# From Church History on the Doctrine of Theosis (Deification)

> Fr. Dr. Athanasius Ishaq Hanin on the difference between Eastern patristic theology and the later theories of the West.

*2026-10-13T08:14:31Z*

![“…from the first centuries the differences appeared between the East, whose theology rests on the experience of being, asceticism, experience and the liturgy, and the Christian West, whose theology, just like its culture, rests on rationalism and legal concepts…” — Fr. Dr. Athanasius Ishaq Hanin, Partakers of the Divine Nature (article)](/uploads/sites/1274e232-e31c-46f4-a48b-27b854406479/media/evidence-8574393d-aa8b-413b-9df1-15e5d9175a11-en-square.png?w=1080&h=1080)

### Fr. Dr. Athanasius Ishaq Hanin says in the article Shurakā’ al-Ṭabī‘a al-Ilāhiyya [Partakers of the Divine Nature]:

Here appeared the difference between Eastern patristic theology and all the theories that arose afterwards, which did not undertake the necessary purification of the heretics’ terms from their paganism, and so confused theological thought and distorted the original vision of redemption, that is, the abolition of death through the sacrifice of Christ on the cross and the gift of life by the Resurrection. And from the first centuries the differences appeared between the East, whose theology rests on the experience of being, asceticism, experience and the liturgy, and the Christian West, whose theology, just like its culture, rests on rationalism and legal concepts. It began at the hands of Augustine, who, in order to resist Pelagius, focused much on ancestral sin, as we mentioned before in our study on the patristic view of ancestral sin, and also Tertullian, until Western thought reached Bishop Anselm and Thomas Aquinas, so that Western theology reached the official proclamation of these positions at the Council of Trent, 1545 - 1563

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Source: https://abba.fadymondy.com/en/blog/theologya-history