Theosis - introd

SANCTIFY them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸ As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth. ²⁰ I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word,	ἁγίασον αὐτοὺς ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ· ὁ λόγος ὁ σὸς ἀλήθειά ἐστιν. ¹⁸ καθὼς ἐμὲ ἀπέστειλας εἰς τὸν κόσμον͵ κἀγὼ ἀπέστειλα αὐτοὺς εἰς τὸν κόσμον· ¹⁹ καὶ ὑπὲρ αὐτῶν [ἐγὼ] ἁγιάζω ἐμαυτόν͵ ἵνα ὦσιν καὶ αὐτοὶ ἡγιασμένοι ἐν ἀληθείᾳ. ²⁰ Οὐ περὶ τούτων δὲ ἐρωτῶ μόνον͵ ἀλλὰ καὶ περὶ τῶν πιστευόντων διὰ τοῦ λόγου αὐτῶν εἰς ἐμέ͵
²¹ THAT THEY MAY ALL BE ONE; EVEN AS YOU, FATHER, ARE IN ME, AND I IN YOU, THAT THEY ALSO MAY BE IN US,	21 ἵνα πάντες ἓν ὦσιν͵ καθὼς σύ͵ πάτερ͵ ἐν ἐμοὶ κἀγὼ ἐν σοί͵ ἵνα καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐν ἡμῖν
so that the world may believe that you have sent me.	ὦσιν͵ ἵνα ὁ κόσμος πιστεύῃ ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας.
²² The glory which you have given me I have given to them,	22 κἀγὼ τὴν δόξαν ἣν δέδωκάς μοι δέδωκα αὐτοῖς͵
THAT THEY MAY BE ONE; EVEN AS WE ARE ONE,	ἵνα ὦσιν ἓν καθὼς ἡμεῖς ἕν͵
²³ I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.	23 ἐγὼ ἐν αὐτοῖς καὶ σὺ ἐν ἐμοί͵ ἵνα ὦσιν τετελειωμένοι εἰς ἕν͵ ἵνα γινώσκῃ ὁ κόσμος ὅτι σύ με ἀπέστειλας καὶ ἠγά πησας αὐτοὺς καθὼς ἐμὲ ἠγάπησας.

MAY GRACE and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.	2 χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη πληθυνθείη ἐν ἐπιγνώσει τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν.
³ His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these	3 Ὡς πάντα ἡμῖν τῆς θείας δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ τὰ πρὸς ζωὴν καὶ εὐσέβειαν δεδωρημένης διὰ τῆς ἐπιγνώσεως τοῦ καλέσαντος ἡμᾶς ἰδίᾳ δόξῃ καὶ ἀρετῇ͵ 4 δι΄ ὧν τὰ τίμια καὶ μέγιστα ἡμῖν ἐπαγγέλματα δεδώρηται͵ ἵνα διὰ τούτων
YOU MAY BECOME PARTAKERS of the DIVINE NATURE	γένησθε θείας κοινωνοὶ φύσεως͵
[and] escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion.	ἀπο φυγόντες τῆς ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ ἐν ἐπιθυμίᾳ φθορᾶς.

BY the MYSTERY of this water and wine	Per huius aquae et vini mysterium
may we come to SHARE in the DIVINITY of CHRIST (lit. *of Him*),	eius efficiamur divinitatis consortes,
Who humbled Himself to share in our humanity	qui humanitatis nostrae fieri dignatus est particeps.

460 The Word became flesh to make us “partakers of the divine nature”: (2 Pet 1:4) “For this is why the Word became man, ^{[1265, 1391]}and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God.” (St. Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3, 19, 1: PG 7/1.939) “For the Son of God became man so that we might BECOME GOD.”(St. Athanasius, De inc., 54, 3: PG 25, 192B) ^[1988] “The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might MAKE HUMAN [beings] GODS.” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57: 1-4).

