On the surface the terms seem to be identical translations: theosis (θέωσις, Greek), deification (Latin). However, as Norman Russel’s book carefully shows, theosis was only first used in 363 with Gregory of Nazianzus. However, the cognate term theopoieo (θεοποιἐω) was used as early as Clement of Alexandria (c.150-c.215) and Hippolytus of Rome (d.235). Theosis was not used regularly until byzantine times, with Ps. Dionysius and Maximus the Confessor laying the foundation for its popularity.
On the other hand, deification was not as popular in the Latin church (Russell only mentions Tertullian, Hilary of Poitiers, and Augustine), so there was not a comparable evolution of terminology surrounding the theology as with the Greek writers. Divinization is also a Latin term that carries a similar significance but has not been used as often. As to the distinction between divinization and deification, it seems there is a former debate over divinization (theosis) by Energy [good] vs. deification (apotheosis) by Essence [bad]. However, many use deification (e.g., Andrew Louth) and understand it as deification by energy.
Conclusion: 1) As we speak about the development of the doctrine it best to use ‘deification’ as a more generic term. Specifically, it does not employ an anachronistic, byzantine term–theosis–for the early development of the doctrine in the Greek fathers. This is exactly how Russell treats the terminology in his analysis of the Greek tradition. 2) However, if we are speaking of the concept from a systematic theological point of view, it seems to me that theosis or deification would be virtually equivalent (like, for example, kavod [Heb.] and doxa [Gk.]).
I recently had a very helpful email exchange with Carl Mosser, who also promoted conclusion #1 but not #2. He made a distinction between ‘deification’ as the proper Christian view of salvation and ‘theosis’ which is a later (inappropriate) mystical turn influenced by philosophical thought (e.g., Ps. Dionysius and Maximus). I would lean more towards a thesis recently promoted by Donald Fairbairn in the recent version of JETS on “Patristic Soteriology: Three Trajectories?”, where the mystical has roots much earlier in Clement and Origen and so is not technically a ‘later’ turn. I, however, have many more primary sources to read to develop my own informed opinion.
Thursday, 23 August 2007 at 11:18 pm
What ever happened to Union with Christ, or Christ-likeness, who was, in fact, deity? I think i would prefer to use those concepts to speak about the divine ‘energy’ in humanity. For some reason-not sure why, maybe you could help- i associate all other terms with essence. What would be the historical reason for this?
Friday, 24 August 2007 at 7:22 am
The energy/essence distinction goes back to Gregory Palamas and is now basic theology for the East. He came up for a solution for how we can talk of participation in God even though he is utterly separate from his creation in his ‘essence’. The way we participate in him is through his uncreated ‘engeries’ that radiate from him.
This ideology is actually an interesting parallel to the way Paul and other early writers speak of God (Merkebah/Hekhalot)–God is invisible (Rom 1.20; 1 Tim 1.17) but dwells in light (1 Tim 6.15-16). It is this glory that we share in and that determines the ultimate goal for believers.
After thinking through some of the issues related to glory in Romans for my paper for BNTS, my conclusion is that Paul talks more of Christosis or ‘incorporated righteousness’ than theosis.
Sunday, 17 October 2010 at 7:35 pm
Ben, I am writing a PhD thesis, and would like to read your paper spoken of above. How can I find and copy?
Monday, 6 December 2010 at 10:23 pm
Hi Darryl,
Sorry that I’m just getting back to you. I’d see my article in JSNT March 2010 on glory, and you can also get my full thesis at http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/219/
Friday, 24 August 2007 at 4:29 pm
Interesting post. I was at ETS and went Carl Mosser’s paper and I have read both Russell’s text and Fairbairn’s article.
You asked me before what I thought of Fairburn’s article. (BTW I have read also his book on Cyril and grace) I think it was okay. I do not agree that Harnack accepted Western Christianity since it is my view, after reading his history of Dogma, that he felt that doctrines such as the Trinity and the incarnation were a major part of the hellenization of Christianity. He even rejected parts of the canon (John) for the same reason. For Harnack Christianty was essentially ethical and not metaphysical.
