Keswick “higher life” teaching strongly emphasizes participation in Christ’s life and holiness, but Keswick speakers do not generally use, or develop, a doctrine of theosis/deification as in Eastern Orthodoxy; where the language appears (e.g., “partakers of the divine nature”), it is read in evangelical sanctification terms.[1][2][3][4]
### No explicit theosis doctrine
– Historical sketches of the Keswick Convention highlight themes like “the deeper life,” “fullness of the Spirