becoming

Read an interesting post today about Theosis, and our fear of the concept and hesitation of using that word):

Why are so many Protestants afraid of theosis? This is the term, used primarily in the Eastern Christian tradition but now enjoying a revival more widely, for becoming “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter): becoming like God, a process that begins now and culminates in eschatological glory. Other terms for theosis are deification, divinization, and christification. We come to share in God’s life especially God’s holiness, and immortality. Some of us even argue that there is a spirituality of theosis in Paul…

Michael Gorman then listed 5 common objections with his response in each case. Read them here.

[link | HT: New Testament Perspectives]

Learn a new word from James Spinti today — Theosis. It is actually the title of a recent theological monograph from Princeton. Here is the blurb of the book, as well as an explanation of the word:

‘Deification’ refers to the transformation of believers into the likeness of God. Of course, Christian monotheism goes against any literal ‘god making’ of believers. Rather, the NT speaks of a transformation of mind, a metamorphosis of character, a redefinition of selfhood, and an imitation of God. Most of these passages are tantalizingly brief, and none spells out the concept in detail. “Deification was an important idea in the early church, though it took a long time for one term to emerge as the standard label for the process. That term was theosis, coined by the great fourth-century theologian, Gregory of Nazianzus. Theologians now use theosis to designate all instances where any idea of taking on God’s character or being “divinized” (made divine) occurs, even when the term theosis is not used. And of course, different Christian authors understood deification differently.

[HT: Idle musings of a bookseller]