Divinization (Christian)
In Christian theology, divinization ("divinization" may also refer to "apotheosis", lit. "making divine"), or theopoesis or theosis, is the transforming effect of divine grace, the spirit of God, or the atonement of Christ. Although it literally means to become divine, or to become God, most Christian denominations do not interpret the doctrine as implying an overcoming of a fundamental metaphysical difference between God and humanity, for example John of the Cross had it: "it is true that its natural being, though thus transformed, is as distinct from the Being of God as it was before". Patristic writings. The  term originally was used in Greco-Roman pagan society to venerate a ruler. It was inconceivable to Jewish piety. Yet, with a time, it was adopted in Eastern Christianity by the Greek Fathers to describe spiritual transformation of a Christian. The change of human nature was understood by them as a consequence of a baptized person being incorporated into the Church as the Body of Christ. Divinization was thus developed within the context of incarnational theology. The teaching about deification of a Christian can be found as early as in the works of Irenaeus, a Greek Father who was a  head of the church of Lyons (c. 130–202) e.g. in the preface to his "Adversus Haereses" vol. 5. Athanasius of Alexandria was an author of the phrase about Jesus Christ which has become popular in Christmas homilies: "He was made human so that he might make us gods" ("De incarnatione" 54,3, cf. "Contra Arianos" 1.39). Divinization in the context of the Eucharist was taught by Gregory of Nyssa and Cyril of Alexandria. The term never meant for them breaching the absolute ontological distinction between God and his creation. There were many different references to divinization in the writings of the  Church Fathers. In the second century, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons (c. 130–202) said that God had "become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself." He added: Do we cast blame on him [God] because we were not made gods from the beginning, but were at first created merely as men, and then later as gods? Although God has adopted this course out of his pure benevolence, that no one may charge him with discrimination or stinginess, he declares, "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are sons of the  Most High." ... For it was necessary at first that nature be exhibited, then after that what was mortal would be conquered and swallowed up in immortality. At about the same time, Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–215), wrote: "Yea, I say, the Word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god." Clement further stated that "[i]f one knows himself, he will know God, and knowing God will become like God. . . . His is beauty, true beauty, for it is God, and that man becomes a god, since God wills it. So Heraclitus  was right when he said, 'Men are gods, and gods are men.'" Clement of Alexandria also stated that "he who obeys the Lord and follows the prophecy given through him ... becomes a god while still moving about in the flesh." Justin Martyr c. 100–165) insisted that in the beginning men "were made like God, free from suffering and death," and that they are thus "deemed worthy of becoming gods and of having power to become sons of the highest." Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria (c. 296–373), stated his belief in literal deification: "The Word was made flesh in order that we  might be made gods. ... Just as the Lord, putting on the body, became a man, so also we men are both deified through his flesh, and henceforth inherit everlasting life." Athanasius also observed: "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God." Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said: "But he himself that justifies also deifies, for by justifying he makes sons of God. 'For he has given them power to become the sons of God' [referring to John 1:12]. If then we have been made sons of god, we have also been made gods." "To make human  beings gods," Augustine said, "He was made man who was God" (sermon 192.1.1). Augustine goes on to write that "[they] are not born of His Substance, that they should be the same as He, but that by favour they should come to Him... (Ibid)". Other references to divinization in the writings of the Church Fathers include the following: Eastern Orthodox. The teaching of deification or "theosis" in Eastern Orthodoxy refers to the attainment of "likeness of God", "union with God" or "reconciliation with God". Deification has three stages in its process of transformation: "katharsis", "theoria", "theosis". "Theosis" as such is  the goal, it is the purpose of life, and it is considered achievable only through a synergy (or cooperation) between humans' activities and God's uncreated energies (or operations). "Theosis" is an important concept in Eastern Orthodox theology deriving from the fact that Eastern Orthodox theology is of an explicitly mystical character. Theology