One of the finest and most indept papers I have ever seen written on the subject of Deification or Theosis is THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF DEIFICATION by Edward T. Jones.
"The primary concern of [his] paper is to investigate the concept of deification, or divinization, as well as the secondary concepts of eternal progression and the various degrees of glory, as they were taught by the Fathers of the early Christian church, and compare them with the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As the paper progresses it will become evident that the subjects were also taught by many of the Reformers, and that deification continues to be taught by the Eastern Orthodox Churches. It will also demonstrate that what the Latter-day Saints teach is very much like that which was taught by some, if not by all, of the earliest Church authors. The LDS Church claims to be a restoration of the ancient gospel; if that is so, then we should expect to see evidence in the earliest writings for at least some of what the Latter-day Saints teach. The paper seeks to demonstrate that that is the case." (Edward T. Jones,)
1 comment:
Yes, that was quite a paper. I found some good resources to read in my own research on this subject about how close did John Wesley's theology of sanctification come to the theology of Theosis held by the Greek Fathers who influenced him. Minus the asceticism of Eastern Orthodoxy, I think Wesley, the Greek Fathers and Roman Catholics like Thomas Aquinas were very close to each other. I am just starting my research.
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