The Doctrine Of Theosis

[Apotheoun]

Any texts from Sacred Scripture, the Church Fathers, or the [u]Catechism of the Catholic Church[/u], which speak about a man's communion or union with God; of his reception of the gift of divine filiation, i.e., of his becoming a son of God in the only begotten Son of God; of the restoration of the divine likeness lost through sin; of a man's being configured to the image of the Son; of a man's becoming a member of Christ, i.e., of his being incorporated into Christ's Body; of a man's participation in the divine nature or glory; of a man's becoming a temple of the Holy Spirit; of God taking up His abode with a man; of a man seeing God's face; of a man's abiding in Christ; or of a man becoming a "new creation" in Christ; all concern the doctrine of theosis, i.e., the doctrine of a man's deification by grace.

Below is a list, by no means exhaustive, of citations on [i]theosis[/i] from Sacred Scripture, the Church Fathers, and the [u]Catechism of the Catholic Church[/u]:


[b]Texts from Sacred Scripture:[/b]

[b]John 1:9-13[/b]
The true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world knew him not. He came to his own home, and his own people received him not. [i]But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God[/i].

[b]John 6:56-58[/b]
He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood [i]abides in me, and I in him[/i]. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, [i]so he who eats me will live because of me[/i]. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.

[b]John 7:38-39[/b]
He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, "Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water." Now this he said about the Spirit, which those who believed in him were to receive; for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

[b]John 14:23[/b]
Jesus answered him, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, [i]and we will come to him and make our home with him[/i].

[b]John 15:1-11[/b]
I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that bears no fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already made clean by the word which I have spoken to you. [i]Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing[/i]. If a man does not abide in me, he is cast forth as a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you; abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.

[b]John 17:1-26[/b]
When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify thy Son that the Son may glorify thee, since thou hast given him power over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom thou hast given him. And this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. I glorified thee on earth, having accomplished the work which thou gavest me to do; and now, Father, glorify thou me in thy own presence with the glory which I had with thee before the world was made. "I have manifested thy name to the men whom thou gavest me out of the world; thine they were, and thou gavest them to me, and they have kept thy word. Now they know that everything that thou hast given me is from thee; for I have given them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from thee; and they have believed that thou didst send me. I am praying for them; I am not praying for the world but for those whom thou hast given me, for they are thine; all mine are thine, and thine are mine, [i]and I am glorified in them[/i]. And now I am no more in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to thee. [i]Holy Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one[/i]. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name, which thou hast given me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word; and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be consecrated in truth. "[i]I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me[/i]. Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory which thou hast given me in thy love for me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee; and these know that thou hast sent me. [i]I made known to them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them[/i]."

[b]Romans 8:14-30[/b]
[i]For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God[/i]. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, [i]but you have received the spirit of sonship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" 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, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him[/i]. I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. [i]For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of God[/i]; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; [i]because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God[/i]. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, [i]groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons[/i]. the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. And he who searches the hearts of men knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be [i]conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren[/i]. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.

[b]1 Corinthians 6:15a[/b]
Do you not know that your bodies are [i]members of Christ[/i]?

[b]1 Corinthians 6:19-20[/b]
[i]Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God[/i]? You are not your own; you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

[b]1 Corinthians 12:27[/b]
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.

[b]1 Corinthians 15:27-28[/b]
"For God has put all things in subjection under his feet." But when it says, "All things are put in subjection under him," it is plain that he is excepted who put all things under him. When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things under him, that God may be everything to every one [i.e., God may be all in all].

[b]2 Corinthians 5:17[/b]
Therefore, if any one is in Christ, [i]he is a new creation[/i]; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come.

[b]Galatians 4:4-7[/b]
But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, [i]so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir[/i].

[b]Ephesians 1:4-5[/b]
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. [i]He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ [/i], according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.

[b]2 Peter 1:2-4[/b]
May grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, that through these you may escape from the corruption that is in the world because of passion, [i]and become partakers of the divine nature[/i].

[b]Revelations 21:7[/b]
He who conquers shall have this heritage, and I will be his God and [i]he shall be my son[/i].


[b]Texts from the Church Fathers:[/b]

[b]St. Hilary of Poitiers [De Trinitate: Book IX, Paragraph 4][/b]
It was God alone Who could become something other than before, and yet not cease to be what He had ever been; Who could shrink within the limits of womb, cradle, and infancy, yet not depart from the power of God. This is a mystery, not for Himself, but for us. The assumption of our nature was no advancement for God, but His willingness to lower Himself is our promotion, for He did not resign His divinity but conferred divinity on man.

[b]St. Gregory Nazianzen [Oration XXX, section 14: The 4th Theological Oration][/b]
Even now, as man, Christ makes intercession for my salvation, for He still possesses the body which He assumed in order to make me God by virtue of His Incarnation.

[b]St. Justin Martyr [The First Apology, Chapter XXI][/b]
And we have learned that those only are deified who have lived near to God in holiness and virtue; and we believe that those who live wickedly and do not repent are punished in everlasting fire.

[b]St. Gregory Nazianzen [Oration XL, section 45: The Oration on Holy Baptism][/b]
Believe that the Son of God, the Eternal Word, who was begotten of the Father before all time and without body, was in these latter days for your sake made also Son of Man, born of the Virgin Mary ineffably and stainlessly (for nothing can be stained where God is), and by which salvation comes, in His own Person at once perfect Man and perfect God, for the sake of the entire sufferer, that He may bestow salvation on your whole being, having destroyed the whole condemnation of your sins: impassible in His Godhead, passible in that which He assumed; as much Man for your sake as you are made God for His.

[b]St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo [Psalm 50, sections 1-2][/b]
For as he saith in this Psalm, not any man whatever nor any angel whatever, but, "The Lord, the God of gods, hath spoken" (ver. 1). But in speaking, He hath done what? "He hath called the earth from the rising of the sun unto the going down." He that "hath called the world from the rising of the sun unto the going down," is Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, "the Word made Flesh," in order that He might dwell in us. Our Lord Jesus Christ then is the "God of gods;" because by Himself were all things made, and without Himself was nothing made. The Word of God, if He is God, is truly the God of gods; but whether He be God the Gospel answereth, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." And if all things were made by Himself, as He saith in the sequel, then if any were made gods, by Himself were they made. For the one God was not made, and He is Himself alone truly God. But Himself the only God, Father and Son and Holy Ghost, is one God.
But then who are those gods, or where are they, of whom God is the true God? Another Psalm saith, "God hath stood in the synagogue of gods, but in the midst He judgeth gods." As yet we know not whether perchance any gods be congregated in heaven, and in their congregation, for this is "in the synagogue," God hath stood to judge. See in the same Psalm those to whom he saith, "I have said, Ye are gods, and children of the Highest all; but ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the princes." It is evident then, that He hath called men gods, that are deified of His Grace, not born of His Substance. For He doth justify, who is just through His own self, and not of another; and He doth deify who is God through Himself, not by the partaking of another. But He that justifieth doth Himself deify, in that by justifying He doth make sons of God. "For He hath given them power to become the sons of God." If we have been made sons of God, we have also been made gods: but this is the effect of Grace adopting, not of nature generating. For the only Son of God, God, and one God with the Father, Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, was in the beginning the Word, and the Word with God, the Word God. The rest that are made gods, are made by His own Grace, are not born of His Substance, that they should be the same as He, but that by favour they should come to Him, and be fellow-heirs with Christ. For so great is the love in Him the Heir, that He hath willed to have fellow-heirs.

[b]St. Irenaeus [Adversus Haereses, Book III, Chapter 19:1 (circa AD 180)][/b]
The Word says, mentioning His own gift of grace: "I said, You are all sons of the Highest, and gods; but you shall die like men." He speaks undoubtedly these words to those who have not received the gift of adoption, but who despise the incarnation of the pure generation of the Word of God, defraud human nature of promotion into God, and prove themselves ungrateful to the Word of God, who became flesh for them. For it was for this end that the Word of God was made man, and He who was the Son of God became the Son of man, that man, having been taken into the Word, and receiving the adoption, might become the son of God. For by no other means could we have attained to incorruptibility and immortality, unless we had been united to incorruptibility and immortality. But how could we be joined to incorruptibility and immortality, unless, first, incorruptibility and immortality had become that which we also are, so that the corruptible might be swallowed up by incorruptibility, and the mortal by immortality, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

[b]St. Gregory of Nyssa [The Great Catechism, Chapter XXXVII (AD 385)][/b]
Rightly, then, do we believe that now also the bread which is consecrated by the Word of God is changed into the Body of God the Word. For that Body was once, by implication, bread, but has been consecrated by the inhabitation of the Word that tabernacled in the flesh. Therefore, from the same cause as that by which the bread that was transformed in that Body was changed to a Divine potency, a similar result takes place now. For as in that case, too, the grace of the Word used to make holy the Body, the substance of which came of the bread, and in a manner was itself bread, so also in this case the bread, as says the Apostle, "is sanctified by the Word of God and prayer"; not that it advances by the process of eating to the stage of passing into the body of the Word, but it is at once changed into the body by means of the Word, as the Word itself said, "This is My Body." Seeing, too, that all flesh is nourished by what is moist (for without this combination our earthly part would not continue to live), just as we support by food which is firm and solid the solid part of our body, in like manner we supplement the moist part from the kindred element; and this, when within us, by its faculty of being transmitted, is changed to blood, and especially if through the wine it receives the faculty of being transmuted into heat. Since, then, that God-containing flesh partook for its substance and support of this particular nourishment also, and since the God who was manifested infused Himself into perishable humanity for this purpose, viz. that by this communion with Deity mankind might at the same time be deified, for this end it is that, by dispensation of His grace, He disseminates Himself in every believer through that flesh, whose substance comes from bread and wine, blending Himself with the bodies of believers, to secure that, by this union with the immortal, man, too, may be a sharer in incorruption. He gives these gifts by virtue of the benediction through which He transelements the natural quality of these visible things to that immortal thing.

[b]St. Hilary of Poitiers [Homily on Psalm 91][/b]
We are reconciled in the body of His flesh. Therefore by union with the flesh that He assumed, we are in Christ. This is God's mystery, hidden in God for ages and generations and now revealed to His saints, that in Christ we are coheirs, concorporate and comparticipants in the promise of God (Eph. 3:5 6). By union with His flesh, all enter into Christ. He will transform their baseness into the glory of His flesh, on condition that they resist their passions, purify themselves of their stains in the sacrament of the new birth, and remember that henceforth they bear not their own flesh, but Christ's.

