Description
The complex nature of Christian communion with a personal God requires a nuanced expression. Since its inception, the early church affirmed God’s unknowable nature and also participation in God through Christ. The church fathers employed the language of theosis in talking about union with God and human transformation in the likeness of God. However, the term theosis or deification is a broad category and requires precise explanation to avoid human dissolution into the divine in the mystical union it attempts to describe. In Triadosis, Eduard Borysov offers a new approach to the conundrum of the imparticipable divine nature and the prospect of personal union between human and the Trinity. Most significantly, he proposes that if God is Trinity, then we are created and restored in the image of the same tri-personal God.
About the Author
Eduard Borysov is Professor of New Testament at Kiev Theological Seminary. He is the on-site director of Talbot School of Theology, Kiev Extension.
Contents
Preface
Abbreviations
1. Introduction
Outline and Sources
Methodology
Potential Hermeneutical Objections
Limitations of This Project
Recent Scholarship on Theosis in Paul
2. Early Approaches to Theosis
Introduction
Apotheosis
Christosis
Triadosis
Energeosis
Conclusion
3. Reformers and Triadosis
Introduction
Traditional Lutheran and Calvinist Interpretations
Luther and Deification
Calvin and Deification
Conclusion
4. Contemporary Eastern Orthodox Retrieval of Triadosis
Introduction
Zizioulas’s Critiques of Apotheosis and Energeosis
Zizioulas’s View of Personhood
Conclusion
5. Recent Retrievals of Theosis in Paul
Introduction
M. David Litwa
Ben C. Blackwell
Michael J. Gorman
Conclusion
6. Conclusion
Summary of Argument
Original Contribution
Further Implications
Bibliography
Subject and Author Index
Scripture Index
Endorsements and Reviews
Borysov’s book adeptly summarizes recent work on patristics, Reformation studies, and modern Eastern Orthodoxy in order to provide guidance for our understanding of Paul’s concept of theosis or deification. His fresh analysis and his new term, triadosis, beautifully capture the most fruitful strand of thought on deification: human beings are meant to share in the relational life that characterizes the Father, Son, and Spirit. I recommend this book enthusiastically.
Donald Fairbairn, Robert E. Cooley Professor of Early Christianity, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary
Borysov’s study does a marvellous job in exploring the Trinitarian dimensions of theosis in Pauline interpretation in church history. The strength of this monograph lies in its probing survey of the fathers, the reformers, and modern theologians, orienting the reader to a multi-faceted treatment of the topic through Trinitarian lenses. Borysov’s work is an important contribution in the re-appropriation of theosis as interpersonal communion with the triune God, who transforms the faithful into the likeness of the tri-personal divine community through grace.
Ashish J. Naidu, Associate Professor of Theology, Talbot School of Theology
A rich study that rewards the reader over and over by its clear engagement of vast theological and historical themes. Eduard Borysov offers us a compelling account of the summum bonum of our transformation and union with God that is robustly Trinitarian, biblically faithful and wise in the present currents of Pauline scholarship.
Mark R. Saucy, Professor of Theology, Talbot School of Theology
Borysov’s correlation of the Reformers to the patristic sources proves a welcome addition for those wishing
to track themes of deification across ecclesial divides. His concluding chapters take deification back to Pauline texts and indicate ways to correlate a wide variety of interpretations of those materials. Kirsten Guidero from Indiana Wesleyan University, in Modern Believing, April, 2023
For scholars interested in its various facets or for Protestant theologyh buffs with the patience and perhaps a little unsatisfied with the stereotypical Lutheran or Calvinist sola fide soteriology or maybe just curious about patristic or Orthodox theology and theosis, this is probably worth read.Gregory D. Wiebe, Executive Coordinator, Office of the Vice-President Academic at Canadian Mennonite University in Winnipe, in Direction, pp. 109 – 113, August, 2024.
