The Doctrine of Deification: A Call to Worship

Abstract

In Christ, we do not touch the divine essence or become divine essence, but we become God by grace through partaking of him in his uncreated energies. Streaming forth from the doctrines of the Trinity and the Incarnation like rays from the sun, the doctrine of deification is the outer face of the Orthodox Church's answer to the ancient riddle of the one and the many. Reality is not a monism but a communion of the many in the Three in One. The doctrine of deification gives voice to the experience of the saints: God is altogether inaccessible to creatures, and yet he is at the same time altogether accessible in his uncreated energies.