"It can be a somewhat startling theme for western Christian ears..."

Insight Scoop ^ | December 27, 2010 | Carl Olson

[NYer]

George Weigel, in his most recent column ("Christmas, Jews and Christians"), takes up a theme near and dear to my heart:

Eastern Christian theology has long stressed “theosis,” or divinization, as the goal of the Christian life. It can be a somewhat startling theme for western Christian ears, formed as we are by Augustine’s sense of the distance that original sin created between humanity and God.

Yet if, as theologians East and West have long insisted, Christianity is not about our search for God (as so much pop-spirituality these days insists), but about God coming into history in search of us and our learning to take the same path through history that God is taking, then “divinization” makes perfect sense: for how could we follow God through history unless we became more and more like God?

Read the entire piece. Two years ago I wrote an essay, "Theosis: The Reason for the Season", in which I stated:

Theosis, deification, and adoptive sonship have received much attention in recent decades from Catholic theologians and scholars. Ressourcement theologians such as Hans Urs von Balthasar, Yves Congar, Henri de Lubac, and Jean Daniélou addressed them in a variety of books and articles. Recent books such as Divine Light: The Theology of Denys the Areopagite, by Dr. William Riordan, and Deification And Grace by Daniel Keating are scholarly studies worthy of attention.

Pope John Paul II's Trinitarian encyclicals—Redemptor Hominis, Dives in Misericordia and Dominum et Vivificantem—often emphasized divine adoption:

For as Saint Paul teaches, "all who are led by the Spirit of God" are "children of God." The filiation of divine adoption is born in man on the basis of the mystery of the Incarnation, therefore through Christ the eternal Son. But the birth, or rebirth, happens when God the Father "sends the Spirit of his Son into our hearts." Then we receive a spirit of adopted sons by which we cry 'Abba, Father!'" Hence the divine filiation planted in the human soul through sanctifying grace is the work of the Holy Spirit. "It is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ." Sanctifying grace is the principle and source of man's new life: divine, supernatural life. (Dives in Misericordia, 52.2).

Coming full circle, the Catechism of the Catholic Church refers time and time again to the reality of theosis. "God created the world for the sake of communion with his divine life," it states, "a communion brought about by the 'convocation' of men in Christ, and this 'convocation' is the Church" (par 760). Through the sacraments we are made "children of God, partakers of the divine nature" (par 1692). The foundation of the moral life, the living out of the Christian calling, is found in the theological virtues: faith, hope and love, infused by the Holy Spirit. Those theological virtues "adapt man's faculties for participation in the divine nature" (par 1812). Our prayer to and adoration of the Father is rooted in divine adoption, for "he has caused us to be reborn to his life by adopting us as his children in his only Son" (par 2782).

Read my entire essay on Ignatius Insight. Also see:

• The Dignity of the Human Person: Pope John Paul II's Teaching on Divinization in the Trinitarian Encyclicals | Carl E. Olson
• The Liturgy Lived: The Divinization of Man | Jean Corbon, O.P.
• Jean Daniélou and the "Master-Key to Christian Theology" | Carl E. Olson
• Was The Joint Declaration Truly Justified? | An Interview with Dr. Christopher Malloy
• Why Catholicism Makes Protestantism Tick: Louis Bouyer on the Reformation | Mark Brumley
• Are Catholics Born Again? | Mark Brumley

[Cronos]

Adam was created in the image of God.

God is good. Hence Adam was created good.

Adam sinned -- sin is NOT good.

Adam's fallen nature affected us all, so we all (except ONE) fall short of the ideal that God set up for man.

[Cronos]

I don’t get it, WnF — Cothrige quoted scripture, 2 Peter 1:1-4. and you said that you didn’t care about it. Why? Isn’t it scripture, infallible?

[RobbyS]

Sin is being where we ought not to be, which is outside the Garden. Christ opened the gate, but it is a narrow one.

[little jeremiah]

Placemark for reading.

[warm n fuzzy]

-_”How can you think you know about the Lord except that the Church has told you about him?”—

It’s called SCRIPTURE and PRAYER.

My Bible was NOT written by the RC church.

My Bible is the King James.

No it’s NOT a just a “religion” it’s a personal relationship with GOD.

Are all of you folks dim?

There was this little fracas that started in the 16 th century AD., maybe you have heard of it?

It is called the REFORMATION.

I NEVER told any of you people what or how to believe. That is not my task.

I guess that it’s too much to expect the same courtesy towards me.

Am I supposed to revisit the Reformation with y’all?

Do you think that the RC church would win THIS time?

I stated my considered opinion.

Deal with it.

[warm n fuzzy]

“Perfect” is NOT “DIVINE”.

This isn’t rocket science.

There is no gnostic knowledge to be had here.

