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Divinization (Christian)
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=== Catholic theology (including Latin and Eastern Churches) === {{Christian mysticism}} The term ''divinization'' is characteristic of Eastern Christian thought. Western Christianity, at least since [[Augustine of Hippo]] (354-430) named as the ''doctor of grace'', has always preferred to speak about supernatural grace transforming a Christian according to the Image of Christ. One cannot say, though, that the action of God on human nature conveyed in the term ''divinization'' (''theosis'') is alien to the Roman Catholic teaching, as is evident in Augustine repeating the famous phrase of [[Athanasius of Alexandria]]: "To make human beings gods, he was made man, who was God" (''Deos facturus qui homines erant, homo factus est qui Deus erat'' <ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.augustinus.it/latino/discorsi/discorso_245_testo.htm | title = Sermo 192,1 — 'In natali Domini'|website= augustinus.it |access-date= 2018-07-08}}</ref>).<ref name = BON/> It is evident from what the ''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'' says of Christians as partakers of the divine nature: {{Quote|The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature": "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God." "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God." "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods."<ref group=Primary>{{citation|title=''Catechism of the Catholic Church''|year=1995|publisher=Doubleday|location=New York|isbn=0385479670|chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/catechismofcatho00cath|author=Catholic Church|author-link=Catholic Church|chapter=Article 460|access-date=2012-11-06}}</ref>}} [[Medieval]] [[Scholasticism|scholastic]] theologian [[Thomas Aquinas]] wrote: {{quote|Now the gift of grace surpasses every capability of created nature, since it is nothing short of a partaking of the Divine Nature, which exceeds every other nature. And thus it is impossible that any creature should cause grace. For it is as necessary that God alone should deify, bestowing a partaking of the Divine Nature by a participated likeness, as it is impossible that anything save fire should enkindle.<ref group=Primary>{{citation|chapter-url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FS_Q112_A1.html|author=St. Thomas Aquinas, OP|author-link=Thomas Aquinas|title=Summa Theologiae |chapter=First Part of the Second Part, Question 112, Article 1, Response}}</ref>}} He also wrote of God's "special love, whereby He draws the rational creature above the condition of its nature to a participation of the Divine good".<ref group=Primary>{{citation|chapter-url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.FS_Q110_A1.html|author=St. Thomas Aquinas, OP|author-link=Thomas Aquinas|title=Summa Theologiae |chapter=First Part of the Second Part, Question 110, Article 1, Response}}</ref> and he ultimately roots the purpose of the [[Incarnation]] in theosis.<ref group=Primary>{{citation|chapter-url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/aquinas/summa.TP_Q1_A2.html|author=St. Thomas Aquinas, OP|author-link=Thomas Aquinas|title=Summa Theologiae |chapter=Third Part, Question 1, Article 2}}</ref> It is important to note, however, that the divinization taught by Aquinas, Augustine, and other Fathers is not ontological, meaning that souls do not take on the substance of God, but rather through grace, are gifted with the participation in the Divine Life.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/GraceActualAndHabitual|page=[https://archive.org/details/GraceActualAndHabitual/page/n351 340]|quote=communicable attributes of god pohle preuss.|title=Grace, Actual and Habitual: A Dogmatic Treatise|last1=Pohle|first1=Joseph|last2=Preuss|first2=Arthur|date=1917|publisher=B. Herder|language=en}}</ref> Of a more modern Roman Catholic theologian it has been said: "The theological vision of [[Karl Rahner]], the German Jesuit whose thought has been so influential in the Roman Catholic Church and beyond over the last fifty years, has at its very core the symbol of ''theopoiesis''. The process of divinization is the center of gravity around which move Rahner's understanding of creation, anthropology, Christology, ecclesiology, liturgy, and eschatology. The importance of this process for Rahner is such that we are justified in describing his overall theological project to be largely a matter of giving a coherent and contemporary account of divinization."{{sfn|Christensen|Wittung|2007|p=259}} Joshua Bloor in his article reveals the rise in deification from an array of Western traditions, looking closely at the Catholic Theologian Catherine LaCugna, arguing that LaCugna sees deification as "personal communion with God, which deifies the human in the process, conforming him/her into being Christ-like".{{sfn|Bloor|2015|p=184}} The [[Roman Rite]] liturgy expresses the doctrine of divinization or ''theosis'' in the prayer said by the deacon or priest when preparing the Eucharistic chalice: "{{lang|la|Per huius aquae et vini mysterium eius efficiamur divinitatis consortes, qui humanitatis nostrae fieri dignatus est particeps}}" ("By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.")