But I think the largest problem with Fairbairn’s article is that Athanasius, Cyril, nad other theologians who are in his personal trajectory also believed in a real and organic union of hte believer and Christ. Cyril argued for real presence of the Eucharist because in order for us to be deified we must really participate and even ingest (if I can say it that crudely) the flesh of Christ. The flesh of Christ is deified because of its contact with the Divinity of Christ and thus is life giving. And we partake of his body (and his blood) so that we can be deified. I am making this point because since Cyril believed in a real and organic union with Christ then Cyril also had to deal with how the believer acheives this union and yet does not lose his identity and is not assummed into the Godhead in a way that Fairbairn says Cyril does not believe in. Cyril did believe that we become God’s son in an ontological sense but not in the way that Christ is God’s son in an ontological sense. We by grace become God’s son in an ontological sense (and other senses) through The Father’s only Son by nature by the power of the H.S.. So it is not that we in no way are ontologically in union with Christ but that we are not in the way Christ is. At least that is the way I see Cyril.
What is intersting is if one looks at Russell’s text and his categories and then take these and put them on Fairburn’s then you have strange problem. Athanasius for Russell beleived in realistic deification but then Fairburn seems to me to argue the opposite. And Origen and the Cappadocians for Russell believed in ethical deification but Fairburn seems to be arguing the opposite again. I view Russell saying that realistic deification is a real and organic participation in Christ through the sacraments. While ethical deification is the “attainment of likeness to God trough ascetic and philosophical endeavour, believer’s reproducing some of the divine attributes in their own lives by imitation.” (Russell,Norman. The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek PAtrisitc Tradtion, p 2). So Fairburn in a sense is like Russell but in a very real way says the opposite of Russell. So which one is right? I think in the end neither.
Sorry if I hijacked this thread. I think what this thread is about is important also.
I humbly admit that I could be wrong and even that I could be wrong about Russell and Fairburn.
BH- CARL PETERSON
Friday, 1 April 2011 at 8:16 pm
i am writing my thesis on the transcendental properties of being and its role in the Trinitarian theology and mans as a participatory being in this divine economy, please i need your help.
Sunday, 18 November 2012 at 12:59 am
Interesting post and replies, I enjoyed them all. I’m a former atheist, and have no higher education in the details of theology, but having been possessed by an “energy” and having engaged in an exchange of “energies” with “God,” these discussions have piqued my curiosity.
Friday, 25 July 2014 at 1:09 am
Greetings from Hosur!
I have just published a book on DIVINIZATION which is very exhaustive and does an in-depth analysis of several complex topics like: Purgatory, Trinity, Transfiguration and Divinization. It is also an experiential depiction of Catholic Spirituality.
regards
Francis aka Pitcharan
Agape: The Divinizing Love
Tuesday, 23 July 2019 at 9:03 am
The e/e distinction was only clearly dogmatized by the time of Palams and Barlaamites and the three Palamite Councils. However, it is present in the theology of the Cappodocians, Cyril of Alexandria, Athanasius, et alia. Basil has a famous statement pertaining to knowing God by his energies/actions as opposed to His unknowable essence that is marked for its clarity. Also, the concept of deification is present in Irenaeus and Athanasius (Athanasius is rightly credited with the concept of Him becoming like us so that we may become like Him, but Irenaeus says precisely the same thing in his Contra Heresies). Clement of Alexandria, as you mentioned used the term, as did Origen and then Athanasius as the Alexandrian school first clearly delineated the terminology through those three, but the concept was far more spread out.
Tuesday, 23 July 2019 at 12:20 pm
Yeah, as you note below this is a pretty old post, and I would agree that the e/e distinction begins to take form much earlier, as in the fourth century.
Tuesday, 23 July 2019 at 9:18 am
One finds the term in clement multiple times: Clement understands this deification as a moral accomplishment: in his perfect state man becomes “god-seeing and godlike.” (Stromata) According to Clement’s teaching, we should “always be preoccupied with the heavenly life while here on earth, in which we will one day be deified.” (Pedagogue)Clement considers deification from an eschatological perspective: “Of those who in their proximity to God were pure in heart, await the ascent (into worthiness of adoption) through contemplation of the Invisible One. They will be named gods and co-servitors of those whom the Savior previously numbered among the divine.”(Exhortation to the Heathen).
