Theosis and the Old Testament

For fun I read "Theōsis, Judaism, and Old Testament Anthropology" by Gregory Glazov. It's a short, if dense read that I found enjoyable. I've taken the liberty of summarizing the more salient points.

The first difficulty in taking on this subject is that Jewish scholarship has no interest in discussing the matter with the Christian world. The Christian, in searching for Old Testament prefigurements or examples of the concept of theosis will find no ready aid from a culture that has "put a hedge around the Torah," and considers any help they might give to such a cause furtherance of idolatry. Why? Because the relationship between the people of the Old Testament and those of the New Covenant do not have the same understanding of a relationship with the divine.

Dr. Glazov then goes on to discuss the importance of historical understanding to make sense of His death and resurrection. His condescension makes no sense unless we understand the New Testament. The New Testament makes no sense unless we understand the Old Testament. So, by extension, ideas such as theosis make no sense unless we understand man's relationship with God as expressed in both sources.

The author then summarizes our understanding of our grace and deification as an active relationship with God as compared with the Jewish experience of this interplay. To the Christian, we partake of His energies and not His essence and in so doing receive grace. "Man still remains man." he quotes Metropolitan Kallistos from his Orthodox Way. To the Jew, grace comes from knowing and keeping the commandments themselves. Obedience to the Law is then how we best relate to God.

He then moves onto wisdom and goodness as relates to commandments. If we look to Kant the individual who has understanding is best disposed to act for the good. As has been said about relativism in general, this idea places what is right and what is wrong in his own hands - to each person a confused kingdom filled with confused relationships and communications. Conversely, to the Judeo-Christian importance is placed on obedience to the commandments as the only way to gain freedom for mankind. Fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and greater wisdom still is to be found in obeying His will set forth in the commandments. It is in obedience to His will that we receive his energies and are able to know and enjoy goodness while naming and avoiding evil.

Adam himself failed to become like God by an "inward, organic, and transformative appropriation of godliness through holding onto God's words," but instead chose to act in a way that separated him from that path. Had he not done so he would have continued to be more fully human "just as soil becomes more than it was, when it transformed into a plant."

The New Adam - in speaking of the sower who casts some seeds onto fertile ground while others are eaten or wither in the sun - is speaking to the "receptivity" to the seed. The seed opens itself to reception of all it needs to grow and continues to hold and keep itself receptive to those life giving resources. Should the plant sever itself it would surely die.

He closes: "Christian theosis was grounded not just on explicit texts about transformation and divine adoption, but on teachings about hidden, seed-like transformative energies of divine words and the potencies of human covenantal obedience."