My PhD research is looking for the proximity between the Eastern Church's view of Theosis, deification, and John Wesley's theology of sanctification which is perfection in one's love for God and others, in other words becoming Christ-like.
Thanks!
John
The notion of a semantic network is useful in representing the relationships (including some notion of proximity or distance) between words and concepts or ideas at a basic level. Your notion of ideas is at a higher (macro) level, involving aspects of doctrines which are already networks of ideas themselves. I don't know of any research that "measures the proximity of ideas" in religion (or anything else) at that level. Your best MO is probably just to stick to point by point comparisons.
Thank you. I don't think I'll worry about measuring the proximity of ideas in religion for we are looking at two theologies. One theology, we are rather sure of, Theosis from the Greek Fathers, influenced Wesley's theology of Sanctification. There are just too many similarities and research has shown which of the Greek Fathers influenced him. I want to take this a step further than just showing the similarities to looking at the proximity of one to the other. One professor thinks Wesley replaced one Greek Father's use of theosis in his homilies with what Wesley must have considered a word of dynamic equivalence, i.e. sanctification.
Sounds like a worthy project, but can you clarify what you mean by "I want to take this a step further than just showing the similarities to looking at the proximity of one to the other"? I don't see how you would distinguish significantly between similarity of ideas and proximity of ideas unless by "proximity" you literally intend a geographical distance that enabled influence, yet I don't think that's your intention either.
Thanks, I will stick with a to point by point comparisons. I do know this much about the two theologies at this point. Each of them aims at healing the broken image of God in people caused by the Fall. I will also need to compare each understanding of the Fall. One thing which will help is unlike Western Christianity which is mainly forensic theology. When it came to justification by faith, his theology was forensic, but not his view of sanctification which is more of a healing focus like the Greek Fathers and the later on Eastern Orthodox Church. Thanks. Your ideas have helped my thinking about this.
I've abandoned the question of proximity. I found an article which defines the relationship as a relationship of spiritual reciprocity. My new research question is
“To what end is the relationship of spiritual reciprocity between the ancient eastern Christian writers’ theology of theosis and Wesley’s theology of sanctification?”
This study proposes to bring research to look beyond the influence of the ancient eastern Christian writers and inquire about the relationship, in this case, of spiritual reciprocity between ancient eastern theosis and Wesley’s view of sanctification. This problem requires an answer using the following subordinate questions.
Subordinate Research questions
Why did the ancient eastern Christian writers use scripture to support their theology of theosis?
Why can research claim theosis is a biblical doctrine instead of something caused by Hellenistic paganism in contrast to those who claim otherwise.?
Why and how did the theology of theosis develop from the ancient eastern
Christian writers who influenced Wesley?
Why did John Wesley see his theology of sanctification in the Bible and the ancient eastern Christian writers?
How did John Wesley use the Bible and the primitive eastern Christian antiquity to support his theology of sanctification?
What was John Wesley’s theology of sanctification?
Why is it correct to study theosis and sanctification together, and what does that mean?
Why is there a reciprocal spiritual relationship between ancient eastern Theosis and Wesley’s Doctrine of Sanctification
How is this relationship reflected in Wesley’s writings, sermons, and ordo salutis?
Why did Wesley share Christian antiquity in this manner?
How does all of this provide a fresh vision of Wesley’s theology of sanctification for Methodists today?
How does all of this provide essential implications for Methodist theology and praxis?
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