Sanctification and deification

[Steve Hayes]

Sometimes people have asked about the relationship between the Calvinist
concept of sanctification and the Orthodox concept of theosis/deification.

Here are some useful thoughts on the topic:


Is deification sanctification? – Response to a question
Posted on March 12, 2013 by Shadow

http://reflectionsforthesoul.com/2013/03/12/is-deification-sanctification-response-to-a-question/

The question was posed: “Is deification sanctification?” The short answer is
in the negative although sanctification is part and parcel of the process of
deification. Meanwhile, the long answer is herewith reblogged for your
information from The Divine Heart of God the Father.

RESPONSE TO THE QUESTION

Deification is the attaining of likeness to God and union with Him so far as
is possible (Dionysus the Aeropagite, EH 1. 3, PG 3. 376a).

God, you see, wants to make you a god; not by nature, of course, like the One
whom He begot but by His gift and by adoption (Augustine of Hippo, Sermon
166.4).

Deification or the “divinization of the Christian is not an identification
with God [but] an assimilation, a very eminent restoration of the original
divine likeness [through a process where one] participates by grace in the
perfections that God possesses by nature” (Gross, 1936/2003). Deification
results in theoria of the uncreated Light (Gregory of Palamas, 1338/1983;
Lossky, 2001). Thus deification and its process are directly related to
theosis: the vision of the Divine Light (Lossky, 1983, 1997).

Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologica, 2.1:112.1) maintained that in deification,
“the gift of grace surpasses every capability of created nature, since it is
nothing short of a partaking of the Divine Nature, which exceeds every other
nature . . . God alone should deify, bestowing a partaking of the Divine
Nature by a participated likeness.” Meanwhile, Gregory of Palamas (1338/1983)
said that in deification, “the Paraclete illuminates from on high the man
sitting praying in the ‘upper room,’ the highest point human nature can reach,
and awaiting the promise of the Father, and catches him up to theoria of the
light.” Those who experience theoria arising from the process of deification
see “God within themselves as in a mirror” (ibid.).

Deification versus Salvation

Many, especially in modern Western Christianity, tend to commingle the terms
“salvation” and “deification” as though they have the same meaning. But this
manifests poor understanding of the two terms as originally meant by the
Fathers of the Church, because replacing the language and context of “theosis
with salvation is an attempt to supplant Patristic theology with standard
Reformation language” (Kharlamov, 2010). Deification transcends salvation
because it constitutes not just “the forgiveness of sins through the Holy
Spirit but man’s participation in the Holy Spirit” (Vlachos, 2010) – two
completely different things.

The forgiveness of sins through the Spirit is a regular grace in the lives of
Christians who avail themselves of the sacrament of reconciliation, whereas
participation in the Spirit results in the actual transformation of human
nature by divine transcendence. An accurate example of deification as intended
by the Fathers is the narrative of what happened to Seraphim of Sarov (2010)
when he was speaking to his spiritual son. It is also the true, inherent
meaning of the phrase: “all the faithful of Christ of whatever rank or status,
are called to the fullness of the Christian life” (Paul VI, 1964), in regard
to the universal call to holiness within the Church.

Specifically, where references exist “to human participation in divine life,
there we assuredly have a claim specifically of theosis. This kind of claim
regarding participation in divine life is carefully to be distinguished,
however, from the idea of divine indwelling in the human person. Both schemes
of sanctification draw on the notion of union, but whereas the latter locates
sanctification within the creature and in via, the former [deification]
locates it at the level of the divine and insists upon the inseparability of
life in via and in patria . . . [A marker of] the doctrine, then, is the union
of God and humanity, when this union is conceived as humanity’s incorporation
into God, rather than God’s into humanity, and when conceived as the destiny
of humanity generally rather than the extraordinary experience of the few”
(Williams, 1999).

In deification – as opposed to salvation – “the Spirit transforms the soul to
the image of the Logos, the natural Son of God, thus making the Christian an
adoptive child of God . . . Affecting, it seems the very essence of the soul,
this mysterious conformation is not of a moral nature only but of a physical
nature; it is a veritable partaking of the divine nature and of the divine
life” (Gross, 1936/2003). Hence salvation is a necessary part of deification
but does not, in and of itself, constitute deification as originally meant by
the Fathers.

He was made man that we might become god (Athanasius of Alexandria, De
Incarnatione 54.3).

Through Christ, the Word made flesh, man has access to the Father in the Holy
Spirit and comes to share in the divine nature (Paul VI, 1965, Dei Verbum).

