Mary As Part Of The Trinity

[phatcatholic]

thanks jeff

[Guest JeffCR07]

Sure thing, though I think Todd just rocked the socks off this whole topic, lol

bloved, if you are still inquisitive about the subject of Theosis, phat has posted apotheoun's thorough support for the doctrine as a thread in and of itself at the top of the "apologetics" section.

- Your Brother in Christ, Jeff

[Apotheoun]

I originally posted the brief explanation quoted below in the thread on [url="http://phorum.phatmass.com/index.php?showtopic=14339"]Mary's Assumption[/url], but thought it might fit better here, because it deals with the doctrine of the Trinity in relation to the Church's teaching on the [i]theosis[/i] of man by grace. God is immutable and so man's divinization cannot change either God's essence or His trinitarian personal ([i]hypostatic[/i]) relations. Here is the original post:

[quote name='Apotheoun' date=' Jun 29 2004, 01:25 PM']The Fathers of the Church are insistent that deified man's participation in the divine nature does not mean that he participates in either the divine essence ([i]ousia[/i]), which is and remains wholly incommunicable and incomprehensible, nor in the personal ([i]hypostatic[/i]) reality of any one of the three divine persons, because personality is not something that can be communicated or imparted from one being to another. The divine essence, and the personal ([i]hypostatic[/i]) reality of the three divine persons, are utterly transcendent and incommunicable properties of God. So man is not absorbed by an essential participation in the divine nature, nor are human persons added to the Trinity; instead, through the process of deification ([i]theosis[/i]) man participates in the uncreated divine energies ([i]energia[/i]) which flow out from the divine essence as a gift to man from the three divine persons. In other words, by a completely unmerited gift of grace, man is elevated to a participation in the divine nature through the uncreated divine energies ([i]energia[/i]), and this involves no essential change, nor personal ([i]hypostatic[/i]) addition, to either God or man; instead, it entails an abiding communion ([i]koinonia[/i]) of life and love between the Trinity and humanity. [/quote]

I apologize for the rather technical nature of the original post, but I wanted to be as precise as possible in explaining the incommunicable nature of the essence of God and His tri-personality in relation to the doctrine of [i]theosis[/i]. For as St. Hilary pointed out, the mystery of the incarnation of God is not a mystery for Him, but for us, because His ". . . 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." [St. Hilary of Poitiers, [u]De Trinitate[/u]: Book IX, Paragraph 4] Therefore, in spite of the incarnation and the resulting deification of man that it effects, God, in His essence and in His tri-personal reality, is and remains utterly transcendent and incomprehensible.

Edited July 8, 2004 by Apotheoun