Faith, Reason, and Theosis / / ed. by Aristotle Papanikolaou, Aristotle Papanikolaou, Ashley M. Purpura, George E. Demacopoulos.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2023 English
• MitwirkendeR: Abraham, William J.,; Bouteneff, Peter C.,; Chau, Carolyn,; Davis, Robert Glenn,; Davis, Stephen J.,; Hart, David Bentley,; Kariatlis, Philip,; Porter, Jean,; Prevot, Andrew,; Purpura, Ashley M.,; Stjerna, Kirsi,; Watkins, Michele,; Williams, Rowan,
• HerausgeberIn: Demacopoulos, George E.,; Papanikolaou, Aristotle,; Purpura, Ashley M.,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Fordham University Press, , [2023]; ©2023
• Year of Publication: 2023
• Language: English
• Series: Orthodox Christianity and Contemporary Thought
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (336 p.)

Theosis shapes contemporary Orthodox theology in two ways, positively and negatively. In the positive sense, contemporary Orthodox theologians made theosis the thread that bound together the various aspects of theology in a coherent whole, but also their interpretation of patristic texts, which experienced a renaissance in the twentieth century, even in Orthodox theology. In the negative sense, contemporary theologians used theosis as a triumphalistic club to beat down Catholic and Protestant Christians, claiming that they rejected theosis in favor of either a rationalistic or fideistic approach to Christian life. The essays collected in this volume move beyond this East-West divide by examining the relation between faith, reason, and theosis from Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant perspectives. A variety of themes are addressed, such as the nature-grace debate and the relation of philosophy to theology, through engagement with such diverse thinkers as Thomas Aquinas, John Wesley, Meister Eckhart, Dionysius the Areopagite, Symeon the New Theologian, Panayiotis Nellas, Vladimir Lossky, Martin Luther, Martin Heidegger, Sergius Bulgakov, John of the Cross, Delores Williams, Evagrius of Pontus, and Hans Urs von Balthasar. The essays of this book are situated within a current thinking on theosis that consists of a common, albeit minimalist, affirmation amidst the flow of differences. The authors in this volume contribute to the historical theological task of complicating the contemporary Orthodox narrative, but they also continue the “theological achievement” of thinking about theosis so that all Christian traditions may be challenged to stretch and shift their understanding of theosis even amidst an ecumenical celebration of the gift of participation in the life of God.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction: Faith, Reason, and Theosis -- Part I: Theotic Existence -- Waking the Gods: Theosis as Reason’s Natural End -- Does Aquinas Have the Orthodox Concept of Theosis? -- Deification as Christification and Human Becoming -- Theosis as Kenosis: The Paradox of Holy Intimacy in the Theology of Hans Urs von Balthasar -- Martin Luther on Faith and Union with God: Speculations on Theosis -- Differentiation as Disfigurement: A Womanist Polemic against the Co-optation of the Divine Essence -- Part II: Theotic Knowing -- Revelation, Reason, and Holiness: A Wesleyan Perspective -- The Ambiguous Meanings of Theosis in Modern and Postmodern Discourse -- Speculation and Theosis in Vladimir Lossky and Meister Eckhart -- Knowing through Unknowing: The Qualified Necessity of Human Reason in Dionysius -- Knowing in Theosis: A Byzantine Mystical Theological Approach -- Deification in Evagrius Ponticus and the Transmission of the Kephalaia Gnostika in Syriac and Arabic -- The Embodied Logos: Reason, Knowledge, and Relation -- Acknowledgments -- List of Contributors -- Index