According to Gregory of Palamas (1338/1983), the theologian of the Divine
Light, two kinds of deification exist and they both commence in this life. The
first kind refers to the “elevation of man to the highest level of his natural
powers [by] the divine power of grace [being] active in him. [The second kind
refers to that] progress which man makes beyond the limits of his natural
powers, beyond the boundaries of his nature, to the divine and supernatural
level” (Staniloae, 2005). To pass from the first kind of deification to the
second kind necessitates a leap of grace through the goodness of the Father –
through Christ, in the Holy Spirit – as “man too works during the first stage,
but during the second, only God” (Gregory of Palamas, 1338/1983). Deification
starts after purification has occurred, with illumination of the soul being
part of the latter stages of deification.

Illumination and Deification

When Adam was created, the Spirit of God robed him in holiness, making him a
perfect person. Such perfection, however, was not absolute but relative, in
order that Adam and his descendants could “progress peacefully and rise up
toward the perfect . . . draw closer to the Unbegotten” (Irenaeus of Lyon, Adv
Haer. 3.23.5 [963]). It was progressive deification which was intended for
mankind and presented for the working life of our first parent (Gross, 2003).
But since the fall, union with God became discontinuous since man became
imperfect (Gregory of Palamas, 1338/1983). Thus man becomes deified and “sees
the invisible God, to the extent in which his nous [the heart of his soul] has
been purified and illumined” (Vlachos, 2010).

Basil of Caesarea (363/1980) maintained that souls who become “illuminated by
the Holy Spirit transmit this grace to others and at the same time receive
many gifts, including foreknowledge of the future, understanding of mysteries,
apprehension of what is hidden, distribution of spiritual gifts, heavenly
citizenship, a place in the chorus of angels, joy without end, abiding in God,
being made like God, and, highest of all, being made god.”

Is it not written in your Law: I said, you are gods? (Jn 10:34).

He has given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be
made partakers of the divine nature (2 P 1:4).

Deification is neither the process of just acquiring the virtues as commonly
understood (although this is part of the process) nor the end-state of
deification itself (participation in the Beatific Vision after death), because
“all who are being led towards participation in the uncreated . . . Light, as
well as all who share in this light, are referred to as deified . . . [with
deification being] above nature and virtue and knowledge . . . [as] this grace
effects this ineffable union” (Gregory of Palamas, 1338/1983). So upon
illumination and contingent upon its outcome being embraced, man enters into
the latter stages of deification as he becomes “united with God and God dwells
within him” (ibid.).

Deification and Theoria

In deification, “man’s body participates in the theoria of God, but he sees
the Light and hears God’s voice only after his perceptive faculties have been
transfigured by divine grace. His senses are transformed in order to see the
Light” (Vlachos, 2010). Not everyone can see the uncreated Light, because
“that Light is invisible to those whose senses have not been transformed by
the Holy Spirit” (ibid.). But “it is possible, even in the present life, for
man to experience his deification already taking place. Palamas and the
mystical theologians of Byzantium link this experience with the practice of
continual prayer, whose aim is perpetual communion with God and hence the
vision of the Divine Light. This light is not a created medium nor a symbol of
the divine glory, but an uncreated, natural energy deriving from God’s
essence, which, when manifested and united with man, constitutes for him the
surest evidence of his deification and the highest form of his knowledge of
God” (Mantzaridis, 1984).

Peter of Damascus (1782) maintained that eight stages of theoria exist as
follows:

First stage – knowledge of life’s afflictions and temptations. True
awareness of God’s blessing amidst our trials and tribulations;
Second stage – knowledge of God’s graces and beneficence toward us. True
awareness of our sins and passions;
Third stage – knowledge of our sufferings, both before and after death;
Fourth stage – understanding the life of Jesus Christ before His Passion
and Resurrection. True knowledge of what the ascetics, martyrs, and saints
have said and done.
Fifth stage – knowledge of nature and its inner dynamics (logoi; Maximus
the Confessor);
Sixth stage – knowledge of the uncreated, providential energy of God;
Seventh stage – understanding the angels;
Eighth stage – theoria of God, the vision of the uncreated Divine Light.
Real knowledge of God and true theology.

