The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition

The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition
Author: Norman Russell
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2005-01-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0191532711

Deification in the Greek patristic tradition was the fulfilment of the destiny for which humanity was created - not merely salvation from sin but entry into the fullness of the divine life of the Trinity. This book, the first on the subject for over sixty years, traces the history of deification from its birth as a second-century metaphor with biblical roots to its maturity as a doctrine central to the spiritual life of the Byzantine Church. Drawing attention to the richness and diversity of the patristic approaches from Irenaeus to Maximus the Confessor, Norman Russell offers a full discussion of the background and context of the doctrine, at the same time highlighting its distinctively Christian character.

Deification in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition

Deification in the Eastern Orthodox Tradition
Author: Stephen Thomas
Publisher: Gorgias Press
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2008-06
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9781593336387

"This unique study brings together the best of contemporary exegesis with the tradition of Eastern Christianity and illustrates the biblical roots of the Eastern Church's understanding of grace as the energy of God: Grace is a transforming experience which exalts the Christian to a state in which sharing in the divine lilfe is possible, first as a pledge in this earthly life, then in paradise and at last in a glorious body at the final resurrection. The book presents, in lay terms, the shape for an Orthodox biblical theology for the 21st century and will be of interest to all Christians for whom the Bible is divine revelation and for whom tradition continues to be creative."--The publisher

With All the Fullness of God

With All the Fullness of God
Author: Jared Ortiz
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 279
Release: 2021-01-12
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1978707274

Christians confess that Christ came to save us from sin and death. But what did he save us for? One beautiful and compelling answer to this question is that God saved us for union with him so that we might become “partakers of the divine nature” (1 Pet 2:4), what the Christian tradition has called “deification.” This term refers to a particular vision of salvation which claims that God wants to share his own divine life with us, uniting us to himself and transforming us into his likeness. While often thought to be either a heretical notion or the provenance of Eastern Orthodoxy, this book shows that deification is an integral part of Catholicism, Orthodoxy, and many Protestant denominations. Drawing on the resources of their own Christian heritages, eleven scholars share the riches of their respective traditions on the doctrine of deification. In this book , scholars and pastor-scholars from diverse Christian expressions write for both a scholarly and lay audience about what God created us to be: adopted children of God who are called, even now, to “be filled with all the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19).

Partakers of the Divine Nature

Partakers of the Divine Nature
Author: Michael J. Christensen
Publisher: Baker Academic
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2008-02
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 080103440X

Scholars from around the world offer a comprehensive, ecumenical survey of the history and development of deification.

Christification

Christification
Author: Jordan Cooper
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 143
Release: 2014-07-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 162564616X

The doctrine of theosis has enjoyed a recent resurgence among varied theological traditions across the realms of historical, dogmatic, and exegetical theology. In Christification: A Lutheran Approach to Theosis, Jordan Cooper evaluates this teaching from a Lutheran perspective. He examines the teachings of the church fathers, the New Testament, and the Lutheran Confessional tradition in conversation with recent scholarship on theosis. Cooper proposes that the participationist soteriology of the early fathers expressed in terms of theosis is compatible with Luther's doctrine of forensic justification. The historic Lutheran tradition, Scripture, and the patristic sources do not limit soteriological discussions to legal terminology, but instead offer a multifaceted doctrine of salvation that encapsulates both participatory and forensic motifs. This is compared and contrasted with the development of the doctrine of deification in the Eastern tradition arising from the thought of Pseudo-Dionysius. Cooper argues that the doctrine of the earliest fathers--such as Irenaeus, Athanasius, and Justin--is primarily a Christological and economic reality defined as "Christification." This model of theosis is placed in contradistinction to later Neoplatonic forms of deification.

Theosis

Theosis
Author: Stephen Finlan
Publisher: James Clarke & Company
Total Pages: 193
Release: 2010-02-25
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0227903544

'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 in Russian Religious Thought

Deification in Russian Religious Thought
Author: Ruth Coates
Publisher:
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2019
Genre: History
ISBN: 0198836236

A study of the reception of the Eastern Christian Orthodox doctrine of deification by Russian religious thinkers of the immediate pre-revolutionary period.

Deification in Christ

Deification in Christ
Author: Panayiotis Nellas
Publisher: St Vladimirs Seminary Press
Total Pages: 254
Release: 1987
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780881410303

An excellent introduction to patristic anthropology. Cites a number of patristic passages at length, providing helpful references and notes.

The Ground of Union

The Ground of Union
Author: A. N. Williams
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 233
Release: 1999-06-17
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0195124367

This book attempts to resolve some of the oldest and most bitter controversies between the Eastern and Western Christian churches: those concerning the doctrine of God, the nature of salvation, and theological method, all of which converge in the doctrine of deification. Deification was the dominant patristic model of salvation and remained the essential paradigm in the East but was thought to have disappeared from Western theology by the Middle Ages. A. N. Williams examines two key thinkers, each of whom is championed as the authentic spokesman of his own tradition and reviled by the other side. Taking Thomas Aquinas as representative of the West and Gregory Palamas for the East, she presents fresh readings of their work that both reinterpret each thinker and show an area of commonality between them much greater than has previously been acknowledged.

Deification Through the Cross

Deification Through the Cross
Author: Khaled Anatolios
Publisher: Eerdmans
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2020
Genre: Deification (Christianity)
ISBN: 9780802877987

"An argument for a unified and normative Christian view of salvation"--