[warm n fuzzy]

As I have stated before, if you discount the imo absurd concept of mere man becoming divine just by trying to be good or whatever, then I agree with what you say.

My problem here is with the concept of “earned” “divinity’.

[warm n fuzzy]

Interesting info thanks.

[RobbyS]

So you think the Bible fell from the sky into Martin Luther’s lap? The Paris Bible, which was published by the thousands during the 13th and 14th centuries, was about the size of the Bible in the back of your pews. It was written on parchment in Latin, and was just the right size to be carried about by traveling preachers as a reference for sermons. Long before the Methodists, friars—men who were technically laymen— preached before large crowds in town squares as well as in local churches. The Bibles were in Latin, but every literate person read Latin, and every professor spoke it. No doubt that Martin Luther cut his spriptural teeth on the Latin Bible.

[Cronos]

The KJV is derived in a large part from Catholic sources — you can check that up if you like.

[RobbyS]

Perfect means to be like Adam was before he was expelled from the Garden. Was he not made in God’s image?

[warm n fuzzy]

I said that if JESUS didn’t say it, that I don’t care about it.

Scripture must be read and studied in prayerful contemplation.

GOD is certainly infallible and HE will ensure that what HE means to say through the word is communicated to the reader.

Btw; I’d put scripture’s “infallibility” up against the bishop of Rome’s “infallibility” any time.

[Cronos]

As I said, having a personal relationship with God is more than just confessing that He is Savior and Lord and nothing else. Having a relationship with say your spouse is not just saying "you're my mate." and nothing else.

Analogously, having a personal relationship with Our Lord and God, is more.

We Catholics agree that we must have a relationship with God and that we cannot work our way to heaven. But we don’t agree that our behaviors aren’t important. In fact, as we will see, Scripture indicates that, indeed, a relationship with God calls us to be people of moral behavior and good works—that is to say, religious people. Christianity is itself a religion and to be religious means to live morally and to do good works. Scripture teaches that, in essence, to be in a personal relationship with Jesus means to be religious.

Refer 1 Tim 3:16, James 1:26, James 1:27, 1 Tim 5:4, 2 Tim 3:1-5, Gal 4:8-9.

The word "relationship" isn't in the Bible but we are exhorted to KNOW God and yet 1 John 4:8 "He who does not love does not know God; for God is love" -- to know God is to know LOVE, to love others.

And Paul emphasises in Titus 1:15-16 that knowing God, i.e. having a relationship with Him is demonstrated in our very deeds "To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted. They profess to know God, but they deny him by their deeds; they are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good deed"

Remember that having this personal relationship with God is living in and breathing in His Word, living a life in accordance with His precepts and commands, and showing love.

Christianity, this personal relationship with God is demonstrated in religious lives and our behaviour

[warm n fuzzy]

Oh YEAH, that’s EXACTLY what I think. /S

In FACT that’s what ALL protestants think. /S

[warm n fuzzy]

Did you know that the Old testament was derived in large part from JEWISH sources?

The KEY WORD being “derived”.

In FACT JESUS and ALL of the holy apostles were JEWS!

See what I’m getting at here bro?

[Cronos]

In the KJV, tThe New Testament was translated from the Textus Receptus (Received Text) edition of the Greek texts, so called because most extant texts of the time were in agreement with it. The Old Testament was translated from the Masoretic Hebrew text.

The Textus Receptus was the translation by the Catholic scholar Erasmus which also included information from the Latin Vulgate, for instance, Erasmus lacked a complete copy of the book of Revelation and was forced to translate the last six verses back into Greek from the Latin Vulgate in order to finish his edition

It is commonly acknowledged that, in preparing the KJV, the translators made use of the Douay New Testament and adopted many of its readings in preference to those of other English editions. The KJV in many places thus bears a Douay "slant" absent from prior translations.

The Douay-Rheims provides a particularly telling counterexample. It was completed in 1609, making it older than the KJV, which was not published until 1611. The fact that the Rheims New Testament was published in 1582 meant that it appeared almost thirty years before the KJV New Testament.

[Cronos]

There is no divinity obtained of any sort — you may read any number of Orthodox texts and you will see that that is not implied. We do not become divine. We imitate God, becomes Sons of God but can never become divine

[warm n fuzzy]

You and I, and all the men and women who have ever lived were ALL made in GOD’s image.

Look at ALL of human history, does it look like the work of “perfect” beings?

How can mankind who came into existence after SIN be SINLESS?

And what has any of this got to do with any man or woman ever becoming divine?

[Gene Eric]

>> Christianity is NOT a “religion” ...

You are absolutely correct. On the other hand, your Catholic bashing is over the top.

[RobbyS]

You mean you don’t believe in the Resurrection of the Dead and the life of the world to come? Anyone who is truly perfect is one who is standing before the throne of God and singing his praises without creasing. These are men and women, not mere spirits.