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Eastern Orthodox Theology) Theosis (Eastern Orthodox theology) Further information: Divinization (Christian) demic pursuit. Instead it is based on revelation (see See also: Glorification gnosiology), meaning that Orthodox theology and its the- In Eastern Orthodoxy deification (theosis) is a transfor- ologians are validated by ascetic pursuits rather than aca- demic degrees (i.e. scholasticism).[5] 1 Divinization St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote, “He was incarnate that we might be made god” (Αὐτὸς γὰρ ἐνηνθρώπησεν, ἵνα ἡμεῖς θεοποιηθῶμεν).[6] His statement is an apt de- scription of the doctrine. 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: as it is not possible for any created be- ing to become God ontologically, or even a necessary part of God (of the three existences of God called hypostases), so a created being cannot become Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit nor the Father of the Trinity.[7] Most specifically creatures, i.e. created beings, cannot become God in His transcendent essence, or ousia, hyper- Icon of The Ladder of Divine Ascent (the steps toward theosis as being (see apophaticism). Such a concept would be the described by St. John Climacus) showing monks ascending (and henosis, or absorption and fusion into God of Greek pa- falling from) the ladder to Jesus. Saint Catherine’s Monastery. gan philosophy. However, every being and reality itself is considered as composed of the immanent energy, or mative process whose goal is likeness to or union with Energeia, of God. As energy is the actuality of God, i.e. God. As a process of transformation, theosis is brought His immanence, from God’s being, it is also the Energeia about by the effects of katharsis (purification of mind and or activity of God. Thus the doctrine avoids pantheism body) and theoria. According to Eastern Orthodox teach- while partially accepting Neoplatonism's terms and gen- ing, theosis is very much the purpose of human life. It eral concepts, but not its substance (see Plotinus).[7] is considered achievable only through a synergy (or co- operation) between human activity and God’s uncreated St. Maximus the Confessor wrote: “A sure warrant for energies (or operations).[1][2] looking forward with hope to deification of human nature is provided by the Incarnation of God, which makes man According to Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos, the pri- God to the same degree as God Himself became man ... macy of theosis in Orthodox theology is directly related Let us become the image of the one whole God, bearing to the fact that Orthodox theology (as historically con- nothing earthly in ourselves, so that we may consort with ceived by its principal exponents) is based to a greater God and become gods, receiving from God our existence extent than Western Catholic Latin theology on the di- as gods. For it is clear that He Who became man without rect spiritual insights of the saints or mystics of the church sin (cf. Heb. 4:15) will divinize human nature without rather than the apparently more rational thought tradition [3] changing it into the Divine Nature, and will raise it up for of the West. Eastern Orthodox consider that “no one His Own sake to the same degree as He lowered Himself who does not follow the path of union with God can be a [4] for man’s sake. This is what St[.] Paul teaches mystically theologian”. when he says, '[]that in the ages to come he might display Theology in Eastern Orthodoxy is not treated as an aca- the overflowing richness of His grace' (Eph. 2:7)"[8] 1 2 6 ASCETIC PRACTICE 2 Theoria 4 Stages Main article: Theoria Theosis has three stages: first, the purgative way, purifi- cation, or katharsis; second, illumination, the illuminative Through theoria, the contemplation of the Triune God, way, the vision of God, or theoria; and third, sainthood, human beings come to know and experience what it the unitive way, or theosis. Thus the term "theosis" de- means to be fully human, i.e., the created image of God; scribes the whole process and its objective. By means of through their communion with Jesus Christ, God shares purification a person comes to theoria and then to theo- Himself with the human race, in order to conform them sis. Theosis is the participation of the person in the life of to all that He is in knowledge, righteousness, and holi- God. According to this doctrine, the holy life of God, ness. As God became human, in all ways except sin, He given in Jesus Christ to the believer through the Holy will also make humans “God”, i.e., “holy” or “saintly”, in Spirit, is expressed through the three stages of theosis, all ways except His Divine Essence, which is uncaused beginning in the struggles of this life, increasing in the and uncreated. St. Irenaeus explained this doctrine in the experience of knowledge of God, and consummated in work Against Heresies, Book 5, Preface: “the Word of the resurrection of the believer, when the victory of God God, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who did, through His tran- over fear, sin, and death, accomplished in the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, is made manifest in the scendent love, become what we are, that He might bring [11] us to be even what He is Himself.” believer forever. 