Theosis (Eastern Orthodox theology)

Further information: Divinization (Christian)

demic pursuit. Instead it is based on revelation (see
See also: Glorication
gnosiology), meaning that Orthodox theology and its theIn Eastern Orthodoxy deication (theosis) is a transfor- ologians are validated by ascetic pursuits rather than academic degrees (i.e. scholasticism).[5]

1 Divinization
St. Athanasius of Alexandria wrote, He was incarnate
that we might be made god ( ,
).[6] His statement is an apt description of the doctrine. What would otherwise seem
absurdthat fallen, sinful man may become holy as God
is holyhas 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 being 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 specically creatures, i.e. created beings, cannot
become God in His transcendent essence, or ousia, hyperbeing (see apophaticism). Such a concept would be the
henosis, or absorption and fusion into God of Greek pagan philosophy. However, every being and reality itself
is considered as composed of the immanent energy, or
Energeia, of God. As energy is the actuality of God, i.e.
His immanence, from Gods being, it is also the Energeia
or activity of God. Thus the doctrine avoids pantheism
while partially accepting Neoplatonism's terms and general concepts, but not its substance (see Plotinus).[7]

Icon of The Ladder of Divine Ascent (the steps toward theosis as

described by St. John Climacus) showing monks ascending (and
falling from) the ladder to Jesus. Saint Catherines Monastery.

mative process whose goal is likeness to or union with

God. As a process of transformation, theosis is brought
about by the eects of katharsis (purication of mind and
body) and theoria. According to Eastern Orthodox teaching, theosis is very much the purpose of human life. It
is considered achievable only through a synergy (or cooperation) between human activity and Gods uncreated St. Maximus the Confessor wrote: A sure warrant for
looking forward with hope to deication of human nature
energies (or operations).[1][2]
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 changing it into the Divine Nature, and will raise it up for
of the West.[3] 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 for mans sake. This is what St[.] Paul teaches mystically
theologian.[4]
when he says, '[]that in the ages to come he might display
Theology in Eastern Orthodoxy is not treated as an aca- the overowing richness of His grace' (Eph. 2:7)"[8]
1

6 ASCETIC PRACTICE

Theoria

Main article: Theoria

Through theoria, the contemplation of the Triune God,
human beings come to know and experience what it
means to be fully human, i.e., the created image of God;
through their communion with Jesus Christ, God shares
Himself with the human race, in order to conform them
to all that He is in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness. As God became human, in all ways except sin, He
will also make humans God, i.e., holy or saintly, in
all ways except His Divine Essence, which is uncaused
and uncreated. St. Irenaeus explained this doctrine in the
work Against Heresies, Book 5, Preface: the 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.

4 Stages
Theosis has three stages: rst, the purgative way, purication, or katharsis; second, illumination, the illuminative
way, the vision of God, or theoria; and third, sainthood,
the unitive way, or theosis. Thus the term "theosis" describes the whole process and its objective. By means of
purication a person comes to theoria and then to theosis. Theosis is the participation of the person in the life of
God. According to this doctrine, the holy life of God,
given in Jesus Christ to the believer through the Holy
Spirit, is expressed through the three stages of theosis,
beginning in the struggles of this life, increasing in the
experience of knowledge of God, and consummated in
the resurrection of the believer, when the victory of God
over fear, sin, and death, accomplished in the Crucixion
and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, is made manifest in the
believer forever.[11]

As a Patristic and historical 5 Like minded as a form of unity

teaching
Yet through faith we can attain phronema, an understand-

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 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.[9]
All of humanity is fully restored to the full potential of
humanity because the Son of God took to himself a human nature to be born of a woman, and takes to himself
also the suerings due to sin (yet is not himself sinful, and
is God unchanged in being). In Christ the two natures of
God and human are not two persons but one; thus a union
is eected in Christ between all of humanity in principle
and God. So the holy God and sinful humanity are reconciled in principle in the one sinless man, Jesus Christ.
(See Jesus prayer as recorded in John 17.)[10]

ing of the faith of the Church. A common analogy for

theosis, given by the Greek fathers, is that of a metal
which is put into the re. The metal obtains all the properties of the re (heat, light), while its essence remains that
of a metal.[12] Using the head-body analogy from St Paul,
every man in whom Christ lives partakes of the glory of
Christ. As St John Chrysostom observes, where the head
is, the body is also; for by no means is the head separated from the body; for if it were indeed separated, there
would not be a body and there would not be a head.[13]