in the Eastern Orthodox Church is what is derived from saints or mystics of the tradition, and Eastern Orthodoxy considers that ""no one who does not follow the path of union with God can be a theologian."" In Eastern Orthodoxy, theology is not treated as an academic  pursuit, but it is based on revelation (see gnosiology), meaning that Eastern Orthodox theology and its theologians are validated by ascetic pursuits, rather than academic degrees (i.e. scholasticism). According to the "Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology", as quoted by Millet and Reynolds: Vision of God. According to Hierotheos Vlachos, divinization, also called "theosis", "is the participation in the Uncreated grace of God" and "is identified and connected with the "theoria" (vision) of the Uncreated Light". ""Theoria" is the vision of the glory of God. "Theoria" is identified with the vision of the uncreated Light, the uncreated energy of God, with  the union of man with God, with man's "theosis". This vision, by which faith is attained, is what saves: "Faith comes by hearing the Word and by experiencing "theoria" (the vision of God). We accept faith at first by hearing in order to be healed, and then we attain to faith by "theoria", which saves man." It is also one of the means by which Christians came to know the Trinity: "The disciples of Christ acquired the knowledge of the Triune God in "theoria" (vision of God) and by revelation." As a patristic and historical teaching. 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 Eastern 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. Ascetic practice. 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 (hesychast), continuous Prayer of the Heart. The "doer" in deification is the Holy Spirit, with whom the human being joins his will to receive this transforming grace by praxis and prayer, and as Saint Gregory Palamas teaches, the Christian mystics are deified as they become filled 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). This synergy or co-operation between God and Man does not lead to mankind being absorbed into God as was taught in earlier pagan forms of deification 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. Western Christianity. In Western Christian theology, divinization is emphasized among Catholics, as well as among Quakers who emphasize the living presence of Christ within each person  and Christ-centered community. Methodists, whose religious tradition has always placed strong emphasis on entire sanctification, and whose doctrine of sanctification has many similarities with the Eastern Orthodox concept of theosis or divinization teach the doctrine. Patristic scholar Donald Fairbairn has argued that theosis in the Greek Fathers is not an ontological exchange between the Son and the Christian. In general Fairbairn argues that the change that occurs in theosis is "something more than mere status but less than the possession of God's very substance." In his book, "Life in the Trinity", he argues that through our relationship with  the Son we are brought into the same kind of relationship with the Father (and Spirit) that the Son has. He supports this argument by identifying a distinction between the Son's warm-fellowship with the Father, and his ontological union with the Father. He argues that the Greek Fathers, primarily Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria were clear that we never share ontological union with God, but only this intimate fellowship. Catholic theology (including Latin and Eastern Churches). The term "divinization" is characteristic of Eastern Christian thought. Western Christianity, at least since Augustine of Hippo (354-430) named as the  doctor of grace, has always preferred to speak about supernatural grace transforming a Christian according to the Image of Christ. One cannot say, though, that the action of God on human nature conveyed in the term "divinization" ("theosis") is alien to the Roman Catholic teaching, as is evident in Augustine repeating the famous phrase of Athanasius of Alexandria: "To make human beings gods, he was made man, who was God" ("Deos facturus qui homines erant, homo factus est qui Deus erat" ). It is evident from what the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" says of Christians as partakers of the  divine nature: Arguably the most prolific of the medieval scholastic theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas, wrote: Of a more modern Roman Catholic theologian it has been said: "The theological vision of Karl Rahner, the German Jesuit whose thought has been so influential in the Roman Catholic Church and beyond over the last fifty years, has at its very core the symbol of "theopoiesis". The process of divinization is the center of gravity around which move Rahner's understanding of creation, anthropology, Christology, ecclesiology, liturgy, and eschatology. The importance of this process for Rahner is such that we are justified in describing  his overall theological project to be largely a matter of giving a coherent