Theosis: between personal and universal utopia

Literature & Theology, 2016

In the introduction of his book, On Liturgical Theology, Aidan Kavanagh speaks of himself, an author, professor, and Christian practitioner whose specialty is symbolic liturgical expression. He speaks in third person, perhaps to create a space where readers hear themselves. In light of all this, the author is a living paradox. The creature of a deeply sacramental tradition…he tries to affirm and commend the embrace of the world which that tradition and its liturgical expression would convey to others of Christian faith met for worship. Simultaneously, however, his own monastic engagement must be taken not with reluctance but with a certain wariness…. While he lives happily in this earthly city, he realized that it does not abide and that his true enfranchisement is in another city which does abide but whose presence is not yet wholly consummated in space and time. I must admit to my own occupation of his “living paradox”—with a twist. It is this twist, both wrenching and freeing, that I will attempt to trace in my connections between scholarship and experiences of the Church of Christ. Unlike, Aidan Kavanagh, I do not have an ecclesial role or deep liturgical commitments as my foundation for doing “secondary theology.” He begins with a love of worship that then implies a love for the world. Lex orandi founds lex credendi, which leads to lex agendi. Right worship gives birth to belief, which then bears the fruits of spirit-filled action in the world. Correspondingly, what we believe (lex credendi) affects what we ask of God (lex supplicandi). According to Kavanagh, the statuat of orthodoxy undergirds these moves: a standard of praise shapes the canonicity of belief and behavior. My aim is not an exposition of his liturgical theology, so much as the recognition that for Kavanagh, worship informs how the Christian derives meaning. And liturgy does not often derive meaning in ways that the systematic theologian would expect. Kavanagh claims that liturgical structures manifest meaning in ways not readily accessible to those outside the structures. While it would seem tautological that those who engage in the structures of worship best derive its meaning—Kavanagh draws us to two paradoxes. First, the liturgical calls him to embrace the world, however he prizes the ‘deeper structures’ that lie outside space and time. And the second paradoxical reality: several of this colleagues and students have long been outside the church, embracing the world to determine the value of liturgical structures. The first paradox is his own; the second is now mine. My paper will chart the interaction between my academic training in performance studies (Aristotle’s mimesis, method acting’s anamnesis), literary theory (Derrida’s exegesis of the Rabbi versus the poet), sacramental theology (mysterion v. Tertullian’s sacramentum), and finally, hermeneutical phenomenology (Levinas’ Infinite, Lacoste’s liturgical ontology). In each of these academic disciplines, I learned more about what it means to ‘be the church’ than I learned properly within ecclesial roles afforded me.

The Heythrop Journal, 2008

Of all the alien and foreign concepts of the Eastern Orthodox Church to the modern Western Christian, it could be argued that the most difficult is that of theosis. The belief in man’s actual union with God is to the rationalising mind, at least daunting, if not just plainly heretical. Part of the difficulty for Western Christianity in accommodating a more literal concept of a divine union of becoming, has much to do with the markedly different theological perspectives and doctrines. It is these kataphatic distinctions of the theology of the Eastern Orthodox tradition that I will explore with regards to a soteriology of theosis. While the Christian West has not been devoid of a concept of deification or divinization, its theology behind it has been markedly different: theopoiesis “to be made god” rather than theosis “to become god”. The theopoiesis view of becoming ‘God-like’ by adoption, has consequently led the West towards seeing the purpose of salvation as one of moral betterment. It is from this tension of backgrounds, as a modern western Christian progressing towards a more Eastern Orthodox expression, that I will attempt to comment on various aspects of theosis as I see them. Not to expound a systematic explanation (which would be to westernise the subject). Or to suggest tenets on the way of approach, regarding the path of theosis (which would be to regard myself as having attained some degree of sainthood). But to bring together (synergistically) my perspective with that of the Holy Christian tradition regarding theosis by way of discussing three of its aspects; Palamism, the Incarnation, and Anthropology.

Pacifica: Australasian Theological Studies, 2003

This essay outlines some suggestions for how the idea of the universal might be retrieved and rethought in the light of the contemporary experience of pluralism. It will do so by drawing upon the work of a diversity of thinkers, post-modern and modem, from philosophers such as G. W. F. Hegel, Luce Irigaray, Jacques Derrida, through to theologians such as Louis-Marie Chauvet, Bernard Lonergan, Raimon Panikkar and especially Edward Schillebeeckx. The latter part of the essay will explore the universality of human rights and discuss some of the possibilities for rethinking Christian universality in relation to sacramentality, inter-religious dialogue, and the priority of the poor.

