7th–11th centuries

Deification in Byzantine Theology: Maximus the Confessor and Symeon the New Theologian

According to an assessment cited by Pelikan, the leading idea of Maximus the Confessor and of all Eastern theology was deification: the Word of God became man so that man might be deified and restored to the state for which he was created. Maximus stressed that no creature can be deified by the power of its own nature – it is a gift of grace and adoption – but the Spirit "deifies the will that itself desires it"; therefore, according to Pelikan, the Western opposition of grace and freedom was not as such a problem for Eastern thought. Around the turn of the 10th and 11th centuries Symeon the New Theologian described salvation not through works but through a conscious encounter with the divine light, after which a person abides in direct communion with God. He insisted on a "baptism in the Holy Spirit" that must follow water baptism and opposed nominal Christianity.