Theosis

Salvation as more than forgiveness, the human person filled with the life and light of God.

Theosis, or deification, is the Orthodox teaching that the goal of the Christian life is union with God: by grace a person comes to share in God's life, though never in His essence. In St Athanasius's words, the Son of God became man that we might become god. The Fathers distinguish God's unknowable essence from His energies, in which we truly share.

Theosis, deification, is the Orthodox understanding of the goal of the Christian life. Salvation is not only the forgiveness of sins but transformation: the human person, by grace, coming to share in the very life of God. “He was made man,” the Fathers say, “that we might be made God”, not that we become God in essence, which is impossible, but that we are filled with His uncreated grace and light.

The distinction the Fathers draw is careful. God's essence remains forever beyond us, past every knowing; but His energies, His grace, His light, His very life reaching out to us, these we can truly share. This is the light the disciples saw on Mount Tabor at the Transfiguration: the uncreated glory of God, which the saints come to be filled with, so that they shine with a light not their own.

Theosis is not reserved for mystics; it is the ordinary vocation of every baptised person, worked out through prayer, the Mysteries, and the keeping of the commandments in love. It is why the Church exists and why she prays and fasts and feasts, that the human person, made in God's image, might grow at last into His likeness.

In Scripture, and the way toward it

St Peter writes that by God's promises “ye might be partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

The way toward it is understood to have three stages; the word theosis names both the last stage and the whole way:

purification (catharsis)
illumination (theoria)
divinization (theosis)

St Gregory Palamas taught that the saints are deified as they are filled with the Light of Tabor, the light of the Transfiguration. The Church's tradition of stillness in prayer, in which this light is sought, is called Hesychasm.

Sources: OrthodoxWiki: Theosis; Wikipedia: Theosis (Eastern Christian theology); Scripture in the King James Version.

Questions about Theosis

What does theosis mean?

Theosis is Greek for deification: being united with God, though never in His essence, begun in this life and fulfilled in the resurrection of the body. It is life in communion with God by grace, the healing and transformation of the person toward likeness to Him. St Peter speaks of it when he writes that we might be "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4).

Does theosis mean becoming God?

Not in essence. God's essence remains beyond all creation; by grace we share in His life and light, His energies.

Who taught theosis?

The Fathers from the beginning, among them St Athanasius, and later St Gregory Palamas, who set out the distinction between God's essence and His energies.

How does one grow toward theosis?

Through the whole life of the Church: the Mysteries, prayer, fasting, keeping the commandments, and love of neighbour.

More questions about the Orthodox Church, answered ›

“His operations come down to us, but His essence remains beyond our reach.”

St Basil the Great, Letter 234 (public domain)

In Orthros

The teaching on theosis, the essence and energies, and the uncreated light runs through the catechesis of Orthros, in the feast of the Transfiguration and throughout the Faith, each with its source shown.