FROM THEOSIS

The teachings of many early Church fathers, especially about the incarnation of Jesus Christ, reveal that the emphasis of the Apostles and the early church was theosis - making divine. It is an orthodox Christian doctrine, that refers to the transformative process of becoming like or united with God. The patristic fathers taught that in Christ, God became human except sin, in order to make humans become God except in His essence. They explained that though accomplished by the workings of God, in theosis, a person must willingly participate in the life of God through practices like the liturgies and sacraments of the Church, incessant prayer etc., so that through purification of mind and body (catharsis), the life of God, given in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit, will be expressed through the experience of the knowledge of God (theora). Thus, through catharsis and theora, man can increasingly participate in the divine nature to finally arrive at a union with God to the degree that in Christ, God became one with humanity. At their level of understanding this wasn't something that happened at salvation but an ongoing process that is consummated at the resurrection in the coming kingdom. Though it hardly resulted in the certainty of attaining total divine union in the present life, it was a very great place to begin with. Hallelujah!