Theosis — What It Means to Become Like God:
Orthodox Christian Salvation & Deification Explained
ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN SALVATION
Author: Martinus Vaicarius (Martin Vaik – Singularity) – The Path of Deification | Theosis in Orthodox Theology | What Is Theosis
Introduction: What Is Theosis?
The question “what is theosis” is one of the most profound and least understood inquiries in the entire field of Christian theology. When someone raised in the Western Christian tradition hears that the Orthodox Church teaches the “deification” of human beings, it can initially sound mistaken — even arrogant. Yet it is precisely this — theosis, or deification — that forms the very heart of Orthodox Christianity, the ultimate goal of all its dogmas and spiritual life.
“Orthodox understanding of salvation” differs significantly from both the Roman Catholic and Protestant traditions. In Western Christianity, the concept of salvation is often juridical: the human being is a “sinner” who requires “justification” before God’s tribunal. Luther’s Reformation foregrounded sola fide — forgiveness received through faith alone. The Orthodox Church does not entirely reject this dimension, but redirects attention elsewhere: salvation is not merely forgiveness, but transformation. The human person must not only receive forgiveness — he must be changed.
Theosis (Greek: θέωσις) literally means “deification” or “becoming God.” Frightening? Yes — but Orthodox theology immediately clarifies that this does not mean a human being becomes another God in terms of essence. God is infinitely transcendent and unapproachable in His own nature (essence). Theosis means participation in God’s energies — in His life, love, light, and sanctification — while the person retains his own individual identity throughout.
“He (the Word of God) became flesh so that we might become God.” — St. Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296–373 AD), On the Incarnation, 54
“Deification in Christianity” is not an Orthodox invention — it is apostolic teaching, documented as early as the second century. St. Irenaeus of Lyons wrote: “Our Lord Jesus Christ… became what we are, in order to bring us to what He Himself is.” This brief sentence contains an entire theological world.
This article provides a thorough examination of the concept of theosis: its biblical foundations, its patristic development, the three stages of the spiritual journey, the pivotal contribution of Gregory Palamas, and the differences with Western soteriological frameworks. It is a complete Orthodox worship guide to the subject of theosis.
Biblical Foundations: Where Does Theosis Come From?
Before discussing the theological nuances of theosis, it is important to ask: is this truly a biblical concept? Orthodox theologians answer with a firm affirmative, pointing to a whole range of scriptural passages.
2 Peter 1:4 — The Primary Reference
The most direct biblical basis for theosis is 2 Peter 1:4: “Through these He has given us His very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.” The original Greek uses the phrase theias koinonoi physeos — “partakers of the divine nature.” This is a powerful ontological statement: Peter is not speaking merely of moral improvement, but of a genuine sharing in the nature of God.
Psalm 82:6 and John 10:34
Psalm 82:6 states: “I said, ‘You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High.'” Jesus Himself quotes this verse in John 10:34, responding to the Jews’ accusation of blasphemy: “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said you are gods’?” The Orthodox interpretation: Jesus here affirms the human calling to participate in the divine life.
Romans 8:29 and 1 John 3:2
The Apostle Paul writes: “For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” (Rom 8:29). The Apostle John adds: “Dear friends, now we are children of God… when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 Jn 3:2). Both passages speak of an ultimate likeness to Christ — this is the promise of theosis.
Matthew 5:48
The command from the Sermon on the Mount — “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect” — points to God as the supreme model. In Orthodox theology, this is not merely a moral ideal; it is a call to ontological transformation: to become, through the Father’s power, what God intends us to be.
In summary: theosis is not a later addition to Christian theology. It is a biblical category that has always stood at the very core of salvation in the Orthodox tradition.
The Church Fathers and the Development of Theosis: The Early Centuries
In the context of “what is theosis,” it is essential to trace how this concept took shape in the early Church. The idea of theosis did not emerge from nothing — it developed organically from the memory of the Apostles, refined and purified from Greek philosophy, and shaped through the spiritual experience of the early Church Fathers.
St. Irenaeus of Lyons (c. 130–202)
Irenaeus of Lyons is one of the first to articulate theosis clearly. In his work Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies), he writes: “When the Word became flesh, it was so that human beings might become gods.” Irenaeus also developed the idea of recapitulation (recapitulatio): Christ took upon Himself everything that the human being is, in order to give the human being everything that God is.
St. Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296–373)
Athanasius is the most frequently cited proponent of theosis. His famous phrase — “The Word of God became man so that we might become God” — is a dense summary of the entire theology of theosis. Athanasius emphasised that the purpose of the Incarnation was not merely redemption from sin, but the elevation of humanity into divine life. In the Incarnation, God became what we are so that we might become what He is.
The Cappadocian Fathers: Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus, Gregory of Nyssa (4th century)
The three Cappadocian Fathers gave the theology of theosis its philosophical rigour. Gregory of Nyssa developed the concept of epektasis — perpetual movement, an endless progress in the divine life even after death. For him, theosis is not a destination but an eternal process. Basil the Great emphasised the role of the Holy Spirit in theosis: it is precisely the Holy Spirit who transforms us.
Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (c. 5th–6th century)
Pseudo-Dionysius introduced apophatic (negative) theology into the theology of theosis: the essence (ousia) of God is entirely transcendent and incapable of being described in words. A human being can unite with God only through His energies, not through His essence. This distinction — essence versus energies — becomes central to the theology of Palamas.
Gregory Palamas: The Great Systematiser of Theosis
The Orthodox understanding of salvation reached its fullest systematisation in the fourteenth century through the work of Gregory Palamas (1296–1359). Palamas, Archbishop of Thessaloniki and a monk of Mount Athos, was compelled to defend the spiritual experience of the hesychasts (silent prayer practitioners) against the rationalist philosopher Barlaam of Calabria.
Essence and Energies — The Central Distinction
Palamas’s greatest theological contribution is the distinction between God’s essence (ousia) and God’s energies (energeiai). God is infinitely transcendent in His essence — no human being can know or unite with the divine essence itself. But God also reveals Himself through His energies — through His living presence, grace, light, and sanctification. These energies are not “parts of God” — they are the true God Himself, though not His innermost essence.
This distinction resolves one of the fundamental questions of theosis: how can a human being participate in the divine nature without merging with God (pantheism) or being merely externally “similar”? The answer is: we unite with God’s energies — with His true presence — while God’s unknowable essence always remains transcendent.
The Light of Tabor
Palamas used the Transfiguration of Christ on Mount Tabor (Mt 17) to illustrate theosis. When the disciples saw Christ “shining like the sun,” they beheld God’s eternal and uncreated light — not a created light. This Light of Tabor is accessible to all Christians who devote themselves to the hesychast life: to prayer, fasting, and asceticism.
“God became accessible through His divine energies while remaining inaccessible in His essence.” — Gregory Palamas, Triads II.3.8
Synergy — Cooperation Between God and the Human Person
A crucial aspect of understanding Palamite theosis is synergy (cooperation). Theosis is not solely God’s action upon the human being — it is the result of a dialogical encounter. God respects human free will and compels no one towards theosis. The human person must actively respond to God’s call — through will, prayer, the sacraments, and asceticism. Palamas: “Deification is not a unilateral act of God, but a loving cooperation between God and the Christian.”
The Three Stages on the Path to Theosis
Orthodox spiritual theology has developed a three-stage model for the journey towards theosis. This model is not a rigid ladder of steps, but rather a description of the progress that all travellers on the spiritual path pass through.
Stage 1: Katharsis — Purification
The first stage of theosis is katharsis (purification). The human person begins to struggle against sin — not only against individual transgressions (hamartema), but against the deepest inclination towards sin itself (hamartia). This involves repentance and the sacrament of confession, fasting and asceticism, the struggle against passions and disordered emotions (praktike), and a conscious dedication to prayer.
Katharsis is not merely a moral effort — it is spiritual work accomplished together with the Holy Spirit. In the hesychast tradition, this stage is inseparable from the Jesus Prayer: “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.” This brief prayer, repeated continually, purifies the mind and opens it to the presence of God.
Stage 2: Theoria — Illumination
Theoria means “vision” or “seeing” — it is the stage in which the purified person begins to experience the presence of God. Not abstractly, not merely intellectually, but as a living encounter. This is the awakening of the spiritual senses — the experience of God’s uncreated light, which Orthodox mystics have described as a distinctive sense of clarity, peace, and love.
Theoria is neither ecstasy nor a loss of control — it is a clarification and opening of consciousness to God. The art of prayer (hesychasm) is directly linked to theoria: through the practice of interior prayer, the person moves from the mind into the heart, where prayer ultimately becomes as natural and inseparable as breathing.
Stage 3: Theosis — Deification
The third stage is theosis in the narrower sense — complete transformation through the energies of God. The person does not cease to be human — rather, he becomes fully human, becoming what God created him to be. The saints glorified by the Church are examples of theosis: their lives, grace, miracles, and boundless love for others show what happens when a person opens himself entirely to the workings of God.
