kingdomcomesoon

bruh moment ☦

Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death, and to those in the tombs, bestowing life!

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Can You Explain What Theosis Is? I Have Heard This Term But I Am RC So I Dont Think Ive Been Taught That

Can you explain what Theosis is? I have heard this term but I am RC so I don’t think I’ve been taught that before.

Theosis is literally translated as "deification," and is best summarized by a quote from Saint Athanasius the Great

God became human, so that we might become god.

This is not to say humans become actual "Gods," replace Him, or anything of the sort; there is a reason the quote ends with a lower case "god." As Saint Maximos the Confessor puts it, it is "total participation in Jesus Christ," resulting in becoming "All that God is, except for an identity in being, one becomes when one is deified by grace.”

This goes into the distinction between God's essence and energies; we cannot know God's essence, can never participate in it, and as such cannot ever hope to be God in essence. It is transcendant and beyond anything created, and to participate in it would abolish the distinction between God and man. But we can know God's energies, primarily His Grace. It is by participation in His Grace that brings us deification, makes us like God. It is truly becoming His image and likeness.

Theosis was given to humanity through Christ's Incarnation. Where Adam and Eve marred the image of God, Christ not only restored the image, but gave it it's full potential.

So it a fundamental part of the Orthodox understanding of salvation, a process of deification to complete communion with God.

I hope this is clear, and please ask if you have further questions.