Theosis

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Quotations about deification/theosis from non-LDS Christians.

Contrary to many Church critics—who often come out of a late-19th, Latin-based Christianity that is unaware of some of the ancient currents in Christian thought—theosis has a long history in Christian thought.

Clement

  • But they who with confidence endured [these things] are now heirs of glory and honour, and have been exalted and made illustrious by God in their memorial forever and ever. Amen.[1]
  • Clement says regarding those who become deified that “’they will be enthroned along with the other gods, who are set first in order under the Savior.’” Note that the “other gods” are clearly subordinate to the Savior, but yet are still entitled to be designated “gods.” [George W. Butterworth, “The Deification of Man in Clement of Alexandria,” Journal of Theological Studies 17 (1916): 157-69, at page 161, quoting Stromateis 3.41.23-5.]

Irenaeus (A.D. 180)

  • For the Lord is the good man of the house, who rules the entire house of His Father; and who delivers a law suited both for slaves and those who are as yet undisciplined; and gives fitting precepts to those that are free, and have been justified by faith, as well as throws His own inheritance open to those that are sons.[2]
  • ...but man receives advancement and increase towards God. For as God is always the same, so also man, when found in God, shall always go on towards God.[3]
  • ...and to whomsoever He shall say, ‘Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you for eternity,’ (Mat. 25:34) these do receive the kingdom for ever, and make constant advance in it...[4]
  • our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, of His boundless love, became what we are that He might make us what He Himself is...[5]

