Introduction to the thesis of the book and its
contents
Deification in pre-Christian traditions
including Greek and Indian traditions; assessment of the influence
of these upon Christian understandings of incarnation and
salvation.
Deification in Eastern Orthodox Tradition
including discussion of salvation in terms of recapitulation;
understandings of 'the Cross'; an examination of the development of
theosis in patristic and medieval authors: e.g. Origen, Athanasius,
the Cappadocian fathers, Ps-Dionysius, Maximus the Confessor,
Symeon the Theologian, Gregory Palamas; and modern authors such as
Bulgakov and Staniloae. This will also include and examination of
how divine nature is understood in relation to theosis.
Deification in Western Traditions
including Thomas
Aquinas, Martin Luther, the Caroline Divines and the Wesleys; as
well as recent authors both Catholic and Protestant e.g. Karl
Rahner, Catherine Mowry LaCugna, Lars Thunberg, Norman Russell; as
well as an assessment of the place of 'deification' alongside other
models and understandings of salvation in the West.
Deification and Relationality: imago
trinitatis
discussion of divine nature understood in terms
of koinonia i.e. in terms of a hermeneutic of relationality;
discussion of this hermeneutic in the works of Zizioulas, Barth,
Torrance, Gunton, Hardy, Schwöbel; discussion of Rahner's place in
& contribution to this debate; discussion of dialectical
understandings of difference and repetition (inc. Deleuze) and how
these concepts inform a relational understanding of theosis.
Deification: Transformation and Community
[a] discussion
of the implications and applications of these findings in relation
to Christian community (Church) and Christian life (discipleship).
[b] theosis and the body 'garments of skin': asceticism,
materiality and sexuality; [c] theosis and the Virtues: imitation
of Christ; participating in the sacraments; [d] Christological
focus of transformation: the Hypostatic Union and the
Transfiguration: application for the Church? Church community as
the locus of formation for partaking in the relationality of the
divine: discipleship and deification.
Conclusion / Summary of findings
An investigation of how understandings of theosis in the Christian Tradition have related to understandings of divine nature in terms of koinonia.
Revd Dr Paul M. Collins, formerly Reader in Theology at the University of Chichester, Parish Priest on Holy Island, Northumberland, England.
In this clearly written and informative book, Paul Collins dispels
two myths that surround the notion of deification: that it is the
property of Eastern Orthodox Christians and that it is inherently
individualistic. Collins demonstrates definitively that the
metaphor of deification has structured the Christian imagination of
the entire Christian tradition, 'East' and 'West', and that it is
necessarily a communal and relational reality with cultural and
political implications. He advances the discussion on deification
in a way that will impact how Churches understand and relate to
each other and to the world.
*Aristotle Papanikolaou, Fordham University, New York, NY,
USA.*
Paul Collins does a wonderful job of presenting a florilegia of
authors and traditions towards elucidating a modern appropriation
of a theology of theosis. He creatively builds upon a
complementarity of approaches, of what it means to become holy and
transfigured by divine grace, by drawing upon early church
traditions, Eastern Orthodoxy and Western Christianity, and their
rootedness in the Scriptures, with a view to showing how
deification is at once personal, yet ecclesial and cosmic.
*Jaroslav Z. Skira, Regis College, University of Toronto, ON,
Canada*
Paul Collins, who already in his previous books on Trinitarian
theology has made great efforts to bring theological insights from
Eastern - Patristic and modern - sources in dialogue with Western
theology, is now applying the same method in a new book on the
metaphor of deification. Even if during the last decade almost
every year a new theological monograph was published with either
'theosis', 'divinization' or 'deification' in the title, Paul
Collins's book contains a good deal of new insights which more than
justify its publication. This is true for the helpful account on
how ancient philosophy understood concepts like 'apotheosis' and
'theurgy' or on how crucial passages from the Hebrew Scriptures
have been interpreted in the New Testament. As from his analysis of
the biblical and the Patristic tradition the author is convinced
that deification is not only an individual experience, but that it
has a collective aspect as well. This is also reflected in the
subtitle of the book: Deification and Communion. Collins is aware
that Orthodox Christianity - of which the major authors are
introduced with due attention to their biographical context - tends
to consider itself as the only legitimate heir of the doctrine of
deification. One of the more innovating aspects of this book,
however, is the author's retrieval of (fragments of) a theology of
deification in the West in the work of particular scholastic and
medieval theologians and of the early modern mystics. As far as the
Protestant tradition is concerned, there is more to mention than
Harnack's critique of deification. As important elements in the
construal of the architecture of deification in the West, Paul
Collins also pays attention to the so-called of Lutheran studies,
to theologians such as Ritschl and the Cambridge Platonists, the
Wesleys and Pentecostalism. The author believes that it still makes
sense to develop a systematic theological treatise of deification -
meant to be anything but elitist and to appeal to every believer -
even in a detraditionalised Western European context. He does so in
the final chapter, 'Transformation and Community'. Deification
first of all makes an appeal to the religious experience of the
believing subject who at the same time is to be aware of the
limitations of any human knowledge of God. Deification is,
furthermore, also partaking in the communion within the Triune God,
which requires in turn an ecclesial community in which the believer
gains access to even further aspects of the reality of deification:
being nourished by the sacraments and becoming a virtuous
community. I hope that this book may reach a wide audience, not
only of theology students but also of many other readers who want
to find inspiration in their quest for a meaningful life.
*Peter De Mey, Faculty of Theology, K.U. Leuven, Belgium.*
... Paul Collins has opened up exciting new directions for us. This
is a well-conceived and carefully researched work, which will, in
connection with other works on deification, spur further research
in this field.
*Theology Vol 114 No. 4*
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