Date of Award
Spring 1999
Document Type
Dissertation - Restricted
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Theology
First Advisor
Hagen, Kenneth
Second Advisor
Barnes, Michael
Third Advisor
Golitzin, Alexander
Abstract
Although the Greek word theosis never appears in the writings of Martin Luther. Luther scholars have long been aware of the concept of deification in Luther's theology. Various forms of deificatio and Vergottlichung occur frequently in Luther's work; in fact, these terms occur more frequently than the term theologia crucis, a concept so widely acknowledged to be an integral part of Martin Luther's theology that Walther von Loewenich's Luther's Theology of the Cross is considered a Lutheran classic. Nevertheless, the theme of deification has been largely ignored, reinterpreted or flatly denied. Interpreters of Luther recognize that he spoke of Christ and the soul becoming one body, Christ dwelling in us, Christ being one with us, and our being Christ to our neighbor, but they rarely understand this in the context of a participation of the human person in the divine nature...