Commenting on the deification of Christ’s humanity, and the Eastern Orthodox understanding of the scope and limits of deification (theosis), Michael Pomazansky wrote:
How is One to Understand
“The Deification of Humanity in Christ”?
“The Deification of Humanity in Christ”?
The human nature of the Lord Jesus, through its union with the Divinity, participated in Divine qualities and was enriched by them, in other words, it was “deified.” And not only was the human nature of the Lord Himself deified: through Him and in Him our humanity also is deified, for He also Himself likewise took part in our flesh and blood (Heb. 2:14), united Himself in the most intimate way with the human race, and consequently united it with the Divinity. Since the Lord Jesus Chris received flesh from the Ever-Virgin Mary, the Church books very frequently call her the fount of our deification: “Through her we have been deified.” We are deified likewise through worthy reception of the Body and Blood of Christ. However, one must understand the limits of the meaning of the term “deification,” since in the philosophic-religious literature of recent times, beginning with Vladimir Soloviev, there is a tendency towards an incorrect broadening of the meaning of the dogma of Chalcedon. The term “deification” does not meant the same thing as the term “God-Manhood,” and one who is “deified” in Christ is not placed on the path to personal God-Manhood. If the Church of Christ is called a Divine-Human organism, this is because the Head of the Church is Christ God, and the body of the Church is humanity reborn in Christ. In itself humanity in general, and likewise man individually, remains in that and for which it was created: for, in the person of Christ also the human body and soul did not pass over into the Divine Nature but were only united with it, united “without confusion or change.” “For there never was, nor is, nor ever will be another Christ consisting of Divinity and humanity, Who remains in Divinity and humanity, the same being perfect God and perfect Man,” as teaches St. Jon Damascene (Exact Exposition 3.3). (Michael Pomazansky, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology [trans. Hieromonk Seraphim Rose; 3d ed.; Platina. Calif.: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 2015], 220-23)
Elsewhere in his volume on EO theology, Pomazansky notes that the telos of humanity has always been to be deified by God:
Adam and Eve were not deified at the time of their creation, but were created for deification. Deification, as we have seen, refers to union with God through participation in His Uncreated Energies, but it does not mean the appropriation of God’s Essence. St. John Damascene writes:” God made man a living being to be governed here according to his present life, and then to be removed elsewhere, that is, to the world to come, and so to complete the mystery by becoming deified through reversion to God—this, however, not by being transformed into the Divine Essence, but by participation in the Divine illumination” (Exact Exposition 2.12; FC, p. 235). (Ibid., 146 n. 2)
