La déification en tant qu’expérience ecclésiale et vocation étique du chrétien
La déification en tant qu’expérience ecclésiale et vocation étique du chrétien

Summary/Abstract: The concept of “deification” is employed by the Eastern Church Fathers to denote the dignity and ultimate calling of man, i.e. attaining the “likeness” to God. Although it is not a biblical notion, having been adopted from ancient philosophy, it acquired, over time, a normative role for the entire Christian theology and spirituality. The current paper seeks to present a series of biblical and patristic considerations on the meanings of deification, and emphasises the spiritual, ecclesiastical and moral dimensions of deification, as a fundamental reality of Christian life. Deification presupposes the shared work of man with God, within the sphere of the Church; it is a work in which both the body and the soul participate, entailing the renunciation of one’s egotistic self, following Christ and materialising in one’s deeds the love for God and the world. Christian deification, finally, emerges as a personal and community experience and its actualisation is an ethical responsibility of all Christians, called to deification through their work within the Church of Christ, through the grace of the Holy Spirit.

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