Earlier
today, in the combox of a recent thread here at AF, an astute reader
wrote:
So I think maybe the whole realm of "how
does one get saved", hasn't been quite fleshed out properly as the 1st
centuries were so focussed on getting Christology right, maybe some of the
implications of Jesus' taking up human nature, wasn't thought out fully. This
can be seen in that the East & West have diverged on: vicarious atonement
vs theosis & divinization and what that means in practise. (LINK)
There
is no question that the EO churches have placed a much greater emphasis on
the doctrine of "theosis
& divinization" (i.e. deification) than the churches within the
Latin/Western tradition. However, with that said, there have been a number of
Catholic theologians who have embraced the concept of deification. In doing so,
they follow a rich tradition found throughout the writings of the Church
Fathers (see THIS
THREAD). In two prior posts (first;
second), I have touched on deification within
the Catholic tradition. The following selections will bring to the fore a
number of other Catholics who have written on the doctrine:
G.
H. Joyce
God, says St. Peter “has
given us most great and precious promises that by these you may be made partarkers of the Divine nature (2 Pet.
i. 4). Startling as the words are, the teaching which we have already
considered will have prepared us for them. They signify that the sonship
conferred on us through Jesus Christ raises us so far above our creaturely
condition, that by it we partake in the life which is proper to the Three
Divine Persons in virtue of Their nature. The passage does not stand altogether
alone. When our Lord prays to His Father on behalf of the apostles and all who
through their word should believe in Him, “that they all many be one, as Thou,
Father in Me and I in Thee, that they may be made perfect in one” (John xvii.
22, 23), His words can hardly signify less than this. If our union with God is
comparable to that which unites the Father and the Son, it can only be a union
bases on a share in the Divine life...The fathers of the Church from the
earliest times with one consent take the apostle’s words in their literal
sense. There is no question of any
figurative interpretation. They do not hesitate to speak of the
“deification” of man. By grace, they tell us, men become gods. (G.H. Joyce,
S.J., The Catholic Doctrine of Grace,
London: 1920, pp. 34, 35)
Matthias
Joseph Scheeben
If
man is to be reunited to God as his Father, God Himself must raise him up again
to His side...God must again draw man up to His bosom as His child, regenerate
him to new divine life, and again clothe him with the garment of His children, the splendor of His own nature and glory...this
transformation of the will is essentially bound up with the inner elevation of
our entire being by the grace of divine sonship and participation in the divine nature...The children of God participate as such in the divine holiness
of their Father, in His very nature.
(Matthis J. Scheeben, The Mysteries of
Christianity, B. Herder Book Co.: St. Loius, pp. 615, 616, 617, 619 -
emphasis mine - German first ed. 1865; English ed. 1946, translated from the
1941 German ed.)
What we cannot claim by right, the infinite liberality of God gives us in grace. Although we are not by nature the children of God, we become such through grace, and so true is this that, as adopted children, we are put on par with the natural Son of God. We become by grace what He is by nature. What He has in Himself, that we obtain through participation in His nature. (Matthis J. Scheeben, The Glories of Divine Grace, Tan Books, 2000, p. 96.)
“But the Son is not only kindred or similar to the Father, He is one with Him as the branch is one with the tree, the ray of light with the light, the brook with the fountain. So too, grace makes us one with God, not in the same perfect manner [i.e. ‘by nature’], but in a similar way. And yet it is not a question of a mere relationship or similarity, but on an intimate union which makes us, as it were, one being with God” (Ibid., p. 154).
“Thus, when we are united to God by grace [i.e. not ‘by nature’, as is the Son], we not only obtain and direct into our soul a ray of divine glory, a small stream of divine life, but we may also consider as our own the divine Sun itself, the foundation of divine life, and we may rejoice at God’s perfections as though they were ours” (Ibid., p. 158).
What we cannot claim by right, the infinite liberality of God gives us in grace. Although we are not by nature the children of God, we become such through grace, and so true is this that, as adopted children, we are put on par with the natural Son of God. We become by grace what He is by nature. What He has in Himself, that we obtain through participation in His nature. (Matthis J. Scheeben, The Glories of Divine Grace, Tan Books, 2000, p. 96.)
