The Christian doctrine of theosis and Womanist soteriology have operated within Christian
theology as two separate discourses. By placing the Cappadocians in conversation with Delores S.
Williams and M. Shawn Copeland, this dissertation will propose the doctrine of theosis as a
alternative soteriology that disrupts the divestment of the sacredness of Black life and recovers the
Black body as ‘a site of divine revelation.’4 This work will make visible the common threads in
which these two discourses share on the nature of salvation and the scope of human destiny, bearing
the potential to offer a holistic soteriology that can be spiritually and materially significant for both
privileged and marginalized communities that have been shaped by the modern construction of
whiteness as a soteriological category.
The doctrine of theosis offers Womanist soteriology: 1) a supportive doctrine of God and
creation with a thorough relational ontology for understanding the contours of divine and human
agency in God’s redemptive plan for creation; and 2) a framework for addressing the problem/gift
of embodiment. Womanist soteriology offers the ability to interpret the doctrine of theosis in a way
that it can be meaningfully 1) expressed toward the dismantling of oppressive soteriologies predicated upon the societal inscriptions of race, gender, and class, onto black bodies; 2) embodied through the
creative restructuring of communal life and responsibility toward the survival and the improvement
of the quality of life for those marginalized; and 3) explored through ethnographic research that
examines the extent to which it is a doctrine of material and practical consequence in the lives of
Christian believers.The primary theological sources that I intend to draw upon include patristic theology and the survivalist-liberationist Womanist theology in order to conduct a communal reading of the
doctrine of theosis.