[b]St. Augustine [Sermon 71:4-5][/b]
And how do they become the sons of God? "Who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God." Having received power to become the sons of God, they are born of God. Mark then: They are born of God, "not of blood," like their first birth, like that wretched birth, issuing out of wretchedness. But they who are born of God, what were they? whereby were they first born? Of blood; of the joint blood of the male and female, of the carnal union of male and female, from this were they born. From whence now? They are born of God. The first birth of the male and female; the second birth of God and the Church.
Lo, they are born of God; whereby is it brought to pass that they should be born of God, who were first born of men? Whereby is it brought to pass, whereby? "And the Word was made Flesh, that It might dwell among us." Wondrous exchange; He made Flesh, they spirit. What is this? What condescension is here, my brethren! Lift up your minds to the hope and comprehension of better things. Give not yourselves up to worldly desires. "Ye have been bought with a Price; " for your sakes the Word was made Flesh; for your sakes He who was the Son of God, was made the Son of man: that ye who were the sons of men, might be made sons of God. What was He, what was He made? What were ye, what were ye made? He was the Son of God. What was He made? The Son of man. Ye were the sons of men. What were ye made? The sons of God. He shared with us our evil things, to give us His good things. But even in that He was made the Son of man, He is different much from us. We are the sons of men by the lust of the flesh; He the Son of man by the faith of a virgin. The mother of any other man whatever conceives by a carnal union; and every one is born of human parents, his father and his mother. But Christ was born of the Holy Ghost, and the Virgin Mary. He came to us, but from Himself departed not far; yea from Himself as God He departed never; but added what He was to our nature. For He came to that which He was not, He did not lose what He was. He was made the Son of man; but did not cease to be the Son of God. Hereby the Mediator, in the middle. What is, "in the middle "? Neither up above, nor down below. How neither up above, nor down below? Not above, since He is Flesh; not below, since He is not a sinner. But yet in so far as He is God, above always. For He did not so come to us, as to leave the Father. From us He went, and did not leave us; to us will He come again, and will not leave Him.

[b]St. Athanasius [Orationes contra Arianos, Discourse III, Paragraph 34 (AD 356)][/b]
As the Lord, putting on the body, [and] became man, so we men are deified by the Word as being taken to Him through His flesh, and henceforward inherit life everlasting.

[b]St. Basil the Great [On the Holy Spirit, Chapter 9][/b]
From the Spirit comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of the mysteries of faith, insight into the hidden meaning of Scripture, and other special gifts. Through the Spirit we become citizens of heaven, we are admitted to the company of the angels, we enter into eternal happiness, and abide in God. Through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God; indeed, we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations -- we become God.

[b]St John of Damascus [De Fide Orthodoxa, Book II, Chapter 12][/b]
God then made man without evil, upright, virtuous, free from pain and care, glorified with every virtue, adorned with all that is good, like a sort of second microcosm within the great world, another angel capable of worship, compound, surveying the visible creation and initiated into the mysteries of the realm of thought, king over the things of earth, but subject to a higher king, of the earth and of the heaven, temporal and eternal, belonging to the realm of sight and to the realm of thought, midway between greatness and lowliness, spirit and flesh: for he is spirit by grace, but flesh by overweening pride: spirit that he may abide and glorify his Benefactor, and flesh that he may suffer, and suffering may be admonished and disciplined when he prides himself in his greatness: here, that is, in the present life, his life is ordered as an animal's, but elsewhere, that is, in the age to come, he is changed and--to complete the mystery--becomes deified by merely inclining himself towards God; becoming deified, in the way of participating in the divine glory and not in that of a change into the divine being.

[b]St. Augustine [Sermon 13][/b]
Beloved, our Lord Jesus Christ, the eternal Creator of all things, today became our Savior by being born of a mother. Of His own will He was born for us today, in time, so that He could lead us to His Father's eternity. God became man so that man might become God. The Lord of the angels became man today so that man could eat the bread of angels."

[b]St. Hippolytus [On the Refutation of All Heresies][/b]
When we have come to know the true God, both our bodies and our souls will be immortal and incorruptible. We shall enter the kingdom of heaven, because while we lived on earth we acknowledged heaven's King. Friends of God and coheirs with Christ, we shall be subject to no evil desires or inclinations, or to any affliction of body or soul, for we shall have become divine. It was because of our human condition that God allowed us to endure these things, but when we have been deified and made immortal, God has promised us a share in his own attributes.

