Theosis

"God became man so that man might become god." -Saint Athanasius of Alexandria

If there is one thing that distinguishes Orthodoxy from the Christianity of the West (whether Protestant or Catholic) it is the idea of theosis.  Theosis—also referred to as "deification" or "divinization"—is nothing other than salvation for the Orthodox Christian.

And for a lot of Westerners who begin to investigate Orthodoxy, it can also become a real stumbling block.

I've been wanting to write about theosis for the last several days (but was having trouble putting my thoughts on paper) when I came across the following from Frederica Matthewes-Green.  Her explanation is as good as anything that I've read, while remaining relatively "untechnical" and jargon-free:

"In Western theology, the word salvation immediately raises an image of the crucified Christ.  His death on the cross reunited us with God the Father, paying Him the debt for our sins.  Christians of St. Andrew's world would have seen things from a slightly different angle.  For them, salvation is being restored to the image and likeness of God.  It means God dwelling within us and filling us with His presence.


"Now, sometimes we say this in Western Christianity, but I think we don't mean it as literally as they did.  For them, God's presence in us is like the fire in the Burning Bush.  It gradually takes us over, so that although we remain fully ourselves, we are being made over into our true selves, the way God originally intended us to be.  He is Light, and we are filled with His light—maybe even literally, as some saints were said to visibly glow.  The term for this transformation is fairly scandalizing: theosis, which means being transformed into God, divinized or deified.  Of course, we do not become little mini-gods with our own universes.  We never lose our identity, but we are filled with God like a sponge is filled with water.


"This is the reason Christ came.  Theosis is the goal of life for every human being... It is a biblical idea, too.  When Saint Paul talked about being "in Christ," or Christ being "in me," he meant it literally.  That's how his words were understood by people who lived in his world and spoke his language, the ones who were his original audience."




This quote is taken from Matthewes-Green's book "First Fruits of Prayer: A Forty-Day Journey Through the Canon of St. Andrew."