The Problem, Promise and Process of Theosis, pp. 23-31

Michael J. Christensen

Promise Premise

• Engaging, inspiring, powerful idea• What does becoming god really mean?• Origin and Development of the concept• Interpretation of 2 Peter 1:4• Irenaeus and Athanasius

Process Premise

• Soteriology• What is the process of human deification in

patristic soteriology?

Problem Premise

• The contemporary philosophical and theological problems, if any, with human beings becoming divine

The Promise of Theosis

• Is there a Divine promiseof divinization implicit in Scriptures?

• Fathers associate thosis with Divine intention:• Gen 1:26-7; Gen 3:5; Ps. 82:6;• Jn 10: 34-35; Mt 5:48;• 2Cor 3:18; 2Pt 1:4; 1Jn 3:1-2

Promise,contd

• According to Pelikan promise of salvation seen as theosis based on two passages:

• Ps. 82:6 “You are gods”, quoted in Jn 10:34-35• 2 Pt 1:4 “exceedongly great promise” that

believers would become “partakers of the divine nature and thus escape the corruption of the world and its passions”

Promise, Contd• Pelikan posits two promises:• 1) righteous men and angels would become

divine• 2)Being united with Christ is the means• SIMILARITY to Christ: a deifying force• Greek Paganism: rise from active to

contemplative• Greek Chrty: 3rd step (be made divine)

Promise, contd

• Gregory of Nyssa, De hominis opificio: humans created neither male nor female. Rather, a dual nature “God created them male and female.” Likeness lost in differentiation into genders, but restored in Christ, in whom neither male nor female.

Promise, contd• Origen, De Principiis, Image at first creation,

likeness at consummation• Irenaeus, Adversus Haereses, created in

innocence, humans have capacity to grow into maturity in God

• “You will be like God” in Gen 3:5 spoken by serpent is God’s promise, but actualized through obedience not disobedience

• Augustine ,De Natura et Gratia: Pride as originating sin that thwarts or delays theosis

Promise, contd

• Ps 82 ”You are Gods” is a call to act like God, to be just

• Jn 10: 34-5 Jesus responds to accusation that he made himself to be God and quotes Ps 82

• Mt. 5:48 similar: Be ye perfect as FatherPerfection often = deification

(but be careful not to ellide all terms)

Promise, contd

• 2 Pt 1:4 SOMETIMES interpreted as promising theosis, by participation

• 1 Jn 3:2 we shall be like him

• 2Cor 3:18 we will be changed into his likeness, from glory to glory

The Process of Theosis

• Plato: Thaetetus, highest human aim is eudaimonia (to be blessed with a good internal divinity)

• Likeness to God so far as possible

• Neoplatonic Christian tradition would debate how far is possible

Process, contd

• Clement of Alexandria, Paedagogus: Baptized, illuminated, made sons, made perfect, made immortal, then quotes Ps 82:6 You are godsOrigen, Contra Celsum: theosis possible because of enanthropesis Divine and human woven together in Christ. Prolonged fellowship with divinity makes human nature divinizable.

Process, contd

• Origen, Exhortatio ad marytrium: • Education of souls, transformation of nature,

unification with God.

• God is all in all Apokatastasis ton panton

• Image of ascent, taking flight

Process, contd

• Ephrem the Syrian, Hymns on FaithGreat chasm between divinity and humanity, but God comes down, so we may ascendI mage of three-staged growth of birds from egg to nest to flight, until they spread their wings in the form of a cross, so also humansEphrem also uses images: luminous eye, polished mirror, medicine of life, garments of light & glory, Tree of Paradise

Process, contd• Gregory the Theologian: God polishing the mirror of the Image in us(only partial, until we know as we are known)

Gregory of Nyssa De Vita Moysis: No limits to the degree of perfection, knowledge of God or likeness that can be progressively achieved: gradual tansfromation from glory to glory. Never satiated.

Process, contd

• Cyril of Alexandria, Commentarium in Johannem:

• Deification as supreme goal of created beings• Participation and interpenetration• Eucharist, Holy Spirit• Images of 2 pieces of wax melted together, of

iron in the fire

Process, contd

• Maximus the Confessor: • Theosis as perichoresis - INTERPENETRATION• First communion in Christ, then mystical

union• Human by nature, we become divine by grace,

progressively in this life, fully in eternal life

Process, contd

• In Sophiological or Sophianic tradition Solovyev, Bulgakov, Florensky, Sheptytsky:

• Divine-humanity (Bohochelovichestvo)God’s consciousnerss of self through humanity and humanity’s consciousness of self through DivinitySimultaneous kenosis and theosis

Process, contd

• While images and terminology used may differ among Eastern and Western Christian traditions, agreement on the fact that human beings are called in some way to become god.

The Problem of Theosis

• Quotes the Orthodox Study Bible and its caution against what deification is not

• What is the problem with theosis that it requirtes such a cautionary commentary?

• Psychology, Philosphy, Theology

Problem, contd

• Psychology has moved from ancient notions of essential soul (psyche) that is able to transcend human nature

• Now psychoanalysis of the relational or constructed self in the process of becoming an integrated whole

Process, contd

• Philosophy:Theosis seen as problem of the One and the ManyIn post-structuralist philosophy no essential self or foundational reality, either as unity or pluralityPost-structuralismAny of various theories or methods of analysis, including deconstruction and some psychoanalytic theories, that deny the validity of structuralism's method of binary opposition and maintain that meanings and intellectual categories are shifting and unstable. –The Free Dictionary

Problem, contd

• TheologyDeification as ontological is objectionable in most Western Christian trdaitionsThis is not only an issue of us not becoming deified and thus negating the otherness of God.It is also an issue of union with God possibly meaning a destruction of our human selves.

Problem, contd

• “enlightened” theologians try to dilute or domesticate:

• Retranslation as sanctification, imputed or imparted righteousness, glorification, Christification, etc.

• Omission or objection to the term and the concept

• Historicization (forgive those carzy ancients)

Problem, contd

• This volume: • Both historical and contemporary contexts• Within various Christian traditions