3 As a Patristic and historical 5 “Like minded” as a form of unity teaching Yet through faith we can attain phronema, an understand- ing of the faith of the Church. A common analogy for For many Church Fathers, theosis goes beyond simply theosis, given by the Greek fathers, is that of a metal restoring people to their state before the Fall of Adam which is put into the fire. The metal obtains all the proper- and Eve, teaching that because Christ united the human ties of the fire (heat, light), while its essence remains that and divine natures in Jesus’ person, it is now possible for of a metal.[12] Using the head-body analogy from St Paul, someone to experience closer fellowship with God than every man in whom Christ lives partakes of the glory of Adam and Eve initially experienced in the Garden of Christ. As St John Chrysostom observes, “where the head Eden, and that people can become more like God than is, the body is also; for by no means is the head sepa- Adam and Eve were at that time. Some Orthodox the- rated from the body; for if it were indeed separated, there ologians go so far as to say that Jesus would have become would not be a body and there would not be a head”.[13] incarnate for this reason alone, even if Adam and Eve had never sinned.[9] All of humanity is fully restored to the full potential of 6 Ascetic practice humanity because the Son of God took to himself a hu- man nature to be born of a woman, and takes to himself See also: Desert Fathers, Maximus the Confessor and also the sufferings due to sin (yet is not himself sinful, and is God unchanged in being). In Christ the two natures of Monasticism God and human are not two persons but one; thus a union is effected in Christ between all of humanity in principle The journey toward theosis includes many forms of and God. So the holy God and sinful humanity are rec- praxis. The most obvious form being monasticism onciled in principle in the one sinless man, Jesus Christ. and clergy. Of the monastic tradition the practice of (See Jesus’ prayer as recorded in John 17.)[10] hesychasm is most important as a way to establish a di- This reconciliation is made actual through the struggle to rect relationship with God. Living in the community of conform to the image of Christ. Without the struggle, the the church and partaking regularly of the sacraments, and praxis, there is no real faith; faith leads to action, without especially the Eucharist, is taken for granted. Also impor- which it is dead. One must unite will, thought, and ac- tant is cultivating "prayer of the heart", and prayer that tion to God’s will, his thoughts, and his actions. A person never ceases, as Paul exhorts the Thessalonians (1 and 2). must fashion his life to be a mirror, a true likeness of This unceasing prayer of the heart is a dominant theme in God. More than that, since God and humanity are more the writings of the Fathers, especially in those collected in than a similarity in Christ but rather a true union, Chris- the Philokalia. It is considered that no one can reach theo- tians’ lives are more than mere imitation and are rather a sis without an impeccable Christian living, crowned by faithful, warm, and, ultimately, silent, continuous Prayer union with the life of God himself: so that the one who is [14] working out salvation is united with God working within of the Heart. the penitent both to will and to do that which pleases God. The “doer” in deification is the Holy Spirit, with whom 3 the human being joins his will to receive this transform- method for arriving at perfect contemplation “no more ing grace by praxis and prayer, and as Gregory Palamas than a crude form of auto-suggestion"[24] teaches, the Christian mystics are deified as they become Different concepts of “natural contemplation” existed in filled with the Light of Tabor of the Holy Spirit in the de- the East and in the medieval West.[25] gree that they make themselves open to it by asceticism (divinization being not a one-sided act of God, but a lov- The twentieth century saw a remarkable change in the ing cooperation between God and the advanced Chris- attitude of Roman Catholic theologians to Palamas, a tian, which Palamas considers a synergy).[15] “rehabilitation” of him that has led to increasing parts of the Western Church considering him a saint, even This synergeia or co-operation between God and Man if uncanonized.[26] Some Western scholars maintain that does not lead to mankind being absorbed into the God there is no conflict between Palamas’s teaching and Ro- as was taught in earlier pagan forms of deification like man Catholic thought.[27] According to G.
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