The early church (and the Eastern Orthodox church to this day) practiced the theology of theosis –  the belief that God is all love and all people are loved and called to be love in the world. This theology is manifested in a community that struggles and works at being Christ’s body in the world. This is who and what we desire to be in Holy Wisdom.

The dominant theology in Roman Catholic and most Christian churches for the last 1,000 years has been a theology of atonement – the belief that all humanity sinned with Adam’s disobedience (original sin) and that Jesus’s death was the atonement for our sins, a sacrifice required by God to pay humanity’s debt. 

Holy Wisdom liturgy is grounded in theosis theology.  We believe that Christians are to become the earthly manifestation of God, like Jesus was. And like Jesus, we’re to become fully human and fully divine. God is one with us, and all of creation. We are one with God, and all of creation, and that makes us one with each other. The way this is manifested is by doing the work and sharing in the Spirit of Christ by loving our neighbor, visiting and healing the sick, visiting those in prison and liberating them, feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, doing the works of justice and mercy, and caring for creation.

Read more about these two approaches here:  Atonement and Theosis Theology: Original Sin and Original Blessing