Theosis in Robert Barclay (1648-1690): a way forward in ‘true Christian divinity’

Mortimer, Kevin (2024). Theosis in Robert Barclay (1648-1690): a way forward in ‘true Christian divinity’. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Robert Barclay (1648-1690), a key Quaker theologian, claimed that the Quaker path of the Christian faith is the final end of the Protestant reformation of Roman Catholic Christianity, which concluded in the United Kingdom with the implementation of the Tolerance Act of 1688 by royal assent in 1689. This thesis, using the Bernard Lonergan (1904-1984) Method in Theology, argues that Barclay’s articulation of ‘true Christian divinity’ corresponds with the salvation economy of theosis in Eastern Orthodox Christianity. This idea is a variance fundamentally from what became Reformed Protestantism. Through a chronological exegesis of Barclay’s collective work (1670-1679) using the Lonergan Method, each Barclay chapter begins with recent scholarship on Robert Barclay and concludes with Eastern Orthodox scholarship while using the Lonergan Method with a Quaker and Orthodox practitioner in the footnotes of the main of Barclay’s work. This dissertation demonstrates that Barclay’s ‘true Christian divinity’ aligns with the salvation economy of theosis in Eastern Orthodoxy, namely, ‘Humanity becomes by Grace indwelling what God is by nature’.

Type of Work:	Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)
Award Type:	Doctorates > Ph.D.
Supervisor(s):	Supervisor(s) Email ORCID Dandelion, Ben UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Wenell, Karen J. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
Licence:	Creative Commons: Attribution 4.0
College/Faculty:	Colleges > College of Arts & Law
School or Department:	School of Philosophy, Theology and Religion, Department of Theology and Religion
Funders:	None/not applicable
URI:	http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/15635

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