Unsorted

  • Melvin Lawrenz writes that a primary image of salvation for John Chrysostom is “that of human nature itself seated on the royal throne of Christ: ‘It is a great and wonderful thing, and full of amazement that our flesh should sit on high, and be adored by angels and archangels.’” Notice that worship by the angels is offered to those deified mortals on their thrones. [Melvin E. Lawrenz, The Christology of John Chrysostom (Mellen Press 1996): 153, quoting Homily on Hebrews 5.1.]
  • Christoph Cardinal Schonborn quotes from another Homily of John Chrysostom: “’God gave us a share in his throne. The sitting at the right hand is the greatest honor, with nothing to equal it. This statement holds true of us also: we too are to sit with him on thrones…. Think of where Christ sits on his throne! ‘Above all principalities and powers! And with whom are you to sit on the throne? With him!’” Once again, notice that the ‘principalities and powers’ are subject to these deified mortals. [Christoph Schonborn, From Death to Life (Ignatius Books 1995): 39-40, quoting Homily on Ephesians 4.2.]
  • Origen said that God could, if He chose, create other worlds after this one. [See Reinhold Seeberg, Text-Book of the History of Doctrines, translated by Charles E. Hay (Michigan 1958; German 1895, 1898): I: 160, citing de principiis 3.6.3 on the possibility of future creations.]
  • Theodore Askidas, Bishop of Caesarea (ca. 540 AD) went so far as to suggest that those who are deified will join in creating other worlds. [In Brian E. Daley, The Hope of the Early Church (Oxford University Press 1991): 189-90, with note 65, page 260; also in Daley, “What did ‘Origenism’ mean in the Sixth Century?”, in Origeniana Sexta, ed. Gilles Dorival et al (Leuven 1995): 635; also in Aloys Grillmeier, Christ in Christian Tradition, Vol. 2, Part 2: 409.]
  • Dionysius the Areopagite suggested long ago that nothing could be more divine than to become ‘a fellow worker with God.’ Some are purified, he wrote, some purify others; some are being perfected, while others complete the perfecting initiation for others. [Andrew Louth, Origins of Christian Mystical Tradition (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1983): 170, citing Dionysius, Celestial Hierarchy 3.1f.]
  • The idea that the redeemed may help to save others is common in the patristic writings. Fortino quotes John of Damascus who says that the oil used during baptism makes us “anointed” [christous], transforming us into Christs. [Eleuterio F. Fortino, “Sanctification and Deification,” Diakonia 17 (Fordham University 1982): 192-200., at page 197, citing John of Damascus, The Orthodox Faith 4.9.]
  • Ronald Heine, in his study of Gregory of Nyssa, states that such a one “becomes able to help others to salvation.” [Heine, Gregory of Nyssa’s Treatise on the Inscriptions of the Psalms, Introduction, translation and notes (Oxford 1995): 77.]
  • Turner quotes Methodius: “’Those who are deified become not merely Christians, but Christs.’” [H. E. W. Turner, The Patristic Doctrine of Redemption. A Study of the Development of Doctrine during the First Five Centuries (London 1952): 86; citing Methodius, Symposium 8.8.]
  • James T. O’Connor quotes the same from Augustine: “Not only do we become Christians, we become Christ.” [James T. O’Connor, The Hidden Manna. A Theology of the Eucharist (Ignatius Press 1988): 61.]
  • Thomas Hopko quotes Basil: “’Spirit-bearing souls, illumined by Him, finally become spiritual themselves, and their grace is sent forth to others. From this comes knowledge of the future, understanding of mysteries, apprehension of hidden things, distribution of wonderful gifts, heavenly citizenship, a place in the choir of angels, endless joy in the presence of God, becoming like God, and, the highest of all desires, becoming God [theon genesthai].’” Notice that this illumination, though beginning in this life, continues into the next, where the redeemed are eventually deified. [Thomas Hopko, “The Trinity in the Cappadocians,” in Christian Spirituality I: Origins, ed. B.McGinn and John Meyendorff (New York 1985): 260-76, at page 273-4, quoting On the Holy Spirit 23.]
  • Cipriano Vagaggini quotes Cyril of Jerusalem: “’Baptized and clothed in Christ, you are engrafted on the Son of God…. Since you have become sharers with Christ, you may rightly be called christs.’” [Cipriano Vagaggini, The Flesh. Instrument of Salvation: A Theology of the Human Body (Society of St. Paul 1969): 85-6, citing Mystical Catechesis 3.1.]
  • Walter Burckhardt quotes Cyril of Alexandria as having written that one who is redeemed “’shall come close to God and be of His family, and prove capable of saving others in time to come.’” [Walter J. Burghardt, S.J., “Cyril of Alexandria on ’Wool and Linen,’” Traditio 2 (1944): 486]
  • Over one hundred years ago J. D. Davis wrote an intriguing article on the possibilities of sanctification after death. He concluded by writing: “who shall say that God may not safely go on creating new beings whom the host of those who are already perfected by trial and experience shall teach and train, thus filling up the great universe of God, whose limits no human eye has ever yet discovered? Nay, more, may he not go on forever enlarging and forever peopling this universe with happy beings?” [J. D. Davis, “Sanctification after Death,” Bibliotheca Sacra 50 (1893): 544-8, at page 548.]
  • Martin Luther defined the Christian as ’a Christ to the other,’ that is, to his neighbor. [In Tore Meistad, Martin Luther and John Wesley (Scarecrow Press 1999): 44; also in Anders Nygren, Agape and Eros (Westminster Press 1953): 734-5.]
