modern day revelation, God restored
the doctrine that all humans are spiritually begotten (Hebrews 12:9, Acts 17:2829) sons and daughters
[67]

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Divinization (Christian) - Wikipedia

of Heavenly Father,
and thus are all part of the same heavenly family. Because humans are literally
God's children, they can also be heirs of his glory, and joint
heirs with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:16
17).[68] Mormons believe that the "glory of God is intelligence, in other words, light and truth" (D&C
93:36 ),
therefore the process of inheriting his glory is a process of learning.
As a crucial step in this
process, all of God's spirit children had the
choice to come to earth in order to receive a body and
continue their development. Mormons believe that the fallen state of humanity (mortality) was not the
result of an unplanned cancellation of God's plan for an eternal earthly paradise, rather it was a crucial
step that provides the opportunity to learn and grow in the face of opposition (2 Nephi 2:11, 25 ).
Thus,
the purpose of earth life is to gain knowledge and experiencewhich includes overcoming trials and
mistakes through the atonement of Jesus Christ, and using the lessons learned to become stronger and
wiser, more like their Heavenly Father (D&C 98:3 ).
Those who endure to the end (Matthew 24:13,
Mark 13:13) while in mortality, as well as those who accept the gospel after death (see baptism for the
dead),
will be able to dwell in the presence of God, where they can continue to grow in light and truth,
which "light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day" (D&C 50:24 ). Mormons believe that
the Father and the Son both possess glorified, immortal bodies (D&C 130:22 ), and that thanks to
Christ's resurrection, humans will also resurrect and inherit this same type of body (Philippians 3:21).

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'

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11. ^ "
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(Migne, Patrologia Graeca, 25, 192 B De
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