and contemporary account of divinization." Joshua Bloor in his article reveals the rise in deification from an array of Western traditions, looking closely at the Catholic Theologian Catherine LaCugna, arguing that LaCugna sees deification as "personal communion with God, which deifies the human in the process, conforming him/her into being Christ-like". The Roman Rite liturgy expresses the doctrine of divinization or "theosis" in the prayer said by the deacon or priest when preparing the Eucharistic chalice: "" ("By the mystery of this water and wine may  we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.") The Catholic Church teaches that God gives to some souls, even in the present life, a very special grace by which they can be mystically united to God even while yet alive: this is true mystical contemplation. This is seen as the culmination of the three states, or stages, of perfection through which the soul passes: the purgative way (that of cleansing or purification, the Greek term for which is , "katharsis"), the illuminative way (so called because in it the mind becomes more  and more enlightened as to spiritual things and the practice of virtue, corresponding to what in Greek is called , "theoria"), and the unitive way (that of union with God by love and the actual experience and exercise of that love, a union that is called , "theosis"). The writings attributed to St. Dionysius the Areopagite were highly influential in the West, and their theses and arguments were adopted by Peter Lombard, Alexander of Hales, Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure. According to these writings, mystical knowledge must be distinguished from the rational knowledge by which we know  God, not in his nature, but through the wonderful order of the universe, which is a participation of the divine ideas. Through the more perfect knowledge of God that is mystical knowledge, a knowledge beyond the attainments of reason even enlightened by faith, the soul contemplates directly the mysteries of divine light. In the present life this contemplation is possible only to a few privileged souls, through a very special grace of God: it is the (theosis), (mystical union). Meister Eckhart too taught a deification of man and an assimilation of the creature into the Creator through contemplation. Deification, to  which, in spite of its presence in the liturgical prayers of the West, Western theologians have given less attention than Eastern, is nevertheless prominent in the writing of Western mystics. St. Catherine of Siena stated God as saying: St. John of the Cross wrote: Orestes Brownson wrote: Lutheran theology. More recently, the Finnish school of Lutheran thought has drawn close associations between theosis and justification. Primarily spearheaded by Tuomo Mannermaa, this line of theological development grew out of talks between the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Russian Orthodox Church between 1970 and 1986. Mannermaa argues in his book , "Christ Present in Faith", that the real exchange between Christ and sinful humanity, a theme prevalent in Luther's writing, is synonymous with Eastern views of theosis. It is in this real exchange which Mannermaa says "the union between Christ and the believer makes the latter a ‘completely divine [person] ." While this departure from traditional Lutheran thought is sometimes hailed as "the threshold of a third Luther Renaissance," other Lutheran scholars disagree and argue that the idea of theosis violates Luther's theology of the cross principles by ignoring the real distinction that is axiomatic for not only Luther, but  for orthodox Christianity as a whole. One of the most prominent scholars is Robert Kolb, who primarily roots this critique in Luther's use of marriage metaphors concerning the Christian's relationship with God. Kolb writes "This view ignores the nature of the ‘union’ of bride and bridegroom that Luther employed so far." Reformed theology. Early during the Reformation, thought was given to the doctrine of union with Christ ("unio cum Christo") as the precursor to the entire process of salvation and sanctification. This was especially so in the thought of John Calvin. Henry Scougal's work "The Life of  God in the Soul of Man" is sometimes cited as important in keeping alive among Protestants the ideas central to the doctrine. In the introductory passages of his book, Scougal describes "religion" in terms that evoke the doctrine of theosis: Anglican theology. Out of the English Reformation, an understanding of salvation in terms closely comparable to the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis was recognized in the Anglican tradition, J. Bloor examines deification/theosis in the late Anglican Priest and theologian Canon A. M. (Donald) Allchin, but it is also explored in the writings of Lancelot Andrewes, who described salvation in  terms vividly reminiscent of the early fathers: C.S. Lewis, speaking on his personal belief in the subject of literal deification, stated as follows: In a more complete statement on his beliefs in literal deification, C.S. Lewis stated in his book, "Mere Christianity" as follows: Methodist theology. "Theosis" as a doctrine developed in a distinctive direction among Methodists, and elsewhere in the pietist movement which reawakened Protestant interest in the asceticism of the early Catholic Church, and some of the mystical traditions of the West. Distinctively, in Methodist (Wesleyan-Arminian) theology, the doctrine of "entire sanctification" teaches, in summary, that it  is the Christian's goal, in principle possible to achieve, to live without any (voluntary) sin ("Christian perfection"). In 1311 the Catholic Council of Vienne declared this notion, "that man in this present life can acquire so great and such a degree of perfection that he will be rendered inwardly sinless, and that he will not be able to advance farther in grace" (Denzinger §471), to be a heresy. Thus this Methodist understanding of theosis is substantially different from that of the Catholic Church, as well as other Protestant Churches. The Wesleyan-Arminian doctrine of Christian perfection was sharply criticized  by many in the Church of England during the ministry of John Wesley and outside the Methodist tradition, it continues to be controversial among to this day among other Christian denominations. Quaker theology. Based on their spiritual experiences and tested against the testimony of scripture, George Fox and early Quakers believed that transformation by the Holy Spirit was a normal experience within the early church, where individuals and communities were led by the living presence of Christ dwelling within them. George Fox wrote: "The scriptures saith God will dwell in men, and walk in men … Doth not the Apostle say , the saints were partakers of the divine nature? And that God dwells in the saints, and Christ is in them, except they be reprobates? And do not the saints come to eat the flesh of Christ? And if they eat his flesh, is it not within them?" Christian universalist theology. There has been a modern revival of the concept of theosis (often called "manifest sonship" or "Christedness") among Christians who hold to the doctrine of universal reconciliation or "apocatastasis", especially those with a background in the charismatic Latter Rain Movement or even the New Age and New Thought movements. The  statement of faith of the Christian Universalist Association includes theosis in one of its points. A minority of charismatic Christian universalists believe that the "return of Christ" is a corporate body of perfected human beings who are the "Manifested Sons of God" instead of a literal return of the person of Jesus, and that these Sons will reign on the earth and transform all other human beings from sin to perfection during an age that is coming soon (a particularly "universalistic" approach to millennialism). Some liberal Christian universalists with New Age leanings share a similar eschatology. Western views on hesychasm . The practice of ascetic prayer called hesychasm in the Eastern Orthodox Church is centered on the enlightenment or deification, theosis of man. While Constantinople experienced a succession of councils alternately approving and condemning doctrine concerning hesychasm, the Western Church held no council in which to make a pronouncement on the issue, and the word "hesychasm" does not appear in the "Enchiridion Symbolorum et Definitionum" (Handbook of Creeds and Definitions), the collection of Roman Catholic teachings originally compiled by Heinrich Joseph Dominicus Denzinger. Despite the fact that the hesychast doctrine of Gregory Palamas has never been officially condemned by the Catholic  Church, Western theologians tended to reject it, often equating it with quietism. This identification may have been motivated in part by the fact that "quietism" is the literal translation of "hesychasm". However, according to Kallistos Ware, "To translate 'hesychasm' as 'quietism', while perhaps etymologically defensible, is historically and theologically misleading." Ware asserts that "the distinctive tenets of the seventeenth century Western Quietists are not characteristic of Greek hesychasm." Elsewhere too, Ware argues that it is important not to translate "hesychasm" as "quietism". For long, Palamism won almost no following in the West. 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. In the same period, Siméon Vailhé described some aspects of the teaching of Palamas as "monstrous errors", "heresies" and "a resurrection of polytheism", and called the hesychast method for arriving at perfect contemplation "no more than a crude form of auto-suggestion" The 20th 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. John Meyendorff describes the 20th-century rehabilitation of Palamas in the Western Church as a "remarkable event in the history of scholarship." Andreas Andreopoulos cites the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia article by Fortescue as an example of how Barlaam's distrustful and hostile attitude regarding hesychasm survived until recently in the West, adding that now "the Western world has started to rediscover what amounts to a lost tradition. Hesychasm, which was never anything close to a scholar's pursuit, is now studied by Western theologians who are astounded by the profound thought and spirituality of late Byzantium ." Some Western scholars maintain that there is no conflict between Palamas's teaching and Roman Catholic thought, and some have incorporated the essence-energies distinction into their own thinking. For example, G. Philips asserts that the essence-energies distinction as presented by Palamas is "a typical example of a perfectly admissible theological pluralism" that is compatible with the Roman Catholic magisterium. Jeffrey D. Finch claims that "the future of East-West rapprochement appears to be overcoming the modern polemics of neo-scholasticism and neo-Palamism". Pope John Paul II repeatedly emphasized his respect for Eastern theology as an enrichment for  the whole Church, declaring that, even after the painful division between the Christian East and the See of Rome, that theology has opened up profound thought-provoking perspectives of interest to the entire Church. He spoke in particular of the hesychast controversy. The term "hesychasm", he said, refers to a practice of prayer marked by deep tranquillity of the spirit intent on contemplating God unceasingly by invoking the name of Jesus. While from a Catholic viewpoint there have been tensions concerning some developments of the practice, the Pope said, there is no denying the goodness of the intention that inspired  its defence, which was to stress that man is offered the concrete possibility of uniting himself in his inner heart with God in that profound union of grace known as "theosis", divinization. Among the treasures of "the venerable and ancient tradition of the Eastern Churches" with which he said Catholics should be familiar, so as to be nourished by it, 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." Latter Day Saint theology. Mormonism includes a belief in the doctrine of exaltation, by which is meant a literal divinization. According to Mormon scholars, there are similarities between the Mormon belief of eternal progression and the beliefs found in the patristic writings of the first, second, and third centuries A.D. According to Mormonism's founder, Joseph Smith, through obedience to Christ and the gradual acquisition  of knowledge, the faithful may eventually become heirs of God in the afterlife and "inherit all things" as Christ himself "inherited all things." Mormons believe they will continue to worship and be subject to God the Father in the name of Christ in the afterlife. Mormons do not characterize the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in terms of an immaterial, formless substance or essence that sets godhood apart as a separate genus from humanity. They believe that this classification of divinity was originated by post-apostolic theologians, whose speculations on God were influenced by Greek metaphysical philosophers such as the  Neoplatonists, who described their notions of deity in similar terms of a divine substance/essence (ousia)—i.e. terms which were unknown to the pre-Nicean Christian world. Mormons believe that through modern day revelation, God restored the doctrine that all humans are spiritually begotten (Hebrews 12:9, Acts 17:28–29) sons and daughters of Heavenly Father, and thus are all part of the same heavenly family. Because humans are literally God's children, they can also be heirs of his glory, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:16–17). Mormons believe that the "glory of God is intelligence, in other words, light and  truth" (D&C 93:36). Therefore the process of inheriting his glory is a process of learning. As a crucial step in this process, all of God's spirit children had the choice to come to earth in order to receive a body and continue their development. Mormons believe that the fallen state of humanity (mortality) was not the result of an unplanned cancellation of God's plan for an eternal earthly paradise, rather it was a crucial step that provides the opportunity to learn and grow in the face of opposition (2 Nephi 2:11, 25). Thus, the purpose of earth life  is to gain knowledge and experience—which includes overcoming trials and mistakes through the atonement of Jesus Christ and, using the lessons learned, to become stronger and wiser, more like their Heavenly Father (D&C 98:3). Those who endure to the end (Matthew 24:13, Mark 13:13) while in mortality, as well as those who accept the gospel after death (see baptism for the dead), will be able to dwell in the presence of God, where they can continue to grow in light and truth, which "light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day" (D&C 50:24). Mormons believe that the Father  and the Son both possess glorified, immortal, physical bodies (D&C 130:22) and that thanks to Christ's resurrection, humans will also be resurrected and inherit this same type of body (Philippians 3:21).