6 Ascetic practice
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, continuous Prayer
of the Heart.[14]

This reconciliation is made actual through the struggle to

conform to the image of Christ. Without the struggle, the
praxis, there is no real faith; faith leads to action, without
which it is dead. One must unite will, thought, and action to Gods will, his thoughts, and his actions. A person
must fashion his life to be a mirror, a true likeness of
God. More than that, since God and humanity are more
than a similarity in Christ but rather a true union, Christians lives are more than mere imitation and are rather a
union with the life of God himself: so that the one who is
working out salvation is united with God working within
the penitent both to will and to do that which pleases God. The doer in deication is the Holy Spirit, with whom

3
the human being joins his will to receive this transforming grace by praxis and prayer, and as Gregory Palamas
teaches, the Christian mystics are deied as they become
lled 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).[15]
This synergeia 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 deication 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.[16]

Western attitudes

Further information: Divinization (Christian)

Western attitudes towards theosis have traditionally been
negative. In his article, Bloor highlights various Western theologians who have contributed to what he calls a
stigma towards theosis.[17] Yet, recent theological discourse has seen a reversal of this, with Bloor drawing
upon Western theologians from an array of traditions,
whom, he claims, embrace theosis/deication.[18]
Further information: Hesychasm
The practice of ascetic prayer called Hesychasm in the
Eastern Orthodox Church is centered on the enlightenment or deication, theosis of man.[19]
Hesychasm is directed to a goal that is not limited to natural life alone and goes beyond this to deication (theosis).[20][21]
In the past, Roman Catholic theologians generally expressed a negative view of Hesychasm. The doctrine
of Gregory Palamas won almost no following in the
West,[21] 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.[21][22] Fortescue translated the Greek words
and as quiet and quietist.[21]
In the same period, Edward Paces article on quietism indicated that, while in the strictest sense quietism is a 17thcentury doctrine proposed by Miguel de Molinos, the
term is also used more broadly to cover both Indian religions and what Edward Pace called the vagaries of Hesychasm, thus betraying the same prejudices as Fortescue
with regard to hesychasm [23] and, again in the same period, Simon Vailh described some aspects of the teaching of Palamas as monstrous errors, heresies and a
resurrection of polytheism,[24] and called the hesychast

method for arriving at perfect contemplation no more

than a crude form of auto-suggestion"[24]
Dierent concepts of natural contemplation existed in
the East and in the medieval West.[25]
The twentieth 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.[26] Some Western scholars maintain that
there is no conict between Palamass teaching and Roman Catholic thought.[27] According to G. Philips, the
essence-energies distinction is a typical example of a
perfectly admissible theological pluralism that is compatible with the Roman Catholic magisterium.[28] Jerey
D. Finch claims that the future of East-West rapprochement appears to be overcoming the modern polemics of
neo-scholasticism and neo-Palamism.[29] Some Western
theologians have incorporated the theology of Palamas
into their own thinking.[30]
Pope John Paul II said Catholics should be familiar
with the venerable and ancient tradition of the Eastern Churches, so as to be nourished by it. Among
the treasures of that tradition 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.[31]

8 See also
Apotheosis
Beatic vision
Christian Perfection
Christian Universalism
Consecration
Divine liation
Entire Sanctication
Exaltation (Mormonism)
Hermit
Holiness movement
John of the Cross
Vladimir Lossky
Poustinia

9
Sanctication
Soteriology
Unio Mystica

References

9.1

Notes

9.2

Citations

[1] George 2006.

[2] Deication in Eastern Orthodox theology ISBN 978-085364-956-4
[3] The Dierence Between Orthodox Spirituality and Other
Traditions by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos
[4] Mystical Theology by Vladimir Lossky pg39
[5] The Dierence Between Orthodox Spirituality and Other
Traditions by Metropolitan Hierotheos Vlachos
[6] Saint Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word, 54.3.
Translation by John Behr (Saint Vladimirs Seminary
Press, 2011, ISBN 978-0-88141427-1), p. 167
[7] Vladimir Lossky, The Mystical Theology of the Eastern
Church (St Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1997, ISBN 978-091383631-6), pp. 2933
[8] PHILOKALIA, Volume 2, page 178).
[9] Theology and Mysticism in the Tradition of the Eastern Church from The Mystical Theology of the Eastern
Church by V Lossky
[10]
[11] Theology and Mysticism in the Tradition of the Eastern
Church, in The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church,
pages 89, 39, 126, 133, 154, 196.
[12]
[13]
[14]