Stages one to three happen to individuals concerned with practical virtue
(praxis) in the spiritual life. This is the state of purification and it is
likened to convalescence (Vlachos, 2005). Stages four to eight happen to
individuals whose nous – the heart of their souls – has been cleansed and
re-opened through illumination. These four stages are likened to healing.
Stage eight is related to the era of the eighth day, for “the vision of God is
Paradise for the purified, but Hell for the impure” (ibid.). Stage eight was
the state of Adam before the fall. Meanwhile, Gregory of Palamas (1338/1983)
subdivided the eighth stage of theoria into three separate stages: (1)
illumination of the nous, the heart or eye of the soul; (2) theoria, the
vision of God; and (3) uninterrupted theoria, the constant vision of God.
Illumination of the nous results from what is popularly known as the
illumination of conscience or life review.

Isaac the Syrian (2011) maintained that a soul has two ‘eyes’ with which to
perceive: one eye comprehends that which is hidden in nature (apprehended
theoria), whereas the other eye beholds the actual glory of God, the Divine
Light (unadulterated, received theoria). Meanwhile, Basil of Caesarea
(363/1980) said that when unadulterated theoria occurs, the prophets see
“images imprinted in their governing faculty (the nous) by the Spirit.”
Gregory of Palamas (1338/1983) added, “The Holy Spirit settles upon the nous
of the prophets and, using this governing faculty as material, announces the
future to them, and through them to us.”

Deification and Theology

Deification turns man into a theologian not because he has studied theology
intellectually, but because he attains theoria – the vision of God - through
grace. Nikitas Stithatos (in Vlachos, 2010) maintained that at this stage of
the spiritual life, man “communes with the angelic powers . . . approaches the
uncreated Light and the depths of God are revealed to him through the Spirit.
This man knows many things which are hidden from others, including mysteries
that exist in Holy Scripture.”

References

Athanasius of Alexandria, De Incarnatione 54.3.
Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 166.4.
Basil of Caesarea. (363/1980). On the Holy Spirit (D. Anderson, trans.).
New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
Dionysus the Aeropagite, EH 1. 3, PG 3. 376a
Gross, J. (1936/2003). The divinization of the Christian according to the
Greek Fathers (P. A. Onica, trans.). Anaheim, CA: A & C Press.
Gregory of Palamas. (1338/1983). The triads in defense of the holy
hesychasts (J. Meyendorff, ed.). New York: Paulist Press.
Irenaeus of Lyon, Adversus Haereses 3.23.5 (963).
Isaac the Syrian. (2011). Ascetical homilies of St Isaac the Syrian (2nd.
rev. ed., Holy Transfiguration Monastery, trans.). Brookline, MA.
Kharlamov, V. (2010). Theosis: Deification in Christian theology (S.
Finlan, ed.). Cambridge, UK: James Clarke & Co.
Lossky, V. (1983). The vision of God (A. Morehouse, trans.). New York: St
Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
Lossky, V. (1997). The mystical theology of the Eastern church. New York:
St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
Lossky, V. (2001). In the image and likeness of God (J. H. Erickson & T.
E. Bird, eds.). New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary Press.
Mantzaridis, G. I. (1984). The deification of man: St Gregory Palamas and
the Orthodox tradition (L. Sherrard, trans.). New York: St Vladimir’s Seminary
Press.
Paul VI. (1964). Lumen Gentium, 5 (40).
Paul VI. (1965). Dei Verbum, 2.
Peter of Damascus. (1782). Philokalia, 3108.
Seraphim of Sarov. (2010). On acquisition of the Holy Spirit (Kindle ed.).
Staniloae, D. (2005). The experience of God: The world: Creation and
deification. Brookline, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press.
Thomas Aquinas. Summa Theologica 2.1:112.1.
Vlachos, H. (2005). The illness and cure of the soul in the Orthodox
tradition (E. Mavromichali, trans.). Athens, Greece: Birth of the Theotokos
Monastery Press.
Vlachos, H. (2010). The science of spiritual medicine: Orthodox
psychotherapy in action. Athens, Greece: Birth of the Theotokos Monastery
Press.
Williams, A. N. (1999). The ground of union: Deification in Aquinas and
Palamas. New York: Oxford University Press.

http://reflectionsforthesoul.com/2013/03/12/is-deification-sanctification-response-to-a-question/

[RVG]

Post by Steve Hayes
Sometimes people have asked about the relationship between the
Calvinist concept of sanctification and the Orthodox concept of
theosis/deification.

tl;dr

The other important difference is that, by definition, the idea of
deification requires the belief in a deity, God as a supernatural being.

Sanctity OTOH can be defined as the realization of an ideal of wisdom
and morality that doesn't require such belief.