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Partakers of the Divine Nature The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions by Baker,2008]
Partakers of the Divine Nature The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions by Baker,2008, Paperback
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First published January 1, 2007
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About the author
Michael J. Christensen
16 books5 followersMichael J. Christensen, Ph.D.
Michael J. Christensen (M.A., Yale, Ph.D., Drew), is Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Director of the Shalom Initiative for Prophetic Leadership and Community Development at Drew University. He also is Senior Pastor of Epworth Berkeley United Methodist Church and Founder of WorldHope Corps, Inc.
He was “graduated with distinction” from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, with a B.A. in Literature and a minor in Psychology (1977). He has an M.A. in Religion from Yale Divinity School (1981) and a Ph.D. in Theological and Religious Studies from Drew University (1997). Currently, his research and writing interests include: apocalyptic eschatology, comparative spirituality, inter-religious theology, asset based community development, and social transformation.
Ordained in the Church of the Nazarene and a clergy member of The United Methodist Church, Dr. Christensen is author or editor of nine books and numerous articles on practical theology and spiritual practice.
Michael J. Christensen (M.A., Yale, Ph.D., Drew), is Associate Professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Director of the Shalom Initiative for Prophetic Leadership and Community Development at Drew University. He also is Senior Pastor of Epworth Berkeley United Methodist Church and Founder of WorldHope Corps, Inc.
He was “graduated with distinction” from Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, with a B.A. in Literature and a minor in Psychology (1977). He has an M.A. in Religion from Yale Divinity School (1981) and a Ph.D. in Theological and Religious Studies from Drew University (1997). Currently, his research and writing interests include: apocalyptic eschatology, comparative spirituality, inter-religious theology, asset based community development, and social transformation.
Ordained in the Church of the Nazarene and a clergy member of The United Methodist Church, Dr. Christensen is author or editor of nine books and numerous articles on practical theology and spiritual practice.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
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August 4, 2011Not all essays are created equal, and it's certainly true here. Still, some good stuff. I'm focusing mainly on the Eastern guys at the moment.
One essay is dealing with the neo-Palamism of Vladimir Lossky. Lossky is taking Gregory Palamas's essence/energy distinction and offering a new and more thorough critique of Thomism and Augustinianism. While the author disagrees with Lossky, I commend him for recognizing what is at stake in this debate. He goes after the strongest opponent of his position and gives his best argument. Let's look at it.
Lossky argues that Augustine's view of Absolute Divine Simplicity, making God's attributes identical with his essence, ultimately means that one either, when given the promise of 2 Peter 1:4, becomes part of God's essence (which means one becomes *the* unknowable essence of God), or one participates in God via created intermediaries (the sacraments, habitus grace, the created grace of Reformed imputationism). So, Lossky puts the dilemma: if you don't accept essence/energies distinction, you either say you become part of God himself (like his arm, I guess), or you never actually commune with God at all.
This is a devastating argument if true. Our author in this book goes to great pains to show it false. First he says Lossky has set up a false dilemma. More on this later. Then he points out areas where Lossky has taken his neo-Palamism to an almost overreactionary mania (there might be some truth here). Third, he notes where Palamism mirrors medieval Judaism in hypostasizing the divine attributes in the world (this may be true on one level, but I think there are responses to this). Fourthly, he notes that Thomism and Augustinianism posit different ways of participating in God (in other words, they deny that God is simply some glob of essence).
While I disagree with this author, it is a very fine chapter. Now, a response. Per points (2) and (3), I agree. I doweq54n't know enough about point (1) to speak authoritatively. As to (4)
So what gives? Well, what he says about (4) might be true. I have rhetorical problems with Augustine calling the Holy Spirit "the grace inside an individual." This relieves the Augustinian from the problem of "created grace" (!!!), but there's just something wrong-sounding about this. Another problem is while they don't like the neo-Palamites saying the Augustinian-Thomists believe God is a big glob of essence, a lot of Augustine's statements sound exactly like that! Let's look at what Augustine actually says.
He is called in respect to Himself both God, and great, and good, and just, and anything else of the kind; and just as to Him to be is the same as to be God, or as to be great, or as to be good, so it is the same thing to Him to be as to be a person.
St Augustine, On the Trinity, 7.6.11
Augustine says the Godhead is absolutely simple essence, and the same thing to be is to be wise (idem, 7.1.2).
more quotations are found here .
The point is that Augustine (even if only on the level of rhetoric) believed that God's attributes, since God was simple, are interchangeable with each other. Then add in that God's essence was identified with his attributes, and Lossky's critique seems unavoidable.
The rest of the book is quite interesting. Andrew Louth gives a very brief summary of deification in Orthodox theology, heavily relying on Bulgakov(!). There are good essays explicating deification in the Cappadocians and St Maximus. My particular favorite was the essay dealing with the lyrical poetry of St Ephrem the Syrian. Simply beautiful. Boris Jakim gives us an interesting take on Bulgakov's Russian theosis.