Scrinium, 2015

This paper explores the unity of life and death through the theology of theosis. Drawing on the theologies of Irenaeus and Gregory of Nyssa this paper argues that the doctrine of theosis offers us a holistic theology that is relevant for how we live our lives, restoring a “catholicity” to Latin theology by grounding it within the mystery of the incarnation as a whole. It explores Irenaeus’ understanding of the historical development of humanity as part of the necessary process of growth and maturation in our progress towards God. Gregory of Nyssa then takes Irenaeus’ understanding of theosis further by arguing for a continuity between this life and the next through his endless ‘stretching out’ – epektasis – of a limited being to participation in the infinity of the divine, thereby establishing the unity of ontology and morality.

Religions, 2019

The aim of this article is the study and analysis of a set of revived utopian communities today, understood as contemporary spiritual heresies from theoretical perspectives close to postmodern critiques. Following ethnographic research over a series of years in different locations across the four continents, this socio-anthropological contribution highlights the characteristics, development and social image of this complex and largely unknown social and spiritual reality. The approach goes beyond the spatial—it includes not only the “being there” and living with the utopian individuals in their own communities for years—but also a temporal dimension, with emphasis placed on their continuity, on the existence of heterodox and heretical groups and communities throughout history. The new ethical critique, environmental problems, and the fear of an imminent sixth extinction guide us in the exploration of new millenarian beliefs emerging from the new spiritual movements born in what is c...

The article aims to deepen the understanding of the relationship between religion and utopian thought considering the example of nineteenth-century France. The text focuses on a number of representatives of utopian socialism, positivism and lay humanitarianism, paying particular attention to how religious reflection present in their works takes the form of a universal religion, and how philosophical assumptions and principles of social organization are reflected in sacred space (based on the theme of the temple). Claude-Henri de Saint-Simon founds his New Christianity (1825) on the joint work of scientists, industrialists and artists, and this concept will find many supporters and religiously exalted followers who will develop, among other things, a project of total reconstruction of Paris, containing a huge temple in the shape of a Woman. Pierre Leroux makes Humanity the object of a universal worship, similarly to Auguste Comte, but in a different way. Comte becomes the founder and the priest of the positivist universal religion, finding a companion and an inspirer in Clotilde de Vaux. He designs a Church of Humanity, whose structure is based on his doctrine as reflected in the positivist calendar. It is interesting to compare these concepts with the romantic vision of Victor Hugo's poem “Le Temple” (1873), in which mankind is called by the prophet to build at the top of a mountain, beyond space and time, a mysterious, utopian temple, where it has to worship the Unknown.

The primary identity of the Church as ‘Body of Christ’ in her relation with God is questioned. Understood somatically, since the Logos is the hypostasis of Christ, it fails to give the necessary ontological space for Creation to respond to God’s love. Congar’s ecclesial ontology, formulated as Body of Christ, is investigated. His hierarchical interpretation of the relation between church structure, whose ontos as visible Body derives apneumatically from the incarnate Logos, and the Spirit, which vivifies the mystical Body through faith and the sacraments, is drawn from the filioque, subordinating the Spirit to the Institution. Souls united with God are eschatological ‘brides’, the reality for which the institution temporarily exists. Christ, or the Spirit, is the ‘I’ of the Church, which is not a ‘person’. Ultimately, souls are to be catholic, transparent to each other and God’s love. There is no explicit relation of Church to Creation. Bulgakov identifies humanity as the hypostatic centre of Creation. In creating, God kenotically gives away his own being (Sophia) establishing temporality and otherness. Humanity is spirit-embodied earth, hypostasising created Sophia, drawn, through deification by the Spirit, into communion with God. The Trinitarian communion of the Godhead is imaged in Creation as the kenotic, hypostatic transparency of the Church. The Incarnation is a synergism between the Logos and Mary, who thereby participates in the salvific activity of the Son and the Spirit, as Spirit-bearer. She is the ‘Bride’ in whom all others participate. Congar’s eschatology and Bulgakov’s kenotically hypostasised Creation proffer an understanding of the Church as the invited ‘yes’ of the personalised cosmos, reborn from Christ through the Cross, eschatologically irradiated by the Spirit with the glory of God, unified in kenotic love, whose communion with the Trinity as the ‘fourth’ hypostasis, ‘the Bride,’ proceeds through her nuptial union with the Son.

The Ecumenical Review, 2017