“But the Son is not only kindred or similar to the Father, He is one with Him as the branch is one with the tree, the ray of light with the light, the brook with the fountain. So too, grace makes us one with God, not in the same perfect manner [i.e. ‘by nature’], but in a similar way. And yet it is not a question of a mere relationship or similarity, but on an intimate union which makes us, as it were, one being with God” (Ibid., p. 154).
“Thus, when we are united to God by grace [i.e. not ‘by nature’, as is the Son], we not only obtain and direct into our soul a ray of divine glory, a small stream of divine life, but we may also consider as our own the divine Sun itself, the foundation of divine life, and we may rejoice at God’s perfections as though they were ours” (Ibid., p. 158).
Fr.
Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P
…we
must bear in mind that grace is really and formally a participation in the
divine nature precisely in so far as it is divine, a participation in the
Deity, in that which makes God God, in His intimate Life…Grace is a mysterious
participation in this essence, which surpasses all natural knowledge…Grace
makes us participate really and formally in this Deity, in this eminent and
intimate life of God, because grace is in us the radical principle of
essentially divine operating that will ultimately consist in seeing God
immediately, as He sees Himself, and in loving Him as He loves Himself. Grace
is the seed of glory. In order to know its essence intimately, we must first
have seen the divine essence of which grace is the participation. (Fr. Reginald
Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., Christian Perfection and Contemplation, St.
Louis and London: B. Herder Book Co., 1937 – reprinted by Tan Books and
Publishers, 2003, pp. 55, 56.)
The Deity as we know it here on earth contains only implicitly the divine attributes deduced from it. But when we shall see it as it is in itself there will no longer be any need for deduction. We shall see explicitly in the eminence of the Deity, superior to being, to unity, to goodness, all the infinite perfections and the three divine persons. (Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., Our Saviour and His Love For Us, St. Louis and London: B. Herder Book Co., 1951 – reprinted by Tan Books and Publishers, 1998, pp. 351, 352.)
The Deity as we know it here on earth contains only implicitly the divine attributes deduced from it. But when we shall see it as it is in itself there will no longer be any need for deduction. We shall see explicitly in the eminence of the Deity, superior to being, to unity, to goodness, all the infinite perfections and the three divine persons. (Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P., Our Saviour and His Love For Us, St. Louis and London: B. Herder Book Co., 1951 – reprinted by Tan Books and Publishers, 1998, pp. 351, 352.)
Lugwig
Ott
The
Church prays in the Offertory of the Holy Mass : “Grant that by the mystery of
this water and wine, we may be made partakers of His divinity, who vouchsafed
to become partaker of our humanity.” Similarly in the Preface of the Feast of
Christ’s Ascension into Heaven : “He was assumed into Heaven in order that we
might be partakers in His divinity.” Cf. D 1021.
According to 2 Peter 1, 4
the Christian is elevated to participation in the Divine nature...Again, the
scriptural texts which represent justification as generation or birth from
God (John 1, 12 et seq. ; 3, 5 ; 1 John
3, 1. 9 ; Tit. 3. 5 ; James 1, 18 ; 1 Peter 1, 23), indirectly teach the
participation of man in the Divine nature, as generation consists in the
communication of the nature of the generator to the generated.
From the scriptural texts
cited, and from others (Ps. 81, 1. 6 ; John 10, 34 et seq.), the Fathers
derived the teaching of the deification of man by grace (θείωσις, deificatio).
It is a firm conviction of the Fathers that God became man so that man might
become God, that is, defied. (Dr. Lugwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, p. 256 - German ed. 1952; English
1955.)