[b]St John of Damascus [De Fide Orthodoxa, Book IV, Chapter 13][/b]
Man, however, being endowed with reason and free will, received the power of continuous union with God through his own choice, if indeed he should abide in goodness, that is in obedience to his Maker. Since, however, he transgressed the command of his Creator and became liable to death and corruption, the Creator and Maker of our race, because of His bowels of compassion, took on our likeness, becoming man in all things but without sin, and was united to our nature. For since He bestowed on us His own image and His own spirit and we did not keep them safe, He took Himself a share in our poor and weak nature, in order that He might cleanse us and make us incorruptible, and establish us once more as partakers of His divinity.
For it was fitting that not only the first-fruits of our nature should partake in the higher good but every man who wished it, and that a second birth should take place and that the nourishment should be new and suitable to the birth and thus the measure of perfection be attained. Through His birth, that is, His incarnation, and baptism and passion and resurrection, He delivered our nature from the sin of our first parent and death and corruption, and became the first-fruits of the resurrection, and made Himself the way and image and pattern, in order that we, too, following in His footsteps, may become by adoption what He is Himself by nature, sons and heirs of God and joint heirs with Him. He gave us therefore, as I said, a second birth in order that, just as we who are born of Adam are in his image and are the heirs of the curse and corruption, so also being born of Him we may be in His likeness and heirs of His incorruption and blessing and glory.

[b]St. Hilary of Poitiers [De Trinitate: Book IX, Paragraph 38][/b]
The Incarnation is summed up in this, that the whole Son, that is, His manhood as well as His divinity, was permitted by the Father's gracious favor to continue in the unity of the Father's nature, and retained not only the powers of the divine nature, but also that nature's self. For the object to be gained was that man might become God.


[b]Texts from the [u]Catechism of the Catholic Church[/u]:[/b]

[b]257[/b] "O blessed light, O Trinity and first Unity!" God is eternal blessedness, undying life, unfading light. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. God freely wills to communicate the glory of his blessed life. Such is the "plan of his loving kindness", conceived by the Father before the foundation of the world, in his beloved Son: "He destined us in love to be his sons" and "to be conformed to the image of his Son", through "the spirit of sonship". [Eph.1:4-5, 9; Rom. 8:15, 29] This plan is a "grace [which] was given to us in Christ Jesus before the ages began", stemming immediately from Trinitarian love. [2 Tim. 1:9-10] It unfolds in the work of creation, the whole history of salvation after the fall, and the missions of the Son and the Spirit, which are continued in the mission of the Church.

[b]260[/b] The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God's creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity. [cf. Jn. 17:21-23] But even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity: "If a man loves me", says the Lord, "he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him": [Jn. 14:23]
"O my God, Trinity whom I adore, help me forget myself entirely so to establish myself in you, unmovable and peaceful as if my soul were already in eternity. May nothing be able to trouble my peace or make me leave you, O my unchanging God, but may each minute bring me more deeply into your mystery! Grant my soul peace. Make it your heaven, your beloved dwelling and the place of your rest. May I never abandon you there, but may I be there, whole and entire, completely vigilant in my faith, entirely adoring, and wholly given over to your creative action." [Prayer of Blessed Elizabeth of the Trinity]

[b]265[/b] By the grace of Baptism "in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit", we are called to share in the life of the Blessed Trinity, here on earth in the obscurity of faith, and after death in eternal light (cf., Paul VI, CPG #9).

[b]398[/b] In that sin man preferred himself to God and by that very act scorned him. He chose himself over and against God, against the requirements of his creaturely status and therefore against his own good. Constituted in a state of holiness, man was destined to be fully "divinized" by God in glory. Seduced by the devil, he wanted to "be like God", but "without God, before God, and not in accordance with God."

[b]460[/b] Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature": [2 Pet. 1:4] "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God." [St. Irenaeus, Adv. Haers. 3,19, 1] "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God." [St. Athanasius, De Inc., 54, 3] "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods." [St. Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57:1-4]

[b]1239[/b] The essential rite of the sacrament follows: Baptism properly speaking. It signifies and actually brings about death to sin and entry into the life of the Most Holy Trinity through configuration to the Paschal mystery of Christ. Baptism is performed in the most expressive way by triple immersion in the baptismal water. However, from ancient times it has also been able to be conferred by pouring the water three times over the candidate's head.