It is important to note that in Orthodox theology, theosis continues even after death. This process is not ended by death. The bodily resurrection is the point of completion of theosis — when the whole person, spirit and body alike, is fully transformed by the light of God.
“Theosis is not the privilege of the exceptional Christian — it is the calling of every baptised person.” — Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way
Theosis vs. the Western Doctrine of Salvation: Key Differences
Deification in Christianity has remained a marginal concept in the Western tradition since the Great Schism of 1054. Why? And what are the key differences between theosis and the Western understanding of salvation?
Juridical vs. Ontological Salvation
In Western Christianity — shaped especially by Augustine and Anselm — the dominant concept became that of the juridical satisfaction of sins. The human being stands guilty before God’s tribunal; Christ pays the “price” as a substitute; the human being is “declared righteous.” This is a forensic paradigm: the change occurs in the person’s status before God, not in the person’s very being.
Orthodox theosis is primarily ontological: what changes is the very being of the person. The question is not “How can a guilty person be set free?” but “How can a finite being become a participant in the infinite divine life?” Christ does not pay a “fine” — He transforms human nature itself.
Salvation as a Moment vs. Salvation as a Process
In many Protestant traditions, salvation is a moment — a “moment of conversion,” in which a person becomes “saved” through faith and the confession of Christ. For an Orthodox Christian, such a way of thinking is difficult to comprehend. Theosis is a lifelong — and indeed timeless — process. There is no moment at which a person is “finished” with theosis. The process continues for ever.
Synergism vs. Monergism
The Calvinist monergism of the Reformation — the teaching that God alone acts in salvation — stands in contrast to Orthodox synergy. In the Orthodox tradition, God cannot deify a person against that person’s will — such an act would not be love, but coercion. The active participation of the human being — receiving the Eucharist, fasting, praying, loving — is indispensable. At the same time, the capacity for all of this comes from God. This is not “works-righteousness” in the pejorative sense.
Theosis in Protestant Theology: A New Interest
In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, Protestant theologians have increasingly begun to take an interest in theosis. The Finnish Lutheran Tuomo Mannermaa demonstrated that elements of theosis can be found in Luther’s own theology — particularly in his concept of “Christ in faith” (Christus in fide). This has led to a more fruitful dialogue between Lutherans and Orthodox Christians.
Theosis in Practice: How Is the Path of Deification Lived?
The Orthodox understanding of salvation is not merely theoretical — it is expressed in concrete practices of spiritual life that the Orthodox Church offers to its members.
The Sacraments as Channels of Theosis
The Orthodox sacraments — above all Baptism, Chrismation, and the Eucharist — are the central means of theosis. In Baptism, the person is reborn as a child of God. In Chrismation, the gift of the Holy Spirit is conferred. In the Eucharist, the person truly partakes of the Body and Blood of Christ — this is the most direct expression of theosis: God enters into the person, and the person enters into God.
Prayer as the Path of Theosis
The hesychast practice of prayer — in particular the continual repetition of the Jesus Prayer — is the primary form of spiritual labour on the path of theosis. The Philokalia (Greek: “love of the beautiful”) is an anthology of spiritual texts from the fourth to the fifteenth centuries, guiding the person on the way of theosis. This four-volume work is the most important handbook of Orthodox spirituality.
Fasting and Asceticism
The Orthodox Church observes an extensive tradition of fasting: in total, approximately 180 days of fasting disciplines of varying degrees throughout the year. Fasting is not in itself the goal of theosis — it is a means by which the body and mind are purified to receive the presence of God. The Eastern Church Fathers emphasised that body and soul form an inseparable whole, and the purification of both is necessary.
The Example of the Saints
The veneration of the saints in Orthodox Christianity is intimately connected to theosis. The saints are not merely good people — they are examples of theosis, persons whose lives reveal the reality of God. Their miracles, prayers, and memory are honoured because their lives demonstrate what happens when a human being submits himself entirely to God.
Facts and Statistics
▪ The concept of theosis is documented from as early as the second century — a continuous tradition of over 1,800 years.
▪ St. Athanasius (296–373) has a celebrated phrase about theosis in chapter 54 of On the Incarnation, which has now been translated into more than 50 languages.
▪ The essence/energies distinction of Gregory Palamas (1296–1359) was formally declared an official dogma of the Orthodox Church at the Council of 1351.
