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To: metmom

I’m trying again cause I totally messed up the paragraph breaks.

The quote you have highlighted is from the writings of St. Anathasius which should be read in context since you seem very confused by what he meant.

This is the phrase in the original Greek “autos gar enenthropesen hina hemeis theopoiethomen” Which is more precisly translated as, “He became man in order that we might be divinized” (De Incarnatione 54 ) The meaning of which is explained rather well in this passage,

“Man ever remains what he is, that is, creature. But he is promised and granted, in Christ Jesus, the Word become man, an intimate sharing in what is Divine: Life Everlasting and incorruptible. The main characteristic of theosis is, according to the Fathers, precisely “immortality” or “incorruption.” For God alone “has immortalityho monos echon athanasian (I Tim. 6:16).

But man now is admitted into an intimate “communion” with God, through Christ and by the power of the Holy Spirit. And this is much more than just a ‘moral” communion, and much more than just a human perfection.

Only the word theosis can render adequately the uniqueness of the promise and offer. The term theosis is indeed quite embarrassing, if we would think in “ontological” categories. Indeed, man simply cannot “become” god. But the Fathers were thinking in “personal” terms, and the mystery of personal communion was involved at this point. Theosis meant a personal encounter.

It is that intimate intercourse of man with God, in which the whole of human existence is, as it were, permeated by the Divine Presence”

The above is an excerpt, the complete article can be found here:

http://benedictseraphim.wordpress.com/2006/03/16/st-gregory-palamas-and-theosis/


711 posted on 01/12/2012 10:03:52 PM PST by lastchance ("Nisi credideritis, non intelligetis" St. Augustine)
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To: lastchance

Hey, I didn’t translate it and capitalize the name of God.

I just posted what it says and it says what it says.


758 posted on 01/13/2012 8:42:49 AM PST by metmom (For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore & do not submit again to a yoke of slavery)
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