[b]1265[/b] Baptism not only purifies from all sins, but also makes the neophyte "a new creature," an adopted son of God, who has become a "partaker of the divine nature," [2 Cor. 5:17; 2 Pet. 1:4; cf. Gal. 4:5-7] member of Christ and co-heir with him, [Cf. 1 Cor .6:15; 12:27; Rom. 8:17] and a temple of the Holy Spirit.[ cf., 1 Cor. 6:19]

[b]1391[/b] Holy Communion augments our union with Christ. The principal fruit of receiving the Eucharist in Holy Communion is an intimate union with Christ Jesus. Indeed, the Lord said: "He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him." [Jn. 6:56] Life in Christ has its foundation in the Eucharistic banquet: "As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me." [Jn. 6:57]
On the feasts of the Lord, when the faithful receive the Body of the Son, they proclaim to one another the Good News that the first fruits of life have been given, as when the angel said to Mary Magdalene, "Christ is risen!" Now too are life and resurrection conferred on whoever receives Christ.

[b]1812[/b] The human virtues are rooted in the theological virtues, which adapt man's faculties for participation in the divine nature: [cf., 2 Pet. 1:4] for the theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God for their origin, motive, and object.

[b]1988[/b] Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part in Christ's Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto the vine which is himself: [cf., 1 Cor. 12; Jn. 15:1-4]
[God] gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine nature.... For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized. [St. Athanasius, Ep. Serap. 1, 24]

[b]1996[/b] Our justification comes from the grace of God. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life. [cf., Jn. 1:12-18; 17:3; Rom. 8:14-17; 2 Pet. 1:3-4]

[b]1997[/b] Grace is a participation in the life of God. It introduces us into the intimacy of Trinitarian life: by Baptism the Christian participates in the grace of Christ, the Head of his Body. As an "adopted son" he can henceforth call God "Father," in union with the only Son. He receives the life of the Spirit who breathes charity into him and who forms the Church.

[b]1999[/b] The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of sanctification: [Jn. 4:14; 7:38-39]
Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself. [2 Cor. 5:17-18]

[b]2009[/b] Filial adoption, in making us partakers by grace in the divine nature, can bestow true merit on us as a result of God's gratuitous justice. This is our right by grace, the full right of love, making us "co-heirs" with Christ and worthy of obtaining "the promised inheritance of eternal life." [Council of Trent, DS1546] The merits of our good works are gifts of the divine goodness. [cf., Council of Trent, DS1548] "Grace has gone before us; now we are given what is due.... Our merits are God's gifts." [St. Agustine, Sermo 298:4-5]

Edited July 7, 2004 by Apotheoun

[Guest JeffCR07]

thanks Todd, there have been a ton of questions about this stuff, and that was a pretty thorough answer. I think phat or dust should post this on the website somewhere so that we have it to keep. Thanks again!

- Your Brother in Christ, Jeff

[BeenaBobba]

Thanks for posting that, Todd.

God bless,

Jen

[phatcatholic]

apotheoun,

that was [i][b]exactly [/b][/i]what i needed!! thanks alot man!!

i'm posting this in the "salvation" entry and pinning it at the top of this board for a while.

pax christi,
phatcatholic

[phatcatholic]

pham,

i was reading an [url="http://www.columbia.edu/cu/augustine/a/divfil.html"][b]article on the effects of baptism[/b][/url] and many of the scripture found in the article also pertains to the doctrine of theosis. they include the following:

([b]note:[/b] i took out some verses, since Apotheoun already provided them in his post)

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. ([b]John 3:5[/b])

See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; it does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. And every one who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure. ([b]1 John 3:1-3[/b])

For I through the law died to the law, that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. ([b]Galatians 2:19-20[/b])

