Theosis: Deification in Christ and the Jesus Prayer

Christianity Today in its October, 2008, issue has published James R. Payton's fine essay, "Keeping the End in View: How the Strange yet Familiar Doctrine of Theosis Can Invirgorate the Christian Life." Among the Orthodox theosis is a well-known Biblical way of envisioning what happens in the Christian life, and among Lutherans there is renewed interest in theosis inasmuch as Luther articulated its dynamics in his sermons and commentaries on Scripture. This morning I received the following quotation excerpted from William Ryan's Entering the Stream of Mercy in the Jesus Prayer (Avalon Counseling Contemplative Spiritual Resource), and made available by CENTER-L@heartoftexas-co.org. If you've not familiar with theosis and the Jesus Prayer, this quotation may give you much to meditate upon:

Living the Life of Christ in the Jesus Prayer

Jesus said "I came that they should have Life and have it fully. " (Matt.10:10). The goal of our life is to unite our human life, our human soulutterly with His Life, and to receive the gift of himself that he wants togive. This is a life-long process of opening and receiving and bringingf orth this union with Jesus, so that he can live fully in us. In the JesusPrayer we open and receive this union. When we are in a relationship of love or close friendship, there are times when we simply abide in the presence of our human beloved one. There are other times when we express ourl ove and givenness in words and rituals of love. My path is that of innercommunion with Christ, my Beloved, the emanation of the Godhead as Person. My practice is the disciplined daily self-offering in love that I make toand with Yeshua, giving of the gift of my person and receiving the gift of His Person. My day begins and ends with the invocation in vocalized chant,"Yeshua (Jesus), Yeshua (Jesus), You in me, I in you." Everything else is the actualization of that singular desire, that singular intention. This is Theosis, Christ living in us and we living in Him, the foundation of spirituality and transformation in Eastern Christianity. We are the beloved disciple; our calling is to "abide in his love." In this way over time we can begin to say as St. Paul does, "I live, no longer I, but Christ lives in me." (Gal. 2:20)

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