  • Pope Pius XII in his Encyclical Mystici Corporis (June 29 1943) wrote, in paragraph 46, that we are to “look to our Divine Savior as the most exalted and the most perfect exemplar of all virtues… [and to] bear witness by their conduct to His teaching and life;” he then cites I John 3.2. Paragraph 59 states that “it is for us to cooperate with Christ in this work of salvation, ‘from one and through one saved and saviors,’” quoting Clement of Alexandria, Stromateis 7.2.
  • In 1967 Pope Paul VI stated that the saved in heaven may “cooperate in saving their brothers.” [Pope Paul VI, ‘Indulgentiarum doctrina’ 5, in J. Neuner and J. Dupuis, The Christian Faith, paragraph 1688; also in Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraph 1477.]
  • Jesus taught that “he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do” (John 14.12). Thomas Oden remarks that this is “one of the most astonishing statements reported of Jesus.” [Thomas C. Oden, Life in the Spirit. Systematic Theology Volume Three (San Francisco 1992): 62. ]
  • Justin Martyr wrote that the Father teaches us “by the word to do the same things as Himself.” [Apology 2.9, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1.366-7.]
  • May we not ask: If the redeemed are to be enthroned with Christ, and do greater works than even Christ Himself did, is it not possible to conclude that they will at least also do the works of Christ—create additional worlds as He had done, and is still doing? May they not people those new worlds, and teach their inhabitants, and ultimately redeem those who are willing to keep the commandments, and live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God? Maximus the Confessor wrote that “all that God is, except for an identity in ousia [substance], one becomes when one is deified by grace.” [Quoted in Jouko Martikainen, “Man’s Salvation: Deification or Justification?”, Sobornost 7.3 (London 1976): 180-192, at page 185.]
  • Philip A. Khairallah presents some interesting thoughts on the above ideas. He is a priest of the Melkite Rite, of the Holy Orthodox Church of Antioch, Alexandria and Jerusalem, in communion with the Church of Rome. He cites II Peter 1.4, and Athanasius, and then writes that “the one and only aim of human life on earth is union with God and deification.” “Marriage is eternal…. [and] is another channel God has given to us for our deification.” He writes that “parents have a responsibility to their children in aiding them to grow in faith and wisdom, to achieve responsible adulthood, so that they too may seek their deification.” [Philip A. Khairallah, ”The Sanctification of Life,” Emmanuel 96 (1990): 326, 395, 396-7.]
  • Cardinal Danielou wrote that one of the two purposes of creation is the “divinization of man.” [Jean Danielou, Christ and Us (New York 1962; 1st Paris 1961): 62.]
  • Marta Ryk wrote that “Orthodoxy believes that God out of love created man for deification and theosis is the goal of every Christian without exception.” [Marta Ryk, “The Holy Spirit’s Role in the Deification of Man,” Diakonia 10 (1975): 120.]
  • Lumen Gentium, a document from Vatican II stated that “the eternal Father, in accordance with the utterly gratuitous and mysterious design of his wisdom and goodness, created the whole universe, and chose to raise up men to share in his own divine life.” [LG 2; quoted by Pope Paul VI, “Original Sin and Modern Science,” July 11, 1966, in The Pope Speaks 11 (1966): 230.]
  • In 1987 a group of Eastern Orthodox theologians wrote: “The value of the creation is seen not only in the fact that it is intrinsically good, but also in the fact that it is appointed by God to be the home for living beings. The value of the natural creation is revealed in the fact that it was made for God (something which is beautifully expressed in Orthodox iconography), i.e., to be the context for God’s Incarnation and humankind’s deification, and as such, the beginning of the actualization of the Kingdom of God. We may say that the cosmos provides the stage upon which humankind moves from creation to deification.” [Quoted in Gennadios Limouris, Orthodox Visions of Ecumenism. Statements, Messages and Reports on the Ecumenical Movement 1902-1992 (WCC Publications, Geneva 1994): 117.]

Endnotes

  1. [note]  Clement, "First Epistle of Clement," in Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Philip Schaff (Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886)1:17. ANF ToC off-site This volume
  2. [note]  Irenaeus, "Against Heresies," in book 4, chapter 9 Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Philip Schaff (Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886)1:472. ANF ToC off-site This volume
  3. [note]  Irenaeus, "Against Heresies," in book 4, chapter 11 Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Philip Schaff (Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886)1:474. ANF ToC off-site This volume
  4. [note]  Irenaeus, "Against Heresies," in book 4, chapter 28.3 Ante-Nicene Fathers, edited by Philip Schaff (Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1886)1:501. ANF ToC off-site This volume
  5. [note]  Henry Bettenson, The Early Christian Fathers: A Selection from the Writings of the Fathers from St. Clement of Rome to St. Athanasius (London: Oxford University Press, 1956), 106. ISBN 0192830090.

Further reading

FAIR wiki articles

Theosis and related at FAIR

FAIR web site

Theosis and related at FAIR
  • Michael W. Fordham, "Does President Gordon B. Hinckley Understand LDS Doctrine?" FAIR link (Key source)

External links

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Printed material

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