George
D. Smith
The application of all
this to the question of sanctifying grace will be seen more and more as we
proceed, but for the present we simply assert the magnificent truth that grace
is not only a positive reality in the soul, not only a reality which no created
being could produce, but a reality which in itself is higher than the whole
order of created things (even angelic) and is truly divine. This brings us at
once to a wonderful phrase of St Peter, who says that we are made “partakers of
the divine nature.” Catholic theology has ever clung to the belief that here we
have no mere figure of speech but the declaration of a definite fact. We really
are made to be partakers of the divine nature. It is not merely that our
spiritual faculties of intellect and will establish a special likeness to God
in our souls; that is true enough, but over and above this natural likeness to
God a wholly supernatural quality is given to us which makes us to be of the
same nature as God...St Augustine puts the matter thus: He descended that we
might ascend, and “whilst retaining his own divine nature he partook of our
human nature, that we whilst keeping our own nature, might become partakers of
his.” St Thomas Aquinas, echoing the constant teaching of the past, declares in
a passage which the Church uses for the feast of Corpus Christi: “the
only-begotten Son of God, wishing to make us partakers of his own divinity,
took upon himself our human nature that having become man he might make men to
be gods.” And we know how the Church has enshrined this wonderful truth in one
of the most beautiful of the prayers at Mass. “O God, who in creating human
nature, didst marvellously ennoble it, and hast still more marvellously renewed
it, grant that by the mysery of this water and wine we may be made partakers
of his Godhead, who vouchsafed to become partaker of our humanity, Jesus
Christ, thy Son, our Lord.” (The Teaching of the Catholic Church, edited
by Canon George D. Smith, 1960, volume 1, pp. 553, 554.)
Both St John and St Paul
exult in proclaiming this act of divine condescension. “Dearly beloved,” the
first writes with all the earnestness of the disciple of love, “we are now the
sons of God: and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that when
he shall appear we shall be like to him: because we shall see him as he is. And
everyone that hath this hope in him sanctifieth himself.”...In light of such
luminous teaching it is clear that is in a very special sense that we are
children of God...Sanctifying grace, as we have seen, is a positive reality
infused into the soul by which we are made to share the divine life...By
sanctifying grace the very life of God is imparted unto them. (Ibid. pp.
556, 557.)
Catherine
Mowry LaCugna
Jesus Christ, the visible
icon of the invisible God, discloses what it means to be fully personal, divine
as well as human. The Spirit of God, poured into our hearts as love, (Rom.
5:5), gathers us together into the body of Christ, transforming us so that “we
become by grace what God is by nature,” namely, persons in full communion with
God and with every creature. (God For Us, p. 1.)
Saint
Joseph Daily Missal
Deus, qui humanae
substantiae dignitatem mirabiliter condidisti, et mirabilius reformasti: da
nobis per hujus aquae et vini mysterium, ejus divinitatis esse consortes, qui
humanitatis nostrae fieri dignatus est particeps, Jesus Christus Filius tuus
Dominus noster: Qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus. per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.
O GOD, Who established the
nature of man in wondrous dignity, and still more admirably restored it, grant
that through the mystery of this water and wine, we may be made partakers of
His Divinity, who has condescended to become partaker of our humanity, Jesus
Christ, Your Son, our Lord: Who with You lives and reigns in the unity of the
Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. (Saint Joseph Daily Missal,
1961, pp. 660, 661.)
John
Paul II
This is the central truth
of all Christian soteriology that finds an organic unity with the revealed
reality of the God-Man. God became man that man could truly participate in the
life of God—so that, indeed, in a certain sense, he could become God. The
Fathers of the Church had a clear consciousness of this fact. It is sufficient
to recall St. Irenaeus who, in his exhortations to imitate Christ, the only sure
teacher, declared: “Through the immense love he bore, he became what we are,
thereby affording us the opportunity of becoming what he is.” (John Paul II, Jesus, Son and Savior, 1996, p. 215 -
General audience address September 2, 1987.)
John
Paul II – Dominum et Vivificantem Thus there is a supernatural “adoption,” of which
the source is the Holy Spirit, love and gift. As such he is given to man.
And in the superabundance of the uncreated gift there begins in the
heart of all human beings that particular created gift whereby they
“become partakers of the divine nature.” Thus human life becomes permeated,
through participation, by the divine life, and itself acquires a divine,
supernatural dimension. (The Encyclicals of John Paul II, p. 318.)
John
Paul II - Redemptor Hominis The Church has only one life: that which is given her by
her Spouse and Lord. Indeed, precisely because Christ united himself with her
in his mystery of Redemption, the Church must be strongly united with each man.