460 Verbum caro factum est ut nos efficeret « divinae consortes naturae » (2 Pe 1,4): « Propter hoc Verbum Dei homo, et qui Filius Dei est Filius hominis factus est, ut homo, commixtus Verbo Dei et adoptionem percipiens, fiat filius Dei ».84 « Ipse siquidem homo factus est, ut nos dii efficeremur ».85 « Unigenitus [...] Dei Filius, Suae divinitatis volens nos esse participes, naturam nostram assumpsit, ut homines deos faceret factus homo »

1988 Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, ^[654]branches grafted onto the vine which is himself:(Cf. 1 Cor 12; Jn 15:1-4)

[God] gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine ^[460] nature [...] For this reason, THOSE IN WHOM THE SPIRIT DWELLS ARE DIVINIZED.(St. Athanasius, Ep. Serap. 1, 24: PG 26.585 & 588)

1988 Per Spiritus Sancti potentiam, passionem participamus Christi, peccato morientes, et Eius Resurrectionem, nascentes ad vitam novam; membra sumus Eius corporis quod est Ecclesia, palmites inserti Viti quae Ipse est:

« Per Spiritum Dei participes dicimur. [...] Spiritus communicatione divinae naturae consortes efficimur [...]. Nec enim alia de causa, hi in quibus Ille est, deificantur ».

1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the SANCTIFYING or DEIFYING grace received in Baptism. ^[1966] It is in us the source of the work of sanctification: (Cf. Jn 4:14; 7:38-39) Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself.(2 Cor 5:17-18).

1999 Christi gratia donum est gratuitum, quod Deus nobis praebet, vitae Eius per Spiritum Sanctum in animam nostram infusae ad eidem medendum a peccato eamque sanctificandam: illa est gratia sanctificans seu deificans, in Baptismo recepta. Ipsa est in nobis operis sanctificationis fons: « Si quis ergo in Christo nova creatura; vetera transierunt, ecce, facta sunt nova. Omnia autem ex Deo, qui reconciliavit nos Sibi per Christum » (2 Cor 5,17-18)

398 In that sin the human being preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good.	398 In hoc peccato, homo se ipsum praefert Deo, et eo ipso Deum contemnit: electionem sui ipsius contra Deum fecit, contra exigentias sui status creaturae et exinde contra suum proprium bonum.
Constituted in a state of holiness, the human being was destined to be fully “divinized” by God in glory.	Homo, constitutus in statu sanctitatis, destinabatur ut plene esset a Deo in gloria « deificatus ».
Seduced by the devil, he wanted to “be like God”, but “without God, before God, and not in accordance with God” (St. Maximus the Confessor, Ambigua: PG 91,1156C; cf. Gen 3:5).	Per Diaboli seductionem, voluit « sicut Deus esse »,sed « extra Deum, et prae Deo, et non secundum Deum ».

Norman Russell. in The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition (O.U.P. 2006, p.1) describes four ways in which the idea has been conceived:

realistically, the latter category further breaking down into an
ontological and a
dynamic way of attaining divinization.

Collins, Paul M., Partaking in Divine Nature: Deification and Communion, (T&T Clark International, 2010) ISBN: 978-0-567-03187-7

Nellas, Panayiotis, Deification in Christ: Orthodox Perspectives on the Nature of the Human Person, (St Vladimir's Seminary Press) ISBN 0881410306

Russell, Norman, The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition, (Oxford U.Pr., 2110) ISBN 0–19–926521–6

Christensen, Michael J., & Wittung, Jeffery A., Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions, (Baker Academic, 2008) ISBN-10: 080103440X ISBN-13: 978-0801034404

Olson, Carl E.,,& Meconi, David Vincent, ed., Called to be Children of God, The Catholic Theology of Human Deification, (Ignatius, 2016), ISBN-10: 1586179470 ISBN-13: 978-1586179472

Ortiz, J. ed., The Doctrine of Deification in the West, (Catholic Univ, Press, 2018).

Finlan, S. & Kharlamov, Vladimir ed.s, Theōsis: Deification in Christian Theology,Vol. 1. (Pickwick Publications, Wipf & Stock 2006). ISBN: 1-59752-438-7.