▪ The Philokalia, the foundational text of hesychast spirituality, was translated into Russian in 1793 and profoundly influenced the development of Russian spirituality and literature (Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and others).
▪ Approximately 260–300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide hold theosis as the central concept of salvation.
▪ In the twentieth century, the Finnish Lutheran theologian Tuomo Mannermaa studied elements of theosis in Luther’s theology, giving rise to a new dialogue between Lutherans and Orthodox Christians.
▪ The word “divine” (theios) occurs in the Bible in the context of 2 Peter 1:4 — this is the primary New Testament foundation for theosis.
▪ The Second Vatican Council (1962–1965) acknowledged that theosis represents a point of genuine common ground between Catholic and Orthodox tradition.
▪ The monasteries of Mount Athos (Greece) have operated continuously since the tenth century and remain living mediators of hesychast spiritual life — the path of theosis — to this day.
▪ The Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church also holds theosis to be the central teaching of salvation, expressed through its liturgical life.
Conclusion
There is no easy answer to the question “what is theosis” — it demands the courage to think about salvation not merely as a juridical category, but as an ontological transformation. The Orthodox Church’s answer to the question “what does it mean to be saved” is radical: to be saved means to participate in the very life of God. Not only to receive forgiveness. Not only to enter heaven after death. But to be changed — already now, in this life — into what God created humanity to be from the beginning: the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26), participating in the boundless and uncreated light of divine life.
“Orthodox understanding of salvation” is the defining mark of Eastern Christianity. It differs from Western soteriological models not in complete opposition, but in emphasis: the West asks “How can a person be freed from guilt?” — the East asks “How can a person become like God?” Both questions are legitimate, but the Orthodox answer is more ambitious and — in the view of Orthodox theologians — more faithful to the witness of Scripture.
“Deification in Christianity” is a subject that has attracted attention in Western theology throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. This is a sign that theosis is not the exclusive property of Orthodoxy — it is the common heritage of early Christianity, waiting to be rediscovered. Athanasius, Irenaeus, and the Cappadocian Fathers were right: the Word of God became man so that we might become gods. This is not arrogance — it is the supreme gift of grace.
The path of theosis is long, demanding, and unending. It is not a meditation technique, nor a programme of self-improvement. It is love’s answer to love: God came to us so that we might come to Him — not merely outwardly, but with the whole of our being.
References and Academic Sources
Primary Sources:
1. Athanasius of Alexandria. On the Incarnation (De Incarnatione). Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1977. (Orig. c. 318 AD)
2. Irenaeus of Lyons. Against Heresies (Adversus Haereses). ANF Vol. 1. Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1885. (Orig. c. 180 AD)
3. Gregory Palamas. The Triads. Paulist Press, 1983. (Orig. 1338–1341)
4. The Philokalia. Vols. 1–4. Ed. and trans. G.E.H. Palmer, P. Sherrard, K. Ware. London: Faber & Faber, 1979–1995.
5. Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite. The Divine Names & The Mystical Theology. SPCK, 1920.
Secondary Sources:
6. Ware, Kallistos (Bishop Timothy). The Orthodox Way. Revised edition. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1995.
7. Ware, Kallistos. The Orthodox Church. 2nd ed. London: Penguin Books, 1993.
8. Lossky, Vladimir. The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church. Cambridge: James Clarke & Co., 1957.
9. Lossky, Vladimir. The Vision of God. Bedfordshire: Faith Press, 1963.
10. Schmemann, Alexander. For the Life of the World. Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 1973.
11. Meyendorff, John. Byzantine Theology. New York: Fordham University Press, 1974.
12. Clendenin, Daniel B. “Partakers of Divinity: The Orthodox Doctrine of Theosis.” Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 37:3 (1994): 365–379.
13. Mannermaa, Tuomo. Christ Present in Faith: Luther’s View of Justification. Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2005.
14. Russell, Norman. The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
15. Hierotheos (Vlachos), Metropolitan. Orthodox Psychotherapy. Levadia: Birth of the Theotokos Monastery, 1994.
Web Sources:
16. Orthodox Church in America (OCA). “Theosis.” oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith.
17. OrthodoxWiki. “Theosis.” orthodoxwiki.org/Theosis.
18. The Gospel Coalition. “Salvation as Theosis: The Teaching of Eastern Orthodoxy.” thegospelcoalition.org.
19. Saint John the Evangelist Orthodox Church. “Deification: The Orthodox View of Salvation.” saintjohnchurch.org.
20. Episcopal Church Glossary. “Theosis.” episcopalchurch.org/glossary/theosis.
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