REFERENCES

[19] Hesychasm, then, which is centered on the enlightenment

or deication (, or theosis, in Greek) of man, perfectly encapsulates the soteriological principles and full
scope of the spiritual life of the Eastern Church. As
Bishop Auxentios of Photiki writes: "[W]e must understand the Hesychastic notions of theosis and the vision of
Uncreated Light, the vision of God, in the context of human salvation. Thus, according to St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite (1809): 'Know that if your mind is not deied by
the Holy Spirit, it is impossible for you to be saved.'" Before looking in detail at what it was that St. Gregory Palamas opponents found objectionable in his Hesychastic
theology and practices, let us briey examine the history
of the Hesychastic Controversy proper. ... Archbishop
Chrysostomos, Orthodox and Roman Catholic Relations
from the Fourth Crusade to the Hesychastic Controversy
(Etna, CA: Center for Traditionalist Orthodox Studies,
2001), pp. 199232 .
[20] Coming back to theological and anthropological problems, we can see at once that Hesychasm is indeed such
a eld, in which theology and anthropology meet and almost merge together. It is spiritual or mystico-ascetic
practice, and, as I explain in my other Hongkong lecture,
spiritual practice is such anthropological strategy that is
oriented to a goal, which does not belong to the horizon
of mans empiric existence. This goal is, in other words,
meta-anthropological, and so it obtains its characteristics
not from usual experience of empiric being, but from basic postulates of the religious tradition, to which the corresponding practice belongs. In the case of Hesychasm,
the goal is dened by the Orthodox doctrine as deication (theosis, in Greek), which is conceived as the perfect union of all mans energies with the Divine Energy
(Gods grace). This concept has a specic dual nature:
it belongs to dogmatic theology, but at the same time it
represents the goal, to which ascetic works are oriented
and which they approach actually, according to all the
rich corpus of ascetic texts with the rst-hand descriptions
of hesychast experience. Thus it is both theological and
anthropological concept. CHRISTIAN ANTHROPOLOGY AND EASTERN-ORTHODOX (HESYCHAST)
ASCETICISM Prof. Dr. Sergey S. Horujy
[21] Hesychasm article on the Catholic Encyclopedia online
[22] Andreopoulos, Metamorphosis: The Transguration in
Byzantine Theology and Iconography (St Vladimirs Seminary Press 2005, ISBN 0-88141-295-3), p. 215

[15] The undreamed has happened: God lives within us

ISBN 978-1-58966-017-5

[23] Edward Pace, Quietism in The Catholic Encyclopedia

Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911.
Retrieved 10 September 2010

[16] Theosis-The deication of man. According to the Orthodox Tradition, mans purpose in life is to achieve union
with God, and to become god by grace. Acquisition of
the Holy Spirit; self-realization.

[24] The Greek Church in The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 12.

New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. Retrieved
10 September 2010

[17] Bloor, J. D. A. (21 April 2015). New Directions

in Western Soteriology. Theology 118 (3): 179187.
doi:10.1177/0040571X14564932.
[18] Bloor, J. D. A. (21 April 2015). New Directions
in Western Soteriology. Theology 118 (3): 179187.
doi:10.1177/0040571X14564932.

[25] The debate between Barlaam and the hesychasts can

probably be best understood in the light of their dierent interpretations of what St. Maximus the Confessor
used to call 'natural contemplation' (physik theria) or
the new state of creative being in Christ. Barlaam and
also medieval Latin tradition tends to understand this
created habitus as a condition for and not a consequence

