Themes in Byzantine Christianity

Deification – Theois – “Becoming like God” – “making divine”

The Sheptytsky Institute in Toronto does some marvelous things to push back the boundaries of ignorance. Recently, the Institute hosted a conversation entitled, “The Experience of Deification in the Lenten Liturgies” with Fr. Khaled Anatolios, University of Notre Dame and the Institute’s executive director, Fr. Alexander Laschuk.

Eastern Christians typically speak of salvation as deification. But can salvation and deification be concretely experienced in our lives in this world? Fr. Anatolios will speak on how the liturgy grants us an experience of salvation as deification. This retreat will be based on his latest book, Deification through the Cross: An Eastern Christian Theology of Salvation (Eerdmans, 2020).

Fr. Khaled Anatolios is a convert to Catholicism and a Melkite priest of the Eparchy of Newton. He is currently serving as the John A. O’Brien Professor of Theology at the University of Notre Dame. Before moving to Notre Dame he taught theology at Weston School of Theology/Boston College. He was born in India and grew up in Egypt and Canada. His other books include Retrieving Nicaea: The Development and Meaning of Trinitarian Doctrine.