theosis

Learned borrowing from Byzantine Greek θέωσις (théōsis).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /θiːˈəʊsɪs/

theosis (uncountable) (Christianity, chiefly Eastern Orthodoxy, theology)

1. The likeness to or union with God; deification.
   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, published 2010, 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. The process of attaining this state.

• apotheosis
• deification

• hosties