This union of Christ with man is in itself a mystery. From the mystery is born
“the new man,” called to become a partaker of God’s life. (The Encyclicals
of John Paul II, p. 79.)
Second Vatican Council
For Jesus Christ was sent
into the world as the true Mediator between God and men. Since He is God, all
the fullness of the divine nature dwells in Him bodily (Col. 2:9); as man he is
the new Adam, full of grace and of truth (John 1:14) , who has been constituted
head of a restored humanity. So the Son of God entered the world by means of a
true incarnation that he might make men sharers in the divine nature; though
rich, he became poor for our sake, that by his poverty we might become rich (2
Cor. 8:9). (Ad Gentes Divinitus, from Vatican Council II - The
Conciliar and Post Conciliar Documents, General Editor, Austin Flannery, O.
P., New Revised Edition 1992, p. 815.)
The
New Catechism
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.” (Catechism
of the Catholic Church, 1994 edition, p. 116.)
Catechism of the Catholic Church
[The following quotes are from the Catechism of the Catholic Church, provided via the official Vatican website: link.]
460 The Word became flesh to make us "partakers
of the divine nature":78 "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."79 "For the Son of God became man so that we
might become God."80 "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."81
[Footnotes:
#78 – 2 Pet 1:4; #79 – St.
Irenaeus, Adv. haeres. 3,19,1: PG 7/1, 939; #80 – St. Athanasius, De
inc., 54,3: PG 25, 192B; #81 – St. Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57: 1-4 ]
1023 Those who die in God's grace and friendship and are
perfectly purified live for ever with Christ. They are like God for ever, for
they "see him as he is," face to face:596
By virtue of our apostolic authority, we define the following: According to the general disposition of God, the souls of all the saints . . . and other faithful who died after receiving Christ's holy Baptism (provided they were not in need of purification when they died, . . . or, if they then did need or will need some purification, when they have been purified after death, . . .) already before they take up their bodies again and before the general judgment - and this since the Ascension of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ into heaven - have been, are and will be in heaven, in the heavenly Kingdom and celestial paradise with Christ, joined to the company of the holy angels. Since the Passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, these souls have seen and do see the divine essence with an intuitive vision, and even face to face, without the mediation of any creature.597
[Footnote #597 – Benedict
XII, Benedictus Deus (1336): DS 1000: cf. LG 49]
1721 God put us in the world to know, to love, and to
serve him, and so to come to paradise. Beatitude makes us "partakers of
the divine nature" and of eternal life.21 With beatitude, man
enters into the glory of Christ22 and into the joy of the
Trinitarian life.
[Footnotes: #21 – 2 Pet
1:4; Jn 17:3; #22 – Cf. Rom 8:18 ]
1726 The Beatitudes teach us the final end to which God
calls us: the Kingdom, the vision of God, participation in the divine nature,
eternal life, filiation, rest in God.
1812 The human virtues are rooted in the theological
virtues, which adapt man's faculties for participation in the divine nature:76
for the theological virtues relate directly to God. They dispose Christians to
live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have the One and Triune God
for their origin, motive, and object.
[Footnote #76 – 2 Pet 1:14
]
1988 Through the power of the Holy Spirit we take part
in Christ's Passion by dying to sin, and in his Resurrection by being born to a
new life; we are members of his Body which is the Church, branches grafted onto
the vine which is himself:36
[God] gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine nature. . . . For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized.37
[God] gave himself to us through his Spirit. By the participation of the Spirit, we become communicants in the divine nature. . . . For this reason, those in whom the Spirit dwells are divinized.37
[Footnotes: #36 – Cf. 1
Cor 12; Jn 15:1-4; #37 – St. Athanasius, Ep. Serap. 1,24: PG
26, 585 and 588 ]
1999 The grace of Christ is the gratuitous gift that God
makes to us of his own life, infused by the Holy Spirit into our soul to heal
it of sin and to sanctify it. It is the sanctifying or deifying
grace received in Baptism. It is in us the source of the work of
sanctification:48
And
lastly, I must mention a recent book of collected essays by Catholic authors
concerning the doctrine of deification:
Grace
and peace,
David
