Theosis

Theosis. Usually translated as deification or divinization, i.e., the becoming like God by freeing ourselves from sin and uniting ourselves to God, i.e., salvation. Differing from the Western perspective, the concept of theosis works from the presumption that human beings by our very nature are created in order to share in the nature of the Holy Trinity by escaping a state of unholiness through participation in the Holy Mysteries of the Church. St. Athanasius of Alexandria tells us that “The Son of God became man, that we might become god.” Wait - why not God? Because try as we might through struggles to holiness we can never become God. That said, St. Athanasius goes on to tell us that theosis is “becoming by (God’s) grace what God is by nature (through the incarnation), fulfilling 2nd Peter 1:4 where we’re told that we becoming partakers of the divine nature. Some Orthodox theologians have said that Christ would have become incarnate for this purpose alone, even without the Fall of Adam and Eve, but that through our struggle (podvig) we can have real faith which leads to action and ultimately helps us conform to the image of Christ.