The teaching on deification is fully supported in patristic theology by the time of the anti-Arian polemic of the fourth century. Contained in Athanasius is the classic formula expressing the deification of man: “[ The Word] became man that we may become God.” (On the Incarnation)In another place Athanasius says of Christ: “For he has become man, that he might deify us in himself.” (To Adelphus)For Athanasius, as for the other fathers of the age of the ecumenical councils, the only basis of the deification of man is the incarnation of the Word of God. Athanasius emphasizes the ontological difference between, on the one hand, our adoption by God and deification and, on the other hand, the sonship and divinity of Christ: in the final deification “We too become sons, not as he in nature and truth, but according to the grace of him that calleth.” (Against the Arians)The idea of deification is present in the works of the great Cappadocian Fathers. Gregory the Theologian put into Basil the Great’s mouth the following famous words: “[ I cannot], who am the creature of God, and bidden myself to be God, submit to worship any creature.” (Oration 43]According to Gregory’s witness, Basil spoke these words to the prefect of Caesarea in Cappadocia, who demanded that he submit to the emperor and accept the Arian teaching on the Trinity. The theme of deification occupies a central place in Gregory the Theologian, which has been preserved after him for the course of the whole history of Byzantine theology. Not one Christian theologian before Gregory used the term deification (theōsis/ θεώσις) so frequently and consistently as he did; terminologically and consistently, he went far beyond his predecessors in constant use of the term deification. Already in his first published exposition, the themes of the divine image, adoption by Christ, the adoption by God and deification of man in Christ, become foundational: Let us give back to the Image that which is according to the image, recognizing our value, honoring the Archetype, knowing the power of the mystery and for whom Christ died. Let us become like Christ, since Christ also became like us; let us become gods because of him, since he also because of us became human. He assumed what is worse that he might give what is better. He became poor that we through his poverty might become rich. He took the form of a slave, that we might regain freedom. He descended that we might be lifted up, he was tempted that we might be victorious, he was dishonored to glorify us, he died to save us. . . . Let us give everything, offer everything, to the one who gave himself as a ransom and an exchange for us. But one can give nothing comparable to oneself, understanding the mystery and becoming because of him everything that he became because of us. (Oration 1]Gregory says in another place that the goal of the incarnation was “to make man god and a partaker of the higher blessings.” [oration 2]Christ deified man by his sufferings, having combined the human image with the heavenly. (Autobiographical poems)The leaven of deification made human flesh “a new vintage,” and the nous, having taken this leaven into itself, “was combined with God, becoming deified through divinity.” (Letter 101] The formulae of Irenaeus and Athanasius arise in Gregory’s poetry and prose in various modifications: Being God, you became man, having combined yourself with mortality; you were God from before the ages, but afterwards became man in order to make me god after your becoming man. (Autobiographical Poems) (Christ] made me god through his human [nature]. (Moral Verse 13] [The Word] was God, but became man like us, so that having mingled himself with earthly things, he might unite us to God. (Dogmatic verses 11) Even at this moment [the Word] is, as man, making representation for my salvation, until he makes me divine by the power of his incarnate manhood. (Oration 30] Since man did not become god, God himself became man . . . in order to reconstruct by means of that which he assumed, to destroy the condemnation of sin, and to mortify mortality by becoming the Mortal One. (Dogmatic Verse 10). I have stated the quotation footnotes after each quote, which is from Migne
Tuesday, 23 July 2019 at 9:20 am
Wow I found this somehow on a search of another topic for the Greek terms and posted without realizing how long ago the original page is from. Is anyone still out there?
Tuesday, 23 July 2019 at 12:20 pm
Yep, things aren’t hopping on the blog anymore but still around! Thanks for commenting.
Tuesday, 23 July 2019 at 12:22 pm
Just for completeness, especially since my thinking has advanced on all this after this series of posts, I explain my thoughts more fully and give a taxonomy for understanding different ancient forms of deification/theosis in my book Christosis: https://amzn.to/2Szvk9D
Tuesday, 14 March 2023 at 12:25 pm
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Terminology: Theosis or Deification (or Divinization) | Dunelm Road