Item Detail
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22820
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0
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0
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English
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What is Man, That Thou Art Mindful of Him? : Human Deification in Eastern Orthodox and Latter-day Saint Theology
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Provo, UT
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Brigham Young University
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Master's thesis
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"'What is man, that thou art mindful of him?' (Psalms 8:4) Orthodox Christians and Latter-day Saints will find that their respective answers to David's universal question sound strikingly similar. Orthodox Christians define their beliefs about humanity by repeating the words of Genesis: men and women are created in the image of God; Latter-day Saints believe the same. Orthodox Christians insist that the divine image must include the physical bodies of humans; Latter-day Saints believe the same. Orthodox Christians affirm that, even after the Fall of Adam, the divine image and thus freedom and the potential for goodness - remained intact in humans; Latter-day Saints believe the same. Orthodox Christians hold that as humans exercise their divinely given powers of free will and respond to God's initiative in their lives, they will grow increasingly like God; Latter-day Saints believe the same. Finally, Orthodox Christians believe that humans who grow increasingly like God can, through divine grace, eventually become gods; Latter-day Saints believe the same. These points of doctrine convergence combine to speak to criticisms which both denominations have faced. Orthodox Christians and Latter-day Saints have been criticized for their similar beliefs that humans can become gods. Much of that criticism centers on the complaint that the deification/exaltation doctrine is built on slim biblical support, or on questionable exegeses of biblical passages. But the parallel positions of both churches call into question the viability of such criticisms. Both churches are global denominations, yet their histories are markedly different. Eastern Orthodoxy claims an unbroken continuity with first-century Christianity, a faith which they believe has been preserved for nearly two thousand years. Latter-day Saints also claim a connection with first-century Christianity, but trace that connection to a miraculous restoration of the apostolic Church in the nineteenth century. Still, both churches hold that human deification/exaltation is a central doctrine of true Christianity, and that the doctrine's survival in the writings of early Christian theologians suggests that deification/exaltation is both an ancient and an authentically Christian doctrine. Because of that share approach, this thesis contends that deification/exaltation should be considered one reasonable, Christian interpretation of biblical texts." [Author's abstract]