of grace. Palamas, on the contrary, proclaims the overwhelming novelty of the Kingdom of God revealed in
Christ, and the gratuitous nature of the divine and saving
acts of God. Hence, for him, vision of God cannot depend
on human 'knowledge'. The Triads by Saint Gregory
Palamas, edited by John Meyendor, pp. 1213. Publisher: Paulist Press (Series Classics of Western Spirituality) ISBN 0-8091-2447-5 ISBN 978-0809124473
[26] John Meyendor (editor),Gregory Palamas The Triads,
p. xi
[27] Several Western scholars contend that the teaching of
St. Gregory Palamas himself is compatible with Roman
Catholic thought on the matter (Michael J. Christensen,
Jeery A. Wittung (editors), Partakers of the Divine Nature (Associated University Presses 2007 ISBN 0-83864111-3), p. 243).
[28] Michael J. Christensen, Jeery A. Wittung (editors), Partakers of the Divine Nature (Associated University Presses
2007 ISBN 0-8386-4111-3), p. 243
[29] Michael J. Christensen, Jeery A. Wittung (editors), Partakers of the Divine Nature (Associated University Presses
2007 ISBN 0-8386-4111-3), p. 244
[30] Kallistos Ware in Oxford Companion to Christian Thought
(Oxford University Press 2000 ISBN 0-19-860024-0), p.
186
[31] Pope John Paul II, Orientale Lumen

10

Bibliography

Anstall, Kharalambos (2007). Juridical Justication Theology and a Statement of the Orthodox
Teaching, Stricken by God? Nonviolent Identication and the Victory of Christ. Grand Rapids, MI:
Eerdmans.
George, Archimandrite (2006). Theosis: The True
Purpose of Human Life (PDF) (4th ed.). Mount
Athos, Greece: Holy Monastery of St. Gregorios.
ISBN 960-7553-26-8. Retrieved 8 May 2014.
Lossky, Vladimir (1997). The Mystical Theology of
the Eastern Church. St. Vladimirs Seminary Press.
ISBN 978-0-913836-31-6.
Gross, Jules (2003). The Divinization of the Christian According to the Greek Fathers. A & C Press.
ISBN 978-0-7363-1600-2.

11

Further reading

Bloor, J. D. A. (2015), New Directions in Western Soteriology, Theology 118 (3): 179187,
doi:10.1177/0040571X14564932

Mantzardis, Georgios. The Deication of Man. St

Vladimirs Seminary Press, 1997.
Nellas, Panayiotis. Deication in Christ: The Nature
of the Human Person. St Vladimirs Seminary Press,
1987.
Finlan, Stephen ed. and Vladimir Kharlamov ed.
Theosis: Deication in Christian Theology, Volume
1. Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2006.
Kharlamov, Vladimir. Theosis: Deication in Christian Theology, Volume 2. Wipf & Stock Publishers,
2006.
Christensen, Michael J. ed. and Jeery A. Wittung
ed. Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and
Development of Deication in the Christian Tradition. Baker Academic, 2008.
Russell, Norman. The Doctrine of Deication in the
Greek Patristic Tradition. USA: Oxford University
Press, 2006.
Keating, Daniel. Deication and Grace. Sapientia
Press 2007.
Pelikan, Jaraslov. The Christian Tradition: A
History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 2:
The Spirit of Eastern Christendom. University Of
Chicago Press, 1977.
Braaten, Carl E. ed. and Robert W. Jenson ed.
Union with Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation
of Luther. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998.
Karkkainen, Veli-Matti. One with God: Salvation as
Deication and Justication. Liturgical Press, 2005.
Meconi, David Vincent. The One Christ: St. Augustines Theology of Deication. The Catholic University of America Press, 2013.

12 External links
Theosis_in_the_Christian_West Orthodoxwiki article
Deication online issue of Armation & Critique
devoted entirely to the topic of theosis (Armation
& Critique, Vol. 7 no. 2, October 2002)
"...that we might be made God by Kerry S. Robichaux (Armation & Critique, Vol. 1 no. 3, July
1996)
Deication in Contemporary Theology by Roger Olson (Theology Today, July 2007 Vol. 64 no. 2)
Luther and Theosis by Kurt E. Marquart (Concordia
Theological Quarterly, July 2000)

12
Justication as Declaration and Deication by Bruce
D. Marshall (International Journal of Systematic
Theology 4, no. 1)
Shine As the Sun: C.S. Lewis and the Doctrine of
Deication by Chris Jensen
Partakers of God by Panayiotis Christou
Partakers of the Divine Nature by Norman Russell
Keeping the End in View by James R. Payton Jr.
Partakers of Divinity: The Orthodox Doctrine of
Theosis by Daniel B. Clendenin (Journal of the
Evangelical Theological Society, September 1994)
The Greatest Possible Blessing: Calvin and Deication by Carl Mosser (Scottish Journal of Theology)
Some themes in Christian Mysticism by John Zuck

EXTERNAL LINKS

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