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Theosis

No change in size, 20:32, July 23, 2006
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Union with God, east and west: consistnecy in capitalization: East & West ("east" & "west" refer only to compass points and not to culture)
== Comparative considerations ==
=== Union with God, east East and west West ===
In western Western Catholic theology, ''theosis'' refers to a specific and rather advanced phase of contemplation of God. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10663b.htm] The process of arriving to such a state, or moving toward it (as arrival there is not necessary for [[salvation]]), involves different types of prayer which are recognized as beneficial. Various stages of prayer life are recognized as being likely to occur should a person respond to faith by moving along the purgative, illuminative, and unitive ways. See [[ascetical theology]].
Some western Western writers refer to theosis using the same implications given above (e.g., [http://ic.net/~erasmus/RAZ184.HTM], [http://www.kensmen.com/catholic/purgatory.html]). It is common to find western writings that suggest that eastern spirituality manifests ''theosis'' and that by implication the west West is lacking in this regard, but this is a case of rhetoric obscuring fact: under different terminology the western spiritual traditions, which also reach to the origins of Christianity (in the East), share the objective of sharing in the life of God. It is also necessary to recall that in the west there is a problematic form of ''[[ecumenism]]'' in vogue, in which people are quick to deny their own truths in order to appear to exalt the ''other''. Some Catholic writers consider it lamentable that the term ''theosis'' is not used more extensively in western theology. [http://www.kensmen.com/catholic/solafide.html]
It is, therefore, a mistake to attribute to Eastern Orthodoxy a special insight into the existence of the possibility of union with God: the theological difference between east East and west West is rhetorical. Whether or not eastern liturgies are more conducive to ''theosis'' is another matter; in the west there has been much discussion of the merits of the [[Novus Ordo Missae]]. The [[Tridentine Mass]] is available in hundreds of locations and is very much conducive, if for some faithful the Novus Ordo is not, to the kind of prayer life that leads one along toward ''theosis''. Virtually all spiritual books of any consequence published in the west manifest overt awareness of all the issues comprised in ''theosis'' (some books may focus on specific stages and treat unitive themes more briefly).
===Protestant use of the term "theosis"===
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