Comments on: Got Divinity?

By: Mormons and Catholics » Blog Archive » Where’s the Catholics?

Mormons and Catholics » Blog Archive » Where’s the Catholics? — Sat, 13 May 2006 04:19:14 +0000

[...] Got Divinity? by Mike Aquilina a Catholic blogger with interests in early Christian studies [...]

By: Mike Aquilina

Mike Aquilina — Fri, 12 May 2006 22:53:35 +0000

Thanks a million! I’ll make time.

By: David Waltz

David Waltz — Fri, 12 May 2006 22:50:36 +0000

I have read Williams book, but IMHO she attempts to reconcile certain aspects of Aquinas’ and Palamas’ theology that cannot be done so. I think a better read is David Bradshaw’s Aristotle East and West – Metaphysics and the Division of Christendom. Another excellent book is Norman Russell’s The Doctrine of Deification In the Greek Patristic Tradition. Hope you (and others) can find the time to read these works.

David

By: Mike Aquilina

Mike Aquilina — Fri, 12 May 2006 18:14:46 +0000

Yes, and the Williams book proceeds according to those principles. Give it a read.

By: David Waltz

David Waltz — Fri, 12 May 2006 15:52:52 +0000

I think it is important to point out two important issues when discussing the CF’s and deification: first, diversity existed among the Fathers as to exactly what deification meant; and second, the doctrine developed over the centuries, and is still developing.

Keeping these two important issues in mind, I believe we must go back to what the Fathers themselves said, and to read them in their original context while combating the temptation to bring much later theological developments into their thought.

David

By: Mike Aquilina

Mike Aquilina — Thu, 11 May 2006 23:55:48 +0000

That seems to be what we get from the Fathers, though they don't employ the same terms. Maximus the Confessor: "The one deified through grace receives for himself everything that God possesses, apart from the identity of substance." John of Damascus: "through participation in God, man becomes by grace what Christ is by nature." Athanasius's classic formula is that God became man so that men might become God. Cardinal Schonborn sums it up: "we become gods and sons through designation and not through nature, through grace and not through nature." I don't claim to be a theologian, but I think Thomas and the Fathers provide complementary explanations of the same reality. A theologian at Yale, A.N. Williams wrote a fine book on the subject, The Ground of Union: Deification in Aquinas and Palamas.

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 11 May 2006 22:48:54 +0000

Mike,

What is your understanding of theosis? I believe that St. Thomas in the Summa Theologica explains that in the beatified state, the blessed soul will see God as He is. The blessed will comprehend all external effects of God, but will not fully comprehend the internal life of God and will obviously not be capable of contemplating and understanding God as he contemplates himself. Is this your understanding?

By: Mike Aquilina

Mike Aquilina — Thu, 11 May 2006 22:41:30 +0000

I knew there was one in there somewhere!

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 11 May 2006 22:34:18 +0000

I’m the Utah Catholic. Thanks for the info, Mike. I’m still working my way through Cardinal Schonborn’s book, and I look forward to the Shuttleworth booklet.

I hope some of my wonderful neighbors find their way to your website.

By: Mike Aquilina

Mike Aquilina — Thu, 11 May 2006 22:26:02 +0000

My apologies, Brad. I didn’t mean to dislocate you or any part of you. In Omaha you can listen to me on the radio!