Ever since the Middle Ages, Western Christianity has understood salvation as primarily a transaction in which the individual receives forgiveness of sins through Jesus being punished in his place. While there are hints of this doctrine in Scripture, it was not the primary emphasis of the early church. The first Christians understood salvation as a process, with forgiveness of sin as only the beginning and the salvation of the entire self as its goal.
It's not that man becomes God in a literal sense of being God himself but that we become partakers in the divine nature.
It is common knowledge that St. Athanasius of Alexandria presided over the Council of Nicaea to defend the full divinity and fully humanity of Christ. What most Western Christians don't know is why Athanasius found the incarnation so important. In his classic treatise On the Incarnation, Athanasius wrote that God became man to enable man becoming one with God in such a profound way that otherwise wouldn't have been possible.
Calvin and Luther were familiar with the doctrine of theosis, what John Wesley would later term "entire sanctification." It is to be saved, not just from the consequence of sin, but from sin itself.
When Protestants rejected the doctrine of purgatory, sanctification became optional, especially if you'll be immediately perfected at death anyway, based on your faith alone. Yet Scripture closely links sanctification to justification. If we are not sanctified in this life, we might need to be in the age to come:
Purgatory Explained by Greg Boyd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRM_Kn2PQsU
Evangelical scholars are often familiar with the classic doctrine of theosis, and some see it as complimentary to the Western understanding of atonement.
Soteriology in Athanasius of Alexandria
By Rev. Célestin Musekura
Dallas Theological Seminary
http://www.mattblackmon.com/pyne/Soteriology in Athanasius of Alexandria.PDF
Gregory Graham
St. Athanasius and St. Anselm on Redemption
http://www.grahamtx.net/papers/christology/athanasius_anselm.pdf
By looking back to the writings of Martin Luther, some evangelical theologians are rediscovering his teachings on theosis:
The New Perspective on Luther
http://www.christianforums.com/t7520581/#post56348340
With theosis on mind, the work of Christ is the healing of all Creation:
Resurrection: Rob Bell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjXYlwvS5LY
On the Incarnation is an excellent book for the Christmas season, explaining why Christ came to this world:
On the Incarnation: De Incarnatione Verbi Dei
St. Athanasius (Author), C. S. Lewis (Introduction)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/09...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
While nothing we do can earn our salvation from hell, love and service are the only appropriate response to God's work on the cross. Jesus, radically giving up himself on the cross, is calling us to give something radical in return. In doing so, we'll draw closer to him than what passive belief makes possible. Christ's incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection enable our path of personal and social transformation.
By ascending into heaven, Christ fulfilled his work of salvation:
Atonement or theosis?
In Finlan’s account, the basic problem with almost all versions of atonement theory is that they picture salvation as a transaction wherein God needs to be bought off, or satisfied, before he can forgive sins and save people...
The book includes two very informative chapters reviewing the rituals of sacrifice and atonement in the OT (helpfully distinguishing between sacrifice and scapegoat-type rituals) and discussing the atonement metaphors used by Paul. One problem with the history of atonement doctrines, according to Finlan, is that Paul heaps a number of different metaphors on top of one another in order to express something of the mystery of salvation (legal, penal, sacrificial, cultic, etc.), but later theologians have frequently taken one or more of these metaphors and used it as a literal account of how we are saved...
Atonement is what he calls a “secondary doctrine,” while the primary and distinguishing doctrine of Christianity is incarnation. Finlan favors the Eastern and patristic notion of theosis as a better account of how God saves us through the incarnation of his Son. By becoming human, God enables us to participate in the divine life. Or, in Athanasius’ immortal formulation, “the Son of God became man so that we might become God.”
http://thinkingreed.wordpress.com/2006/07/06/atonement-or-theosis/
It's not that man becomes God in a literal sense of being God himself but that we become partakers in the divine nature.
Theosis and Kenosis
Posted on January 12, 2010 by Carl McColman
What is the relationship between “participation in the Divine Nature” (II Peter 1:4) and the self-humbling of Christ (Philippians 2:7)? Part of the splendor of Christ, as described by Paul in his letter to the Philippians, is that Christ, “being found in appearance as a man, humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death.” Humility and obedience: self-emptying. Christ divested himself of the privilege of his Divinity, taking human form, entering so fully into the human experience to the point of becoming “obedient” to death.
Theosis, or deification, or divinization are all concepts that crop up again and again in the Christian mystery. We are not just called to be God’s servant or slave, but indeed to become “partakers” in God’s very nature. We abide in Christ as Christ abides in us. It is very tempting to see this “theosis” as getting in on how cool it must be to be Christ. To experience love like Christ loves; to be immersed in the wisdom of Christ; to know the joy that only Christ knows. It all sounds sweet and good.
But I think, perhaps, the real, ultimate, most important key to this mystical notion oftheosis likes in this scriptural concept of kenosis. We are invited to participate in Christ’s self-emptying. We know Christ through adopting his freely chosen humility (down-to-earthiness).
What does this mean? We become partakers of the Divine Nature by surrendering all claim to our own “divinity.” The wisdom of Christ comes to us through the humility of our own unknowing. The joy of Christ is ours when we surrender our own claim to joy (which means — eek — being available to suffering). To experience the love of God, we must simply, lavishly, prodigally give it away.
http://anamchara.com/2010/01/12/theosis-and-kenosis/
It is common knowledge that St. Athanasius of Alexandria presided over the Council of Nicaea to defend the full divinity and fully humanity of Christ. What most Western Christians don't know is why Athanasius found the incarnation so important. In his classic treatise On the Incarnation, Athanasius wrote that God became man to enable man becoming one with God in such a profound way that otherwise wouldn't have been possible.
Calvin and Luther were familiar with the doctrine of theosis, what John Wesley would later term "entire sanctification." It is to be saved, not just from the consequence of sin, but from sin itself.
Martin Luther in a Christmas sermon:
For the Word becomes flesh precisely so that the flesh may become word. In other words: God becomes man so that man may become God.
John Calvin, rather eloquently:
This is the wonderful exchange which, out of his measureless benevolence, he has made with us; that, by his descent to earth, he has prepared an ascent to heaven for us; that, by taking on our mortality, he has conferred his immortality upon us; that, accepting our weakness, he has strengthened us by his power; that, receiving our poverty unto himself, he has transferred his wealth to us; that, taking the weight of our iniquity upon himself (which oppressed us), he has clothed us with his righteousness.
http://fatherstephen.wordpress.com/2008/01/15/a-common-faith/
When Protestants rejected the doctrine of purgatory, sanctification became optional, especially if you'll be immediately perfected at death anyway, based on your faith alone. Yet Scripture closely links sanctification to justification. If we are not sanctified in this life, we might need to be in the age to come:
Purgatory Explained by Greg Boyd
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRM_Kn2PQsU
Evangelical scholars are often familiar with the classic doctrine of theosis, and some see it as complimentary to the Western understanding of atonement.
Soteriology in Athanasius of Alexandria
By Rev. Célestin Musekura
Dallas Theological Seminary
http://www.mattblackmon.com/pyne/Soteriology in Athanasius of Alexandria.PDF
Gregory Graham
St. Athanasius and St. Anselm on Redemption
http://www.grahamtx.net/papers/christology/athanasius_anselm.pdf
Mike Gorman Interview pt3
6) You also brought out theosis as an aspect of Pauline theology at that conference. What sparked your interest in theosis?
My interest in theosis, as mentioned above, was sparked when I came to the realization that cruciformity was really participatory theoformity. I knew the tradition well enough to recognize that I was beginning to move in an Easterly direction, but I was pleasantly surprised to find both that some parts of the Western tradition had stressed theosis and that it was now gaining momentum across traditions and disciplines. As I say in the introduction to my book, there is much more to be done in connection with Paul and theosis—especially by scholars like you!
7) What about theosis adds to protestant theology that we have been missing?
Protestant theology is profoundly Christocentric and frequently rather juridical in its understanding of our relationship to God. Theosis does not lose Christocentrism but links it explicitly to a profound participation in God and the Spirit of God—hardly a juridical relation. (I realize that some embrace participation but reject theosis. My guess is that this is ultimately a semantic rather than a substantive difference, though those who reject theosis disagree.) Theosis also holds together things that Protestants tend to split apart and label something like stages: justification, sanctification, glorification. In theosis, these are all of a piece. Paul’s distinctive contribution, I think, is to insure that theosis is always understood cruciformly. Theosis is conformity to Christ crucified even in its final phase of eschatological glorification.
http://dunelm.wordpress.com/category/theosis/
By looking back to the writings of Martin Luther, some evangelical theologians are rediscovering his teachings on theosis:
The New Perspective on Luther
http://www.christianforums.com/t7520581/#post56348340
With theosis on mind, the work of Christ is the healing of all Creation:
Resurrection: Rob Bell
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjXYlwvS5LY
On the Incarnation is an excellent book for the Christmas season, explaining why Christ came to this world:
On the Incarnation: De Incarnatione Verbi Dei
St. Athanasius (Author), C. S. Lewis (Introduction)
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/09...&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=470938631&pf_rd_i=507846
While nothing we do can earn our salvation from hell, love and service are the only appropriate response to God's work on the cross. Jesus, radically giving up himself on the cross, is calling us to give something radical in return. In doing so, we'll draw closer to him than what passive belief makes possible. Christ's incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection enable our path of personal and social transformation.
By ascending into heaven, Christ fulfilled his work of salvation:
And with Christ, man's nature ascends also.
"We who seemed unworthy of the earth, are now raised to heaven," says St John Chrysostom. "We who were unworthy of earthly dominion have been raised to the Kingdom on high, have ascended higher than heaven, have came to occupy the King's throne, and the same nature from which the angels guarded Paradise, stopped not until it ascended to the throne of the Lord." By His Ascension the Lord not only opened to man the entrance to heaven, not only appeared before the face of God on our behalf and for our sake, but likewise "transferred man" to the high places. "He honored them He loved by putting them close to the Father." God quickened and raised us together with Christ, as St Paul says, "and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephes. 2:6). Heaven received the inhabitants of the earth. "The First fruits of them that slept" sits now on high, and in Him all creation is summed up and bound together. "The earth rejoices in mystery, and the heavens are filled with joy."
http://ocafs.oca.org/FeastSaintsViewer.asp?SID=4&ID=1&FSID=42
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