Theosis — Becoming by Grace What God Is by Nature
As taught in the Eastern Orthodox tradition
The Orthodox vision of salvation as participation in God's uncreated energies.
In the Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition, the doctrine of salvation is not primarily understood through forensic or juridical categories—such as the satisfaction of a legal debt—but as an ontological transformation and elevation of the human person. This is the doctrine of theosis, or deification: the belief that human beings are called to become by grace what God is by nature.
By the end of this lesson
- Define theosis without confusing it with pantheism or essence-deification
- Explain Palamas's essence/energies distinction
- Trace the biblical foundations in 2 Peter 1:4 and John 17:20-23
- Connect theosis to the practice of hesychasm and the Jesus Prayer
- Distinguish Eastern theosis from Western "imputed righteousness" without caricaturing either
Scripture
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