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Fellow Workers with God: Orthodox Thinking On Theosis	[PB-FEWORU]
Norman Russell

Fellow Workers with God: Orthodox Thinking On Theosis

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Asked about the Orthodox Christian doctrine of salvation, many people will hastily tell you that it has to do with “theosis” or “deification.” But few can explain what “theosis” actually means, and fewer still can do so with a broad and deep knowledge of the Church Fathers. Drawing on ancient and modern sources, and building on his magisterial study, The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition, Norman Russell here presents this teaching with breathtaking clarity without compromising its genuine complexity. This book stands out from others on the subject as a model of lucidity and reliability, and will enthrall specialists and non-specialists alike.

...a careful historical-theological analysis and comprehensive coverage of the major primary and secondary sources....providing the reader with a crisp, well-informed guide through the major issues. Paul M. Blowers, Emmanuel School of Religion

This is highly to be commended – [Russell] has managed an enviable feat for a writer – hitting a marvelous literary style and tone of approach....making high theology understandable. Fr. John McGuckin, Union Theological Seminary

Norman Russell is an independent scholar who has written widely on Orthodox themes, specializing in early Greek patristics and fourteenth-century hesychasm.

Contents:
Foreword
Introduction - What Is Theosis?
Theosis and the Economy of Salvation
The Biblical Foundations of Theosis
Image and Likeness
The Transfiguration of the Believer
Self-Transcendence
Participation in the Divine Life
Union with God
Epilogue - Do You Live It?
Bibliography and Further Reading
Index

Excerpt:
Near the summit of Mount Athos at around 6,000 feet there is a chapel dedicated to the Transfiguration. Each year, before the feast day on August 6th, a party of monks climbs the mountain laden with tools and materials to repair the damage caused by the storms and lightning strikes of the previous winter. The monks then spend the night in the chapel, keeping the vigil of the feast. The next day they return to their monasteries elated, the words of the night office still ringing in their ears:

Thou wast transfigured upon Mount Tabor, O Jesus, and a
shining cloud, spread out like a tent, covered the apostles
with Thy glory. Whereupon their gaze fell to the ground, for
they could not bear to look upon the brightness of the unapproachable
glory of Thy face, O Saviour Christ, our God
who art without beginning. Do Thou, who then hast shone
upon them with Thy light, give light now to our souls.1

The emphasis of the canon is on theophany, on the revelation of the divinity of Christ on Mount Tabor and our response to it. It picks out just one strand—though the most important one—of an extremely rich patristic tradition on the Transfiguration. Before we examine these different strands, we must look briefly at how the tradition as a whole developed.

1 Festal Menaion, trans. Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware (London: Faber and Faber 1969), 478

ISBN 978-0-88141-339-7
5.5 x 8.5
189
Price: US $18.00

Current Reviews: 1

This product was added to our catalog on Monday 02 March, 2009.

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