There are also token essays by Lutherans, Methodists, and Calvinists that will interest adherents of those respective denominations.
One essay is dealing with the neo-Palamism of Vladimir Lossky. Lossky is taking Gregory Palamas's essence/energy distinction and offering a new and more thorough critique of Thomism and Augustinianism. While the author disagrees with Lossky, I commend him for recognizing what is at stake in this debate. He goes after the strongest opponent of his position and gives his best argument. Let's look at it.
Lossky argues that Augustine's view of Absolute Divine Simplicity, making God's attributes identical with his essence, ultimately means that one either, when given the promise of 2 Peter 1:4, becomes part of God's essence (which means one becomes *the* unknowable essence of God), or one participates in God via created intermediaries (the sacraments, habitus grace, the created grace of Reformed imputationism). So, Lossky puts the dilemma: if you don't accept essence/energies distinction, you either say you become part of God himself (like his arm, I guess), or you never actually commune with God at all.
This is a devastating argument if true. Our author in this book goes to great pains to show it false. First he says Lossky has set up a false dilemma. More on this later. Then he points out areas where Lossky has taken his neo-Palamism to an almost overreactionary mania (there might be some truth here). Third, he notes where Palamism mirrors medieval Judaism in hypostasizing the divine attributes in the world (this may be true on one level, but I think there are responses to this). Fourthly, he notes that Thomism and Augustinianism posit different ways of participating in God (in other words, they deny that God is simply some glob of essence).
While I disagree with this author, it is a very fine chapter. Now, a response. Per points (2) and (3), I agree. I doweq54n't know enough about point (1) to speak authoritatively. As to (4)
So what gives? Well, what he says about (4) might be true. I have rhetorical problems with Augustine calling the Holy Spirit "the grace inside an individual." This relieves the Augustinian from the problem of "created grace" (!!!), but there's just something wrong-sounding about this. Another problem is while they don't like the neo-Palamites saying the Augustinian-Thomists believe God is a big glob of essence, a lot of Augustine's statements sound exactly like that! Let's look at what Augustine actually says.
He is called in respect to Himself both God, and great, and good, and just, and anything else of the kind; and just as to Him to be is the same as to be God, or as to be great, or as to be good, so it is the same thing to Him to be as to be a person.
St Augustine, On the Trinity, 7.6.11
Augustine says the Godhead is absolutely simple essence, and the same thing to be is to be wise (idem, 7.1.2).
more quotations are found here .
The point is that Augustine (even if only on the level of rhetoric) believed that God's attributes, since God was simple, are interchangeable with each other. Then add in that God's essence was identified with his attributes, and Lossky's critique seems unavoidable.
The rest of the book is quite interesting. Andrew Louth gives a very brief summary of deification in Orthodox theology, heavily relying on Bulgakov(!). There are good essays explicating deification in the Cappadocians and St Maximus. My particular favorite was the essay dealing with the lyrical poetry of St Ephrem the Syrian. Simply beautiful. Boris Jakim gives us an interesting take on Bulgakov's Russian theosis.
There are also token essays by Lutherans, Methodists, and Calvinists that will interest adherents of those respective denominations.
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July 25, 2011This volume is a fairly good place to begin if one wants a good overview of the scholarly state of things on this topic from a fairly wide variety of viewpoints. Some reviews are, however, definitely better than others Personally, I found the first two sections, on the context of Theosis in Christianity, and in Classical and Late Antiquity, to be especially valuable. Christensen's essay on Wesley and Theosis is a revision of an earlier published essay, and was tweaked just slightly, but fruitfully. The rest of the essays are rather a mixed bag.
February 2, 2021
Continuing our ongoing deification as those who participate in the divine nature, this work by Christensen/Wittung, expands our historical horizons. We are introduced into the mystery of this process by chapters on theosis in Paul, 2 Peter, the Cappadocians, early Patristic work, my old friend Maximus the Confessor, Ephrem the Syrian, perhaps the most remarkable monk to ever live after Evagarious Pontius, St. Anselm, Martin Luther, Calvin, Wesley, and the Russian school which includes Bulgakov, Berdeyeav, and even the modern day Catholic works of Karl Rahner.
September 22, 2017
I'm very interested in theosis but this didn't really get to the bones of the matter but rather got stuck on useless academic clutter. The concept has got to be one of Life itself not mere hypothetical speculation - it deserves better treatment
February 2, 2012
This book rocks. Being from a Western religious context, the ideas of the Eastern Christian churches often seem foreign, despite the fact that Eastern churches hold more strictly to the Church Fathers. Part of the problem, as the authors of this book point out, is that the West has slowly distanced themselves from certain difficult concepts, thus forgetting theological ideas that were once commonplace in Christian discourse.