<ref>{{harvnb|Johnston|1990|p=69}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Espín|Nickoloff|2007|p=614}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Plater|1992|p=52}}</ref> The Catholic Church teaches that God gives to some souls, even in the present life, a very special grace by which they can be mystically united to God even while yet alive: this is true mystical contemplation.<ref name="oce.catholic">{{harvnb|Sauvage|1913|p=663}}</ref> This is seen as the culmination of the three states, or stages, of perfection through which the soul passes: the [[purgative way]] (that of cleansing or purification, the Greek term for which is {{lang|el|κάθαρσις}}, ''katharsis''), the [[illuminative way]] (so called because in it the mind becomes more and more enlightened as to spiritual things and the practice of virtue, corresponding to what in Greek is called {{lang|el|Θεωρία}}, ''theoria''), and the [[unitive way]] (that of union with God by love and the actual experience and exercise of that love, a union that is called {{lang|el|θέωσις}}, ''theosis'').<ref>{{harvnb|Devine|1913|p=254}}</ref> The writings attributed to [[Dionysius the Areopagite]] were highly influential in the West, and their theses and arguments were adopted by [[Peter Lombard]], [[Alexander of Hales]], [[Albert the Great]], [[Thomas Aquinas]] and [[Bonaventure]].<ref>{{harvnb|Stiglmayr|1913|p=13}}</ref> According to these writings, mystical knowledge must be distinguished from the rational knowledge by which we know God, not in his nature, but through the wonderful order of the universe, which is a participation of the divine ideas. Through the more perfect knowledge of God that is mystical knowledge, a knowledge beyond the attainments of reason even enlightened by faith, the soul contemplates directly the mysteries of divine light. In the present life this contemplation is possible only to a few privileged souls, through a very special grace of God: it is the {{lang|el|θέωσις}} (theosis), {{lang|el|μυστικὴ ἕνωσις}} (mystical union).<ref name="oce.catholic" /> [[Meister Eckhart]] too taught a deification of man and an assimilation of the creature into the Creator through contemplation.<ref name="oce.catholic" /> Deification, to which, in spite of its presence in the liturgical prayers of the West, Western theologians have given less attention than Eastern, is nevertheless prominent in the writing of Western mystics.<ref name="Deification1997" /> [[Catherine of Siena]] stated God as saying: {{quote|"They are like the burning coal that no one can put out once it is completely consumed in the furnace, because it has itself been turned into fire. So it is with these souls cast into the furnace of my charity, who keep nothing at all, not a bit of their own will, outside of me but are completely set afire in me. There is no one who can seize them or drag them out of my grace. They have been made one with me and I with them."<ref group=Primary>{{citation|title=The Dialogue|year=1980|publisher=Paulist Press|location=New York|isbn=0809122332|author=Catherine of Siena|author-link=Catherine of Siena|page=[https://archive.org/details/dialogue00cath/page/147 147]|others=Suzanne Noffke, trans.|url=https://archive.org/details/dialogue00cath/page/147}}</ref>}} [[John of the Cross]] wrote: {{quote|"In thus allowing God to work in it, the soul ... is at once illumined and transformed in God, and God communicates to it His supernatural Being, in such wise that it appears to be God Himself, and has all that God Himself has. And this union comes to pass when God grants the soul this supernatural favour, that all the things of God and the soul are one in participant transformation; and the soul seems to be God rather than a soul, and is indeed God by participation; although it is true that its natural being, though thus transformed, is as distinct from the Being of God as it was before."}} [[Orestes Brownson]] wrote: {{quote|"The principle of the order founded by the incarnation of the Word is the deification of the creature, to make the creature one with the Creator, so that the creature may participate in the divine life, which is love, and in the divine blessedness, the eternal and infinite blessedness of the holy and ineffable Trinity, the one ever-living God. Creation itself has no other purpose or end; and the incarnation of the Word, and the whole Christian order, are designed by the divine economy simply as the means to this end, which is indeed realized or consummated in Christ the Lord, at once perfect God and perfect man, indissolubly united in one divine person. The design of the Christian order is, through regeneration by the Holy Ghost, to unite every individual man to Christ, and to make all believers one with one another, and one with him, as he and the Father are one. All who are thus regenerated and united, are united to God, made one with him, live in his life, and participate in his infinite, eternal, and ineffable bliss or blessedness."<ref group=Primary>{{citation|title=Our Lady of Lordes|year=1875|author=Orestes Brownson|author-link=Orestes Brownson}}</ref>}}
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