22.

 What is meant by the doctrine of theosis?

            The Greek Fathers, taking a number of scriptural passages in their literal sense (including those cited in 23 below), spoke of man's deification (theosis in Greek). Arguing that if man is to share in God's glory and be “perfectly one” with Him, man must become deified. That is, he is to become by grace what God is by nature.

            Although Orthodox Christians know that they do not become God or a part of Him (something that is not only blasphemous heresy, but impossible), still, God calls people into intimate communion with Him through participation in the life of His grace, that they may become children of God not by nature and begetting (as with Christ, the Only-Begotten Son of God), but by grace and adoption. People are not called to the false glory which Satan once sought and was therefore cast down to hell, but to the true “power to become sons of God” (Jn 1:12), which raises them to Heaven.

            Regarding the literal interpretation noted above, Elder Cleopa of Romania explains that the mystery of Holy Scripture is understood and explained in three ways. He lists these ways as: 1) literal, according to the nominal, grammatical, verbal and historical meaning; 2) allegorical or metaphorical, which is superior to the former; and 3) spiritual. The elder adds that “according to the Fathers, the simplest of senses to alight upon is the first meaning, according to the letter of Scripture, to penetrate with discretion to the nature of Scripture requires modest learning, while to explain the depth of the meaning of Scripture is of the highest spiritual advancement and in need of the most divine grace” [The Truth of Our Faith, p. 48].