Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Theosis (deification / divinization)

The Eastern (and, in a qualified form, patristic and increasingly ecumenical) account of salvation as being progressively transformed by grace into the likeness of God and coming to share in the divine life — 'partakers of the divine nature' — without ever ceasing to be a creature.

Greek theōsis, from theos ('God'); also theopoiēsis. The classic formula: 'God became man that man might become god' (Irenaeus, Athanasius).

2 Peter 1:4 ('partakers of the divine nature'); 2 Corinthians 3:18; John 17:21–23; Romans 8:29; 1 John 3:2; Psalm 82:6 (cited John 10:34–35).

Pervasive in the Greek Fathers (Irenaeus, Athanasius, the Cappadocians, Maximus the Confessor); given metaphysical precision by Gregory Palamas via the essence/energies distinction (we participate in God's uncreated energies, not his unknowable essence). Present in the Latin West (Augustine, Aquinas on participation) and recovered ecumenically — the Finnish school reads Luther's union-with-Christ as close to theosis.

Not that humans become God by nature or are absorbed into God; it is participation by grace in God's holiness, incorruption, and love, the creature glorified and fully alive in communion with God.

The essence/energies distinction is contested by some Western theologians; whether 'partakers of the divine nature' warrants a full theosis metaphysic or a more modest reading.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.