Thank you emptybill for clarifying the Christian and Orthodox views on union
between God and human. It was disconcerting to think that there was such a
seperative divide between Eastern and Western religions on this most essential
of religious concepts.
On Saturday, February 8, 2014 5:20 PM, "emptyb...@yahoo.com"
<emptyb...@yahoo.com> wrote:
“Let me put it this way: He
believes all forms of enlightenment, etc., that entail the experience of union
with God are delusionary. His viewpoint is strictly Judeo-Christian in that
regard: God is wholly, immutably Other; there can be no ontological union
between human
beings and God.”
Robin’s views about uniting with God were his own views only. In fact, most
of what he asserted about “union with God” was private speculation – basically
cypto-Protestant
“make it up” theologizing.
Both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox theologies have clearly
explicated the nature of union with God – at least as far as that is possible
for humans. However, he never appeared interested in learning more - whether
about Catholic/Orthodox Christianity, Yogic Vedanta or Shankara’s Advaita
Vedanta.
I attribute this to a lack of genuine humility although he was constantly
espousing
a pseudo-humility.
There were many varied references to divinization in the writings of the Church
Fathers, including the following:
* Irenaeus (c. 130-200)
* "[T]he Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His
transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what
He is Himself."
* "'For we cast blame upon [God], because we have not been made gods
from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods; although God
has adopted this course out of His pure benevolence, that no one may impute to
Him invidiousness or grudgingness he declares, "I have said, Ye are gods; and
all of you are sons of the Most High." "
* "For it was necessary, at first, that nature should be exhibited;
then, after that, that what was mortal should be conquered and swallowed up by
immortality, and the corruptible by incorruptibility, and that man should be
made after the image and likeness of God."
* Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215)
* "[T]he Word of God became man, that thou mayest learn from man how
man may become God."
* "For if one knows himself, he will know God; and knowing God, he will
be made like God"
* "[H]is is beauty, the true beauty, for it is God; and that man
becomes God, since God so wills. Heraclitus, then, rightly said, “Men are gods,
and gods are men.” For the Word Himself is the manifest mystery: God in man,
and man God"
* "[H]e who listens to the Lord, and follows the prophecy given by Him,
will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the teacher—made a god going about
in flesh."
* "And to be incorruptible is to participate in divinity..."
* Justin Martyr (c. 100-165)
* "[Men] were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided
that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His
sons, and yet they, becoming like Adam and Eve, work out death for themselves;
let the interpretation of the Psalm be held just as you wish, yet thereby it is
demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming “gods,” and of having
power to become sons of the Highest."
* Theophilus of Antioch (c. 120-190)
* "For if He had made him immortal from the beginning, He would have
made him God. Again, if He had made him mortal, God would seem to be the cause
of his death. Neither, then, immortal nor yet mortal did He make him, but, as
we have said above, capable of both; so that if he should incline to the things
of immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he should receive as reward
from Him immortality, and should become God..."
* Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170-235)
* "And you shall be a companion of the Deity, and a co-heir with
Christ, no longer enslaved by lusts or passions, and never again wasted by
disease. For you have become God: for whatever sufferings you underwent while
being a man, these He gave to you, because you were of mortal mould, but
whatever it is consistent with God to impart, these God has promised to bestow
upon you, because you have been deified, and begotten unto immortality."
* "If, therefore, man has become immortal, he will also be God. And if
he is made God by water and the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the laver
he is found to be also joint-heir with Christ after the resurrection from the
dead."
* Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296-373)
* "Therefore He was not man, and then became God, but He was God, and
then became man, and that to deify us"
* "for as the Lord, putting on the body, became man, so we men are
deified by the Word as being taken to Him through His flesh."
* "For He was made man that we might be made God."
* Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-395)
* "For just as He in Himself assimilated His own human nature to the
power of the Godhead, being a part of the common nature, but not being subject
to the inclination to sin which is in that nature (for it says: "He did no sin,
nor was deceit found in his mouth), so, also, will He lead each person to union
with the Godhead if they do nothing unworthy of union with the Divine."
* Augustine of Hippo (c. 354-430)
* "'For He hath given them power to become the sons of God.'[John 1:12]
If we have been made sons of God, we have also been made gods."
* Maximus the Confessor
* "Nothing in theosis is the product of human nature, for nature cannot
comprehend God. It is only the mercy of God that has the capacity to endow
theosis unto the existing... In theosis, man (the image of God) becomes likened
to God, he rejoices in all the plenitude that does not belong to him by nature,
because the grace of the Spirit triumphs within him, and because God acts in
him."
