Quote:
Originally Posted by Koinonia
According to what I have heard, this book was never published (in English or Chinese), and was likely never written (or finished).
LC leaders had introduced HH to the concept of "deification" (theosis) through the teachings of Witness Lee. Over time, HH became more and more enthralled with this teaching. Wanting to learn more, a few years ago, he sought out a meeting with Eastern Orthodox leaders in NYC (HH has spoken about this publicly, on one of his radio shows). These encounters eventually led to his aligning himself with Eastern Orthodoxy (instead of the LC). Ironically, LC leaders pointed HH to Eastern Orthodoxy, and then HH rejected the LC in favor of it.
This the way I understand it.
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Koinonia,
Yeah, that is the story HH sells but there are reasons for doubting its truth. Every Christian tradition has some doctrine of deification whether they are Lutheran, Reformed or whatever. That is because the biblical language is there and has to be made sense of somehow. That said, the Eastern Orthodox view is not the LC view. When the LC talk about partaking of the divine “essence”, ironically even in material quoted by Miller, uhm yeah, that’s not the Patristic view as held by the Orthodox.
Second, CRI had work done on deification in relation to other sects such as the LDS when HH came on board. There was a set of articles produced by Rob Bowman on it in the CRI Journal before Martin died. (I believe it was “Ye are gods?” in 1987.) I know those articles were mentioned on the show when HH was starting to sit in, so he had to know about it.
Further the topic had to come up on the show and elsewhere more than once in over twenty years prior to any real wining and dining by the LC.
For these reasons I find it highly improbable that the LC introduced HH to the general concept of deification.
So what we have is a story that HH is selling. And I learned long ago not to believe any story that HH offers. Such narratives are how HH wants people to think about it, as if the change in views is part of some long period of academic study.
The fact is that a fair amount of HH’s books are most likely ghost written by staff or others. I know when I worked there he tried to get Michael Horton to ghost write for him. I also witnessed some of the ghost writing myself with HH signing off on CRI Perspectives I know he did not write.
Given that HH doesn’t even have a bachelors degree in any field and no competence in the biblical languages, logic or anything else, I find his claims that his views are the product of intense and prolonged study farcical.
It is possible that he cherry picked this doctrine. He tends to be idiosyncratic and not a systematic “thinker.” It is also possible that he got snookered by the LC as well and figured out at the last minute that the LC would liquidate his empire but the Orthodox wouldn’t. That too is possible. What is clear to me after nearly twenty years of being Orthodox, having a graduate level education in philosophy, which a strong background in historical and philosophical theology, HH has no idea what he is talking about when it comes to Orthodoxy, let alone much of anything else. This is why he cribs from the works of others to give the false impression that he is knowledgeable. The entire show is a facade IMHO. I know. I sat in the BAM studio for a year as part of my job. Plenty of other former employees will tell you the same.
That said, I think the LC influence is coming directly from Paul Young who is on the CRI board and an LC member. It seems clear to me, either Paul Young cares about selling lots of books or he has really drunk a lot of LC kool-aid.