The stated purpose of this book is to reacquaint readers with a particular Christian concept that is only recently starting to be revived: that we humans can be partakers of the divine nature and be divine ourselves. For many such a concept may seem bold, radical, and heretical, but the authors of this book show that many in the East still hold that humans can be divine and that many Church Fathers believed that we could be gods more strongly than the East does today.
Because the book is a collection of essays originally written for a conference about human divinity, the chapters of the book seem somewhat disjointed at times. But readers will still get a good exposure to various aspects of the concept of human divinity: what 'ancient' writers thought about it, what recent writers think, how some theologies mesh with human divinity though perhaps without expressly agreeing, and the historical development of the concept.
Especially for those who think that Christianity demands a certain lowliness from its adherents, this book is a fantastic companion to the theological and philosophical journey.
The stated purpose of this book is to reacquaint readers with a particular Christian concept that is only recently starting to be revived: that we humans can be partakers of the divine nature and be divine ourselves. For many such a concept may seem bold, radical, and heretical, but the authors of this book show that many in the East still hold that humans can be divine and that many Church Fathers believed that we could be gods more strongly than the East does today.
Because the book is a collection of essays originally written for a conference about human divinity, the chapters of the book seem somewhat disjointed at times. But readers will still get a good exposure to various aspects of the concept of human divinity: what 'ancient' writers thought about it, what recent writers think, how some theologies mesh with human divinity though perhaps without expressly agreeing, and the historical development of the concept.
Especially for those who think that Christianity demands a certain lowliness from its adherents, this book is a fantastic companion to the theological and philosophical journey.
February 5, 2013
“Eastern Orthodox spirituality has become increasingly popular in academic and lay circles, as has the ancient Christian idea of becoming ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1:4) . . . Western Protestant and Roman Catholic theologians are now in dialogue with Eastern Orthodox theologians on the subject of theosis. . . .
The topic of deification in the past was largely confined to patristic studies and discussions within Eastern Christianity. . . . There has been no full study of theosis across cultures and historical periods within the Christian traditions until now. This multiauthored volume achieves what no one writer probably could have achieved alone: it relates the various visions of deification (from its early Greek origins to modern constructions), related theological conceptions of ‘participation in the divine nature’ (transfiguration, sanctification, perfection, glorification, sophianization), and multiple trajectories of their development (East and West) in the rich history of ideas.”
Michael J. Christensen and Jeffery A. Wittung, “Introduction,” in Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions, eds. Michael J. Christensen and Jeffery A. Wittung (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 11-15 (11).
The topic of deification in the past was largely confined to patristic studies and discussions within Eastern Christianity. . . . There has been no full study of theosis across cultures and historical periods within the Christian traditions until now. This multiauthored volume achieves what no one writer probably could have achieved alone: it relates the various visions of deification (from its early Greek origins to modern constructions), related theological conceptions of ‘participation in the divine nature’ (transfiguration, sanctification, perfection, glorification, sophianization), and multiple trajectories of their development (East and West) in the rich history of ideas.”
Michael J. Christensen and Jeffery A. Wittung, “Introduction,” in Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions, eds. Michael J. Christensen and Jeffery A. Wittung (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2007), 11-15 (11).
January 12, 2017
This is a collection of essays by academic theologians about the doctrine of theosis (deification or divinization) throughout the Christian era. I was surprised to learn how widespread and yet diverse this idea is, from the Greek Church Fathers to the Reformers to modern Catholic theologians. The Eastern Orthodox Christian tradition has maintained the doctrine much more wholly than Western Christianity, but there is a new interest in the West about exactly what it means to "be partakers of the divine nature" as stated in 1 Peter. Reading through the lens of Mormonism (which gets only a parenthetical acknowledgment in the book) the deification views of ALL other Christians stem from the assumption that we are creatures, not actual children (except via adoption) of God. This assumption makes the idea of theosis more problematic, as theologians ruminate on the relationship between Creator and creations, and studiously avoid any possibility of pantheism. But there is much deep and likely inspired thinking in these pages. Well worth the rather difficult read if you are interested in this doctrine.
October 24, 2014
I m doing the thesis about the concept of deification, it is not a laymen written stylish book. It consist of the western views of deification, such as John Calvin, but it is not totally equal to the Eastern point of view. I still searching for the balance between Eastern and Western, but not yet founding what i'm looking for.
February 21, 2015
Excellent book on Theosis. I enjoyed the articles that took the reader from classical Greek philosophers to modern thought on the subject. This is a fascinating subject that has found neglect in modern evangelical and Calvinist theology that in now being examined once again.
Want to read
January 22, 2008Seems like an interesting read.
Want to read
January 23, 2008Interested in reading this one.
July 17, 2008
Great collection of articles. Louth, Star, McGuckin, and Hallonsten are good.
March 20, 2012
Read from May 10-15 2011
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews