Theosis

Theosis is the Eastern-Christian word for the goal of human existence — commonly translated “divinization” or “deification.” The participatory framework reinterprets it.

Theosis is not the soul becoming God in a metaphysical merger. It is the soul granting full permission for God to do God's carving work through it. Christ as the first fully transparent vessel. The saints as increasingly transparent vessels. The rest of us as variably translucent — sometimes opaque, sometimes letting the light through.

The reading aligns Eastern Christian doctrine with the Hindu image of bhakti as the opening of the heart to the indwelling lord, with the Quaker inner light, with the Sufi polished-mirror, and with Meister Eckhart's birth of the Son in the soul. The shared phenomenon is the maximum opening of the permission gradient to the indwelling divine.

Theosis, on this account, is also participation in the re-tuning of the entangled net. Christ as the first jewel in the net to fully accept its carving and thereby begin re-tuning the entire reflection cascade. The communion of saints as the network of souls that have begun reflecting accurately. Every increase in personal transparency contributes to the broader re-tuning.