* Cyril of Alexandria says that humankind "are called 'temples of God'
and indeed 'gods', and so we are."]
* Gregory of Nazianzus implores humankind to "become gods for (God's)
sake, since (God) became man for our sake."]
* Basil of Caesarea stated that "becoming a god is the highest goal of
all."]
Western Christian theology
Roman Catholicism
The importance of divinization (theosis) in Roman Catholic
teaching is evident from what the Catechism
of the Catholic Church says of it:
There were many varied references to divinization in the writings of the Church
Fathers, including the following:
* Irenaeus (c. 130-200)
* "[T]he Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His
transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what
He is Himself."
* "'For we cast blame upon [God], because we have not been made gods
from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods; although God
has adopted this course out of His pure benevolence, that no one may impute to
Him invidiousness or grudgingness he declares, "I have said, Ye are gods; and
all of you are sons of the Most High." "
* "For it was necessary, at first, that nature should be exhibited;
then, after that, that what was mortal should be conquered and swallowed up by
immortality, and the corruptible by incorruptibility, and that man should be
made after the image and likeness of God."
* Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215)
* "[T]he Word of God became man, that thou mayest learn from man how
man may become God."
* "For if one knows himself, he will know God; and knowing God, he will
be made like God"
* "[H]is is beauty, the true beauty, for it is God; and that man
becomes God, since God so wills. Heraclitus, then, rightly said, “Men are gods,
and gods are men.” For the Word Himself is the manifest mystery: God in man,
and man God"[Primary 4]
* "[H]e who listens to the Lord, and follows the prophecy given by Him,
will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the teacher—made a god going about
in flesh."
* "And to be incorruptible is to participate in divinity..."
* Justin Martyr (c. 100-165)
* "[Men] were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided
that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His
sons, and yet they, becoming like Adam and Eve, work out death for themselves;
let the interpretation of the Psalm be held just as you wish, yet thereby it is
demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming “gods,” and of having
power to become sons of the Highest."
* Theophilus of Antioch (c. 120-190)
* "For if He had made him immortal from the beginning, He would have
made him God. Again, if He had made him mortal, God would seem to be the cause
of his death. Neither, then, immortal nor yet mortal did He make him, but, as
we have said above, capable of both; so that if he should incline to the things
of immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he should receive as reward
from Him immortality, and should become God..."
* Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170-235)
* "And you shall be a companion of the Deity, and a co-heir with
Christ, no longer enslaved by lusts or passions, and never again wasted by
disease. For you have become God: for whatever sufferings you underwent while
being a man, these He gave to you, because you were of mortal mould, but
whatever it is consistent with God to impart, these God has promised to bestow
upon you, because you have been deified, and begotten unto immortality."
* "If, therefore, man has become immortal, he will also be God. And if
he is made God by water and the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the laver
he is found to be also joint-heir with Christ after the resurrection from the
dead."
* Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296-373)
* "Therefore He was not man, and then became God, but He was God, and
then became man, and that to deify us"
* "for as the Lord, putting on the body, became man, so we men are
deified by the Word as being taken to Him through His flesh."
* "For He was made man that we might be made God."
* Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-395)
* "For just as He in Himself assimilated His own human nature to the
power of the Godhead, being a part of the common nature, but not being subject
to the inclination to sin which is in that nature (for it says: "He did no sin,
nor was deceit found in his mouth), so, also, will He lead each person to union
with the Godhead if they do nothing unworthy of union with the Divine."
* Augustine of Hippo (c. 354-430)
* "'For He hath given them power to become the sons of God.'[John 1:12]
If we have been made sons of God, we have also been made gods."
* Maximus the Confessor
* "Nothing in theosis is the product of human nature, for nature cannot
comprehend God. It is only the mercy of God that has the capacity to endow
theosis unto the existing... In theosis, man (the image of God) becomes likened
to God, he rejoices in all the plenitude that does not belong to him by nature,
because the grace of the Spirit triumphs within him, and because God acts in
him."
* Cyril of Alexandria says that humankind "are called 'temples of God'
and indeed 'gods', and so we are."]
* Gregory of Nazianzus implores humankind to "become gods for (God's)
sake, since (God) became man for our sake."]
* Basil of Caesarea stated that "becoming a god is the highest goal of
all."]
Western Christian theology
Roman Catholicism
The importance of divinization (theosis) in Roman Catholic teaching
is evident from what the Catechism
of the Catholic Church says of it:
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."
Arguably the most prolific of the medieval scholastic theologians, Thomas
Aquinas, wrote:
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.
