Interrupting the Silence

Tag: Theosis

  • WIlliam Porcher DuBose, Episcopal Theologian

    William Porcher DuBose (April 11, 1836 to August 18, 1918) was an American Anglican priest and theologian. He spent most of his life as a professor at the School of Theology, The University of the South, in Sewanee, Tennessee. In the Episcopal Church he is remembered on August 18. He was one of the most Read more

  • The Feast of the Transfiguration

    The Feast of the Transfiguration is celebrated on a fixed date, August 6. The transfiguration of Jesus is a visible image of theosis. In his homily on the transfiguration St. John of Damascus says, “What was human became divine, and what was divine human by mode of exchange and unconfused mutual coinherence and the strictest hypostatic Read more

  • Theosis in the Episcopal Church

    In a previous post I wrote about theosis as the human vocation. Theosis, was a central concept and theme within the early church and remains so today in Eastern Orthodoxy. Was theosis lost by the west in the East-West schism of 1054? Where is theosis within the Anglican tradition and more specifically in the American expression Read more

  • Theosis, the Human Vocation

    There are moments when the existential questions of life can no longer be answered, ignored, or denied by focusing on our careers, jobs, marriages, families, acquisitions, or accomplishments. We are, to paraphrase the opening of St. Augustine’s Confessions, restless until our hearts rest in God. Who am I? Where am I from? Where am I Read more

  • Artisans of the Likeness of God – The Feast of St. Basil the Great

    “‘Let us make the human being according to our image and according to our likeness’ [Gen. 1:26]. By our creation we have the first, and by our free choice we build the second. In our initial structure co-originates and exists our coming into being according to the image of God. By free choice we are Read more

  • Nickels and Noses – What Do We Value and Measure in the Parish?

    My guess is that most priests, when speaking of their seminary training, would say that very little, if any, time was spent in teaching or forming them to be a successful chief executive officer or business manager. This is certainly true for me. Yet, a significant percentage of my time is spent dealing with budgets, Read more

  • The Manger Is Not In Bethlehem – A Christmas Sermon On Luke 2:1-20

    The collect and readings for Christmas may be found here. Every one of us could probably tell the Christmas story. We know it well. A young virgin named Mary conceives a child by the Holy Spirit. She and her betrothed, Joseph, travel to Bethlehem by order of the emperor. There Mary gives birth in a Read more

  • A Strange Mystery

    Today a strange mystery has been fulfilled; for nature has been renewed and God has become human. Yes, he remains ever the same, divine, but has now taken on to himself what he had not before, humanity. The two, divinity and humanity, exist as one neither being commingled nor separated. O Lord, you came to Read more

  • St. Ephrem – The Deformities Made Beautiful

    “Free will succeeded in making Adam’s beauty ugly, for he, a man, sought to become a god. Grace, however, made beautiful his deformities and God came to become a man. Divinity flew down to draw humanity up, for the Son had made beautiful the deformities of the servant and so he has become a god, Read more