For in him the fullness of diety dwells bodily, and you have come to fulness of life in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. In him you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of flesh in the circumcision of Christ, and you were buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. ([b]Colossians 2:9-12[/b])

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin. ([b]Romans 6:3-6[/b])

To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his call, and may fulfil every good resolve and work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ. ([b]2 Thessalonians 1:11-12[/b])

Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sins were not like the transgression of Adam, who was a type of the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift in the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many. And the free gift is not like the effect of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brings justification. If, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ. Then as one man's trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and life for all men. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience many will be made righteous. ([b]Romans 5:14-19[/b])

[b]all of Ephesians 4[/b]:
[b]1 [/b]I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
[b]2 [/b]with all lowliness and meekness, with patience, forbearing one another in love,
[b]3 [/b]eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
[b]4 [/b]There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call,
[b]5 [/b]one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
[b]6[/b] one God and Father of us all, who is above all and through all and in all.
[b]7 [/b]But grace was given to each of us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
[b]8 [/b]Therefore it is said, "When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men."
[b]9 [/b](In saying, "He ascended," what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower parts of the earth?
[b]10 [/b]He who descended is he who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)
[b]11 [/b]And his gifts were that some should be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers,
[b]12 [/b]to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ,
[b]13 [/b]until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ;
[b]14 [/b]so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the cunning of men, by their craftiness in deceitful wiles.
[b]15 [/b]Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ,
[b]16 [/b]from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by every joint with which it is supplied, when each part is working properly, makes bodily growth and upbuilds itself in love.
[b]17 [/b]Now this I affirm and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds;
[b]18 [/b]they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart;
[b]19 [/b]they have become callous and have given themselves up to licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of uncleanness.
[b]20 [/b]You did not so learn Christ! --
[b]21 [/b]assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus.
[b]22 [/b]Put off your old nature which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful lusts,
[b]23 [/b]and be renewed in the spirit of your minds,
[b]24 [/b]and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
[b]25 [/b]Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
[b]26 [/b]Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,
[b]27 [/b]and give no opportunity to the devil.
[b]28 [/b]Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need.
[b]29 [/b]Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for edifying, as fits the occasion, that it may impart grace to those who hear.
[b]30 [/b]And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
[b]31 [/b]Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, with all malice,
[b]32 [/b]and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.


pax christi,
phatcatholic

Edited July 13, 2004 by phatcatholic

[phatcatholic]

bump..............cause this info is off the freakin hook

[Guest JeffCR07]

and again: same reason

[phatcatholic]

i'm probably going to pin this again once the Crusade is underway and the links i have pinned now are no longer needed. i don't want things to get too crowded up there

[Guest JeffCR07]

thats a great idea. Todd really hit a grand slam with this one: every single time I read it over my jaw drops just from the shear completeness of the teachings.

[phatcatholic]

for more information, see also [url="http://www.phatmass.com/phorum/index.php?showtopic=17619"][b]this thread[/b][/url] from the Debate Table, as well as the following article:

--[url="http://web.archive.org/web/20070426074923/http://home.nyc.rr.com/mysticalrose/grace3.html"][b]Grace and the Divinization of Humanity[/b][/url]

[phatcatholic]

i just found another excellent article:

--[url="http://web.archive.org/web/20070923192009/http://www.carl-olson.com/articles/picpuzzle_newcov.html"][b]A Picture for the Puzzle: Deification and the Catholic Faith[/b][/url]

[phatcatholic]

also this:

-- [url="http://tinyurl.com/6ds9e9"][b]Called to be Children of God[/b][/url]

[phatcatholic]

it appears that Carl Olson has written much on this subject. here's another by him:

--[url="http://web.archive.org/web/20070923192107/http://www.carl-olson.com/articles/divinization_star.html"][b]The Dignity of the Human Person: Divinization in the Work of John Paul II[/b][/url]

[MorphRC]

Holy Molly. Awesome stuff guys!

[phatcatholic]

we try