THEOSIS and the Pursuit of Godlikeness

[St. Athanasius: “Becoming by Grace what God is by Nature”] Theosis is about the revelation of divinity in the Sacrament of Natural Order. Fidelity to Sacrament is fidelity to divine revelation, what is, understanding Godlikeness and conscionable, Godlike living. Authentic living is enabled in the pursuit of Godlikeness, in understanding and in living.

As Christians who seek to live faithfully to divine purposes, we must ask ourselves, “how do we advance or frustrate divine revelation? How have we culturally digressed from Godlikeness and caused the frustration of nature, of divine revelation? How do we fail to understand that RELIGION IS ABOUT GODLIKE RELATIONSHIPS AND IRRELIGION IS ABOUT UNGODLIKE RELATIONSHIPS?

Theosis, as a consciousness of divinity, originates in the self-awareness of Creation (the evolving Cosmos), by which conscious purpose can engage in divine purposes of symbiotic wellbeing.

Gradually awakening consciousness stimulates intelligence to anticipate potentials of communal/ personal benefit and to intentionally motivate personal and communal action which actualizes the envisioned potentials of nature.

The expression of natural potentials in action, characterizes organic forms and function. The intentional intelligence of nature (self-reflective in humankind) is realized in the purposes that come to be actualized in nature.

Thought and intentional consciousness motivate to higher understandings of purpose, and to action that actualizes the ongoing perfecting of thought and the ascendancy of personal/ social forms and functions.

Theosis is gradual conscious awakening to divine implications in the processes of cosmic evolution; the Earth and all processes at work on Earth are of cosmic origin and dependency; all processes of life, in organic form (structure) and function, are of Earth/ Cosmos origin and dependency. In every aspect of form and function, the implications of divine unfolding (revelation)) pertain and obtain.

In the universal processes of Cosmos, Earth and Life, the unity and continuity of origins and expressions of potential obtain, so that, all transformations, all evolutionary change, are expressions of original potential implicated from the beginning.

Original potentials, implicated from the beginning, represent Divine Instance (Presence). The expression of Mind occurs in the relationships that effect the actualizing of potentials. This process, the actualizing of potentials, is the “apocalypse” (manifestation, revelation) of Divine Presence — what is “Theosis”.

In our purposeful, conscionable relationships, we express the Mind of God. The collective consciousness of humankind is a collective representation of divine mind. As consciousness deepens in the physicality and psychology of nature, and in fidelity to the purposes of universal wellbeing, so does understanding of God and authentic revelation of the divine.

When the evolution of natural processes is frustrated, so are understandings of God and the purposes of Creation, that is, the Intelligent Design of Creation/ Creator. To deny evolution is to deny God; to obstruct consciousness of evolution is to obstruct divine working/ presence in the Sacrament of Natural Order.

A change of mind (metannoia, conversion) has to first occur before changes of habits can. This “conversion” is the momentous task of the “Great Work”.