Over in GD, Friar Ted responded to a question from WeRSauron about the Witness Lee/Watchman Nee “Local Church” group with a post that included the following:
I know the Orthodox term for this is theosis and that Friar Ted’s final sentence is, well, orthodox Orthodox doctrine. But I have a hard time grasping exactly what’s being said and the nuances involved. I know there are a few Dopers who are or were Orthodox Christians – wondering if they could shed any light on the doctrine, and what it does and doesn’t say.
Thanks for jumping on this, Poly. I wanna see the responses also.
A few years ago, there was a very simplistic version of “Theosis” doctrine going on in Charismatic/Word-of-Faith circles that could be summarized under the unfortunately accurate title of “the little gods doctrine”. It fortunately has seemed to have fallen by the wayside. C.S. Lewis touches on Theosis in some of his writings also. I’ve also seen LatterDaySaint writers appeal to it, tho for some reason, Armstrongists have not.
if any Orthodox here are familiar with the WordOfFaith, Armstrongist, or LatterDaySaint versions of “Deification”, would you compare & contrast please?
The best potted version of theosis I’ve yet found is the brief section in Bp. Kallistos Ware’s The Orthodox Church, which section can be found here (scroll down to the part that says ‘Partakers of the Divine Nature’). Huge amounts of exposition can be found on this subject in the fathers, especially in the Philokalia – unfortunately, most of it seems to be unavailable online. Metr. Hierotheos of Vlachos has some good writings, excerpts of which are available online. His The Illness and Cure of the Soul has some good exposition on theosis; unfortunately, the sections that deal mainly with it do not appear to be excerpted online. I’ll poke around some more and see if I can dig up some more information – this topic is complex and nuanced enough that I don’t feel qualified to expound on it at all.
FriarTed, I am not familiar with any of those versions of theosis you mentioned – I’ve never heard of the first two, and I have only a vague and hazy idea of what the Latter-Day Saints believe on this subject. Would you mind giving a brief outline of what those versions teach?
John 10:32-38
(In which Jesus of Nazareth channels Psalms 82)
Sufficient grounds to say Jesus of Nazareth was pretty compatible with the doctrine of Theosis himself.
(I acknowledge room exists for drawing other conclusions based on other things said at other times)
Latter Day Saint version- Father God is an exalted man who became God through obedience to His Father God. He and His Wife parented us in the Spirit Realm but in order to become Divine, we have to be born in the material realm and overcome as They did. “As man is, God once was; As God is, man can someday become.”
Armstrongist version- There has eternally been two Persons in the God Family, which is the significance of the term Elohim- God (the Father) and the Word (Who became the Son when taking flesh as Jesus). They created us to grow in character in Godliness until the Resurrection when we are born in Spirit to become members of the God Family. The Holy Spirit is not a Third Person in a closed Triune God Family, but the Divine Energy which will transform us into children in the God Family.
Word of Faith version- God created Adam in His Image to grow into Divinity, but he sold out his heritage to the Devil, making it “god of this world”. Christ came to destroy the Devil’s works & divest it of that title, restoring His Image & “godship” to believers, who can exercize Divine authority by the “word of faith” in submission to Christ. Thus we are now and are growing into becoming “little gods”.