The following is a response I made to an evangelical friend who had some questions and misunderstandings on some Orthodox theology, especially the view of deification and what they mean by true church. My attempt to answer is below thanks to much help from the book, The Orthodox Church by Timothy Ware (Bishop Kallistos Ware). It is a little long, but please be patient with me, they were packed questions that don't have short and simple answers- And thank you my friend for asking. Until we are bold enough to ask questions of one another's faith, we can never fully grasp what it is all about!
Hi My
Friend!
I
am going to try to tackle your questions and hopefully do the topic some
justice! It is a difficult concept because we as evangelicals do not really
understand the term deification. It is important to get a grasp of essence and
energies and image and likeness. As stated in your quote, deification does not
mean that one share in the pre eternal uncreated essence of God. When the early
church fathers were arguing for the proper understanding of the incarnation,
they used the terms essence and energies. The Holy Trinity was explained in
terms of the essence and energies of God. I want to state on this from the book, the Orthodox Church by
Timothy Ware (Bishop Kallistos Ware). It helped me with these distinctions.
God
is "One essence in three persons" (homo-ousious) "The divine is
indivisible in its divisions (Gregory of Nazianzus), for the persons are united
yet not confused, distinct yet not divided (John of Damascus), both the
distinction and the union alike are paradoxical (Gregory of Nazianzus)."
The
distinctive characteristics of the first person of the Trinity is Fatherhood:
He is unbegotten, having His source and origin solely in Himself and not any
other person. The distinctive characteristic of the second person is Sonship:
although equal to the Father and coeternal with Him, He is not unbegotten or
sourceless, but has His source and origin in the Father, from whom He is begotten or born from all
eternity- ‘before all ages’ as the Creed says. The distinctive
characteristic of the third person
is Procession: like the Son, He has His source and origin in the Father; but
His relationship to the Father is different from that of the Son, since he is
not begotten but from all eternity He proceeds from the Father.
This
is precisely at this point that this point that the western view of the Trinity
seems to conflict with that of the east. According to Roman Catholic theology-
as expressed, for example by St. Augustine of Hippo (360-430) or by the Council
of Florence (1438-9)- the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from the Father and
the Son (Filioque). This doctrine is known as the ‘Double Procession’ of the
Spirit. The Orthodox position is based on John 25:26 where Christ says “
‘When
the Comforter has come, whom I will send to you from the Father- He will bear
witness to Me.’ Christ sends the Spirit, but the Spirit proceeds from the
Father: so the Bible teaches, and so Orthodoxy believes.
Image
and Likeness. According to most of the Greek Fathers, the terms image and
likeness do not mean exactly the same thing. ‘The expression according to the
image’ wrote John of Damascus, ‘indicates rationality and freedom, while the
expression according to the likeness indicates assimilation to God through
virtue’. The image, or to use the Greek term icon, of God signifies our human
free will, our reason, our sense of moral responsibility- everything in short
which marks us out from the animal creation and makes each of us a person. But
the image means more than that. It means that we are God’s ‘offspring’ (Acts
27:28), His kin; it means that between us and Him there is a point of contact and
similarity. The gulf between creature and the Creator is not impassible, for
because we are in God’s image we can know God and have communion with Him. And
if we make proper use of this faculty for communion with God, then we will
become ‘like’ God, we will acquire divine likeness; in the words of John
Damascene, we will be ‘assimilated to God through virtue’. To acquire the
likeness is to be deified, is to become a ‘second god’ a ‘god by grace’. ‘I
said, you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High’ (Psalm lxxxi 6; cf.
John x 34-35) (quotation from Psalms the numbering is of the Septuagnt is
followed. Some versions of the Bible recon this as Psalm lxxxii)
The
image denotes the powers with which each one of us is endowed by God from the
first moment of our existence; the likeness is not an endowment which we
possess from the start, but a goal at which we must aim, something which we can
only acquire by degrees. However sinful we may be, we never lose the image; but
the likeness depends on our moral choice, upon our ‘virtue’, so it is not
destroyed by sin.
Humans
at their first creation were therefore perfect, not so much in actual, but
potential sense. Endowed with the image from the start, they were called to
acquire the likeness by their own efforts (assisted of course by the grace of
God)- Adam began in a state of innocence and simplicity. “He was a child, not
yet having understanding perfected’ wrote Irenaeus. ‘It was necessary that he
should grow and so come to his perfection’ God set Adam on the right path, but
Adam had in front of him a long road to traverse in order to reach his final
goal.
The
author, Ware, continues to explain further the different view of the fall held
by Augustine, which greatly influenced western theology and then explains grace
and free will, the fall and original sin, Jesus Christ, the incarnation, the
Holy Spirit, and then what is meant by being Partakers of the Divine Nature. So
here again I will pick up what he has to say.
‘Partakers
of the Divine Nature’
The aim of the Christian life, which
Seraphim described as the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God, can equally be
defined in terms of deification. Basil described the human person as a creature
who has received the order to become a god; and Athanasius, as we know, said
that God became human that we humans might become god. ‘In My kingdom, said
Christ, I shall be God with you as gods.’ (Canon for Matins of Holy Thursday, Ode
4, Troparion 3.) Such according to the teaching of the Orthodox Church, is the
final goal, which every Christian must aim: to become god, to attain theosis,
‘deification’ or ‘divinization’. For Orthodoxy our salvation and redemption
mean our deification.
Behind
the doctrine of deification there lies the idea of the human person made in the
mage and likeness of God the Holy Trinity. ‘May they all be one’, Christ prayed
at the Last Supper, ‘as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, so also may they
be in Us’ (John 27:21). Just as three persons of the Trinity ‘dwell’ in one
another in unceasing movement of love, so we humans made in the image of the
Trinity, are called to dwell in the Trinitarian God. Christ prays that we may
share in the life of the Trinity, in the movement of love, which passes between
the divine persons; He prays that we may be taken up into the Godhead. The
saints, as Maximus the Confessor put it, are those who express the Holy Trinity
in themselves. This idea of a personal and organic union between God and
humans- God dwelling in us and we in Him- is a constant theme in John’s Gospel;
it is also a constant theme in the Epistles of St. Paul, who sees the Christian
life above all else as a ‘life in Christ’. The same idea recurs in the famous text
of 2 Peter: ‘Through these promises you may become partakers of the divine
nature’ (1:4). It is important to keep this New Testament background in mind.
The Orthodox doctrine of deification, so far as being unscriptural (as is
sometimes thought), has a solid Biblical basis, not only in 2 Peter, but in
Paul and the Fourth Gospel.
The
idea of deification must always be understood in the light of the distinction
between God’s essence and His energies. Union with God means union with the
divine energies, not the divine essence; The Orthodox Church while speaking of
deification and union, rejects all forms of pantheism.
Closely
related to this is another point of equal importance. The mystical union
between God and humans is a true union, yet in this union Creator and creature
do not become fused into a single being. Unlike the eastern religions, which
teach that humans are swallowed up in the deity, Orthodox mystical theology has
always insisted that we humans, however closely linked to God, retain our full
personal integrity. The human person, when deified, remains distinct (though
not separate) from God. The mystery of the Trinity is a mystery of unity in
diversity, and those who express the Trinity in themselves do not sacrifice
their personal characteristics. When St. Maximus wrote ‘God and those who are
worthy of God have one and the same energy’, he did not mean that the saints
lose their free will, but when deified they voluntarily and in love conform
their will to the will of God. Nor does the human person, when it ‘becomes
god’, cease to be human: ‘We remain creatures while becoming god by grace, as
Christ remained God when becoming man by the Incarnation’. (V. Lossky, The
Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church, p. 87) The human being does not become
God by nature, but is merely a ‘created god’, a god by grace or by status.
Deification
is something that involves the body. Since the human person is a unity of body
and soul, and since the incarnate Christ has saved and redeemed the whole
person, it follows that ‘our body is deified at the same time as our soul’ (Maximus)
In the divine likeness which we humans are called to realize in ourselves, the
body has its place. ‘Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit’ wrote St. Paul
(1 Corinthians 6:19) ‘Therefore, my brothers and sisters, I beseech you by
God’s mercy to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice to God’ (Romans 12:1).
The full deification of the body must wait, however, until the Last Day, for
this present life the glory of the saints is as a rule an inward splendor, a
splendor of the soul alone; but when the righteous rise from the dead and are
clothed with a spiritual body, then their sanctity will be outwardly manifest.
‘At the day of Resurrection the glory of the Holy Spirit comes out from within,
decking and covering the bodies of the saints- the glory which they had before,
but hidden within their souls. What a person has now, the same comes forth
externally in the body’. (Homilies of Macarius v.9). The bodies of the saints
will be outwardly transfigured by divine light, as Christ’s body was
transfigured on Mount Tabor, ‘We must look forward also to the springtime of
the body’ ((Minucus Felix, late 2nd century, Octavius,34).
I
shall stop on deification here. What I wrote was taken from the book The
Orthodox Church, as I mentioned above.
Now
the other part of your question- What do Orthodox think of other Christian
denominations.
First
I shall tell you based upon what I wrote above on image and likeness, Orthodox
look humbly as we regard ourselves and with love in regard to others regardless
as to Christian, Orthodox, Other religions, even atheists. We understand the
concept of spiritual life being a journey, and view others on this journey as
well. We are cautious to judge. With that said, to understand Orthodoxy, you
need to see historically, there was one church. The word Orthodox means correct
teaching. In early times whenever factions or divisions occurred councils were
held and the church worked together to uphold correct teaching and the truth of
the Gospel. Therefore, if you held to the teachings of the universal church,
you were Orthodox. It was not a denomination, it was the Christian church. The Orthodox churches today still
uphold those same teachings and nothing has been added or taken away from what
was taught since the beginning. Changes on doctrine and dogma occurred in the
west after the schism in 1054, but the east remained faithful to what had
always been taught. Now this does
not mean that Orthodox think they are alone the only ones who will see heaven
and all others are damned. It only means that what the church teaches is and
continues to be “orthodox”.
Unchanged, historic, apostolic from its beginnings. This may sound
exclusive, but you cannot say the same about any church in the western Roman
Catholic, or Protestant tradition.
There have been many additions (The Immacculate, conception of Mary,
purgatory, the filioque clause in the Nicene creed, just to name a few
additons) Wile Protestant churches have subtracted a great deal of what was the
early church (the stripping down of the sacraments, and sacred tradition and
everything not Bible). So Orthodox is terminology for what the church
represents, not a term of elitism or pride. There is a sacred responsibility to
preserve what has been handed down through the centuries. Yet any Orthodox person
will tell you that when we are face to face with God by His mercy, we may be
quite surprised who we see, since God looks upon our hearts. One Protestant may
be filled with the love of God, while a member of the Orthodox church may have
no love for his neighbor or fellow man, and then again the opposite can be
true. I have often said of a very
close Buddhist person I know, that she is a better Christian than most
Christians I know. Only God can judge. My friend, don’t let the meaning of the word Orthodox
confuse you about our dealings with other Christians. It is the true church in
terms of what has been taught has not been changed but, that word true is dealing with an
upholding of teaching, not the idea that if someone goes to a different church
they can not be called Christian. Maybe instead it should be called original
unchanged church, and new and improved flavor church. Just kidding, but
basically the term is not a judgment. By the way remember how we as
evangelicals sounded exclusive in our Gospel method of asking “are you saved?
Is he/she saved? Did they accept Christ as Lord and Savior? There is only one
way to get to heaven, Jesus is the only way!” yes, to a non- Christian or a
person who holds a sacramental Christian tradition this sounds pretty exclusive
too…just a thought.
Finally I want to say a few words on
your statement if orthodoxy alone holds theological views on certain positions,
I read an excellent book called Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy by Andrew Stephen Damick,
an Orthodox priest. He visits various denominations as well as non- Christian
belief systems and writes about where they agree and differ on orthodox
teaching. I learned quite a bit about the historical and theological views held
and how many hit the same mark in several places and differ in others, and even
those I would think are way off base actually get certain things more right
than I thought. It was a great
read, and if you don’t feel like getting the book it has also been made into a free
podcast on OCN.
Take
things slowly, we have learned to think a certain way. New ideas are sometimes
hard to digest but you just need to dig deeper to see the correct context. Get
the context down when something is hard to understand- I never quite figured
out for a long time why I felt uncomfortable with certain Calvinist ideas until
I learned about dualism…a-ha! Now I see!
Wish
we could talk more!
Love
you,
holoholomom
