theosis

Learned borrowing from Late Latin theōsis, from Koine Greek θέωσις (théōsis).

• enPR: thē-ō′sĭs
• (UK) IPA^(key): /θiːˈəʊ.sɪs/
• (US) IPA^(key): /θiˈoʊ.sɪs/
• Rhymes: -əʊsɪs

theosis (uncountable) (theology, chiefly Eastern Christianity)

1. (Christianity, theology) The likeness to or union with God; deification.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, Viking Press, →ISBN, page 440:

     For him, theosis or deification was the destination for human salvation, whose attainment Adam’s sin in Eden had imperilled but not rendered impossible; […]

2. (Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern Catholicism, mysticism) The process of attaining this state of union with God.

• hosties