Irenaeus on Theosis

Irenaeus

Irenaeus

How, then, shall he become a God, who has not as yet been made a man? Or how can he be perfect who was but lately created? How, again, can he be immortal, who in his mortal nature did not obey his maker? For it must be that thou, at the outset, shouldest hold the rank of a man, and then afterwards partake of the glory of God.

Against Heresies, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, pages Book 4, Chapter 39, Alexander Roberts and James Donaldson, eds., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1994

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