The complex nature of Christian communion with a personal God requires a nuanced expression. Since its inception, the early church affirmed God’s unknowable nature and also participation in God through Christ. The church fathers employed the language of theosis in talking about union with God and human transformation in the likeness of God. However, the term theosis or deification is a broad category and requires precise explanation to avoid human dissolution into the divine in the mystical union it attempts to describe. In Triadosis, Eduard Borysov offers a new approach to the conundrum of the imparticipable divine nature and the prospect of personal union between human and the Trinity. Most significantly, he proposes that if God is Trinity, then we are created and restored in the image of the same tri-personal God.

Understanding union with Christ as a frame of thought (as a motif or theme) is important for accessing Calvin's theology. While the union-with-Christ doctrine arises when Calvin explains the doctrine itself directly (especially in light of soteriology), the strong presence of this motif--union with Christ (union with the Triune God)--indicates its pervasiveness when other doctrines or theological themes are explained as well. This book suggests that we approach the notion of union of Christ as a theological frame of thought that touches on most of the doctrines and theological themes of Calvin's theology. This book deals with union with Christ as a motif or theme rather than as a doctrine.

Theosis, originally a Greek term for Christian divinisation or deification, has become a vogue word in modern theology. Although recent publications have explored its meaning in a selection of different contexts, this is the first book to offer a coherent narrative of how the concept of theosis developed in both its Eastern and Western versions. Norman Russell shows how the role of Dionysius the Areopagite was pivotal, not only in Byzantium but also in the late mediaeval West, where it strengthened the turn towards an individualistic interiority. Russell also relates theosis to changing concepts of religion in the modern age. He investigates the Russian version of theosis, introduced in the West by Russian members the Paris School after the 1917 Revolution. Since then, theosis has undergone additional development through the addition of esoteric elements which have since passed into the mainstream of all theological traditions and even into popular spirituality.

The complex nature of Christian communion with a personal God requires a nuanced expression. Since its inception, the early church affirmed God's unknowable nature and also participation in God through Christ. The church fathers employed the language of theosis in talking about union with God and human transformation in the likeness of God. However, the term theosis or deification is a broad category and requires precise explanation to avoid human dissolution in the divine in the mystical union. This book addresses the conundrum of imparticipable divine nature and personal union between human and the Trinity. If God is Trinity, then we are created and restored in the image of tripersonal God.