THEOSIS PROJECT 2024-2026

Project description: Theosis is a consummate expression of transcendence in the mystical, Gnostic, Platonic, and Esoteric traditions from antiquity to the present. As such, borders, limits, and edges characterize it, and the overcoming of these. It challenges the delimitations of knowledge, cosmos, and contemplation and strains at the very boundaries of experience.

Theosis Project examines the concept of theosis, bringing together philosophical questions of aesthetics, anthropology, epistemology, and theology within the ancient theological challenge of understanding the relationship among theosis, icon, image, archetype, and bounds of being. While this theme is deeply rooted in the Eastern Christian tradition, it can also be fruitfully discussed in a comparative religious context. Even within Christianity, the topic remains controversial and subject to intense debate. Additionally, the project will explore how this theme is relevant to secular culture.

Organizers: Institute for the Study of Values and Spirituality (Romania/USA); Cambridge Centre for the Study of Platonism, Cambridge University (UK)

Project investigators: Dan Chițoiu (ISVS-UAIC) & Douglas Hedley (Cambridge)

Project management: Corina Domnari (ISVS-UAIC) – Iași Event; Benjamin Davidson (Cambridge) – Cambridge Event

Project timeline: April 2024 – December 2026

Project activities:

• 2024, September 19-20, Iași, Romania – Theosis and Icons Conference – (https://instvs.org/theosis-and-icons/)

• 2024, November 25, San Diego, CA, USA – Theosis and the Bounds of Being Panel – (Platonism and Neoplatonism Unit at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion)

• 2025, June 9-10, Cambridge, UK – Theosis Conference – (https://www.platonism.divinity.cam.ac.uk/news/conference-theosis-9th-10th-june-2025)

• 2026, June 19, Neamț, Romania – Theosis as Overcoming Bounds of Being Panel – (St Gregory Palamas International Seminar)