Eastern Orthodox And Deification

[Cole]

Well, it is official. I’m going Eastern Orthodox. I start church this Sunday. I’ve decided to move over in that direction because of their views of the atonement mostly. But I also like their doctrine of diefication. Deification is the theological term used to describe the process in which a Christian becomes more like God. It doesn’t mean that human beings become divine or like God in His essence. We are not nor do we become God.

The word God in the Bible does not refer to the divine nature or essence because that is unknowable. “God” refers to the divine energies (the power and grace of God). The Greek word “theos” comes from a verb with meanings that are energy words not essence words.

Deification means that we are to become more like God through His grace or divine energies. Those who are joined to Christ through faith are being renewed into His image and likeness. That is, through union with Christ, we become by grace what God is. His deity interpenetrates our humanity. Nourished by the Body and the Blood of Christ, we partake of the grace of God and are enabled to glorify Him. We are being deified.

[Alex_Smith]

Cool, I love Eastern Orthodox theology, although I’m not sure how my family would cope with the style of worship/church-service. E.g. I don’t have anything against either Greek or Russian cultures, it’s just they are both unknown/foreign to me, so I don’t know if I’d fit into Greek Orthodox or Russian Orthodox church.

I’d be interested to hear how you find it & if you settle in.

Deification sounds similar to Sanctification to me, although I suspect there’s some difference I’m overlooking

[JasonPratt]

Remember when I often talk about “zoe eonian” (or pretty much anything “eonian” in the New Testament) referring to that which comes uniquely from God, specifically life in the case of “zoe”?

What I’m talking about (God sharing eonian life with us), is what the EOx have been calling deification.

And yes, I do think it’s identical to the NT notion of sanctification.

(Although I would go on to argue that there is no distinction in the NT between “justification” and “sanctification”: the two terms mean basically the same thing as applied by the Biblical authors, although they’re looking at the same result from a couple of subtly different perspectives: becoming fair/just, and being set apart. I have a thread around here on that analysis somewhere…)

The EOx have some very interesting (I might say “enlightening”) ways of connecting zoe eonian with pura eonian, too. There is an old story from the desert fathers (I don’t recall which father offhand) where a disciple goes to visit his teacher, asking what more there is to learn or accomplish (somewhat similarly to the rich young synagogue chieftain asking Christ what he should be doing to enjoy the allotment of the inheritance). The teacher raised his hands to an invisible beam of sunlight entering the cell, and his fingers began to glow from being in the beam; and he said: “Why not become completely fire?!”

Anyway, good luck with your catechumening, Cole. Keep us updated on how that’s going. While most of us here (not being EOx) have a few protests here and there (being Protestant instead ), most of us also respect the EOx a lot, myself included. I hope this works out for you.

[JasonPratt]

Well, poot, my paper is buried in another thread with a bunch of discussion on topics not directly pertaining to the paper.

I’ll create a new thread for it and link to it in a minute.

Update: the new thread for the paper is here.

[WE_ARE_ALL_BROTHERS]

The EOx have some very interesting (I might say “enlightening”) ways of connecting zoe eonian with pura eonian, too. There is an old story from the desert fathers (I don’t recall which father offhand) where a disciple goes to visit his teacher, asking what more there is to learn or accomplish (somewhat similarly to the rich young synagogue chieftain asking Christ what he should be doing to enjoy the allotment of the inheritance). The teacher raised his hands to an invisible beam of sunlight entering the cell, and his fingers began to glow from being in the beam; and he said: “Why not become completely fire?!”

Abba Joseph of Panephysis. Thought I’d have a quick look for it

Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, “Abba, as a far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?” Then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, “If you will, you can become all flame.”

[JasonPratt]

Yep, that’s it. There’s a variation where he asks it as an invitational question, too. (I don’t recall more than two versions though. Or possibly I read a different translation of the same saying. I think I recall the other version involving a sunbeam somehow, probably to highlight that the result comes from God and not from himself, which fits the theosis concept. )

[wigglytug]

Cool, I love Eastern Orthodox theology, although I’m not sure how my family would cope with the style of worship/church-service. E.g. I don’t have anything against either Greek or Russian cultures, it’s just they are both unknown/foreign to me, so I don’t know if I’d fit into Greek Orthodox or Russian Orthodox church.

I’d be interested to hear how you find it & if you settle in.

Deification sounds similar to Sanctification to me, although I suspect there’s some difference I’m overlooking

I am Chinese and i dont see how eastern orthdox couldnt get popluar in the old country alot of its pratices would probably be very comforting to the chinese, and easily adopted into the culture of china