You will recall from the last issue of this article that it was stated that the perfect God-man, Jesus, was the only qualified person to sum up in his own life the corruptibility and distortion of the image and bring about a recapitulation of the whole human race and creation.

Eastern Christian theology is based on the teaching and witness of the church fathers. Even though theologizing in the Eastern wing of the Christian church is currently as vivid as it has ever been, its task is not to construct new doctrines but creatively, in light of what the Spirit is teaching, to reinterpret and help reappropriate the ancient teachings of the fathers. The doctrine of deification is a grand example of this living tradition; the basic orientation of Eastern theology was fashioned during the post-biblical and patristic period. This doctrine is key to understanding Eastern spirituality and, it must be remembered, is as valid and true as the spirituality of the Western Church. It is an approach which appeals to many who live in the Western world. It is truly different from the Western approach to spirituality.

One author has argues that one of the reasons for the separation of the Eastern and Western traditions since the early patristic period is their epistemological difference

(Epistomology: Study of the origin, nature, and limits of human knowledge. Some historically important issues in epistemology are: (1) whether knowledge of any kind is possible, and if so what kind; (2) whether some human knowledge is innate [i.e., present at birth] or whether all significant knowledge is acquired through experience).

Generally speaking, the Eastern Church has been principally concerned with those realities that are beyond history, while the West has been principally concerned with all those realities that add to the knowledge that man can acquire by natural reason. These differences bear upon the doctrines concerned with the nature of humankind and thoughts about an afterlife.

Theosis, many believe, is “echoed by the fathers and the theologians of every age.” This statement, while it might be an overstatement, does reflect the general mindset of the fathers. The understanding of the fathers about salvation was shaped by the idea of participating in the very essence of God. The patristic doctrine can be briefly formulated as follows:

Divine life has manifested itself in Christ. In the church as the body of Christ, man has a share in this life. Man partakes thereby of “the divine nature”. This “nature,” or divine life, permeates the being of man like a leaven in order to restore it to its original condition as the image of God.

The doctrine of Theosis is a part of our Christian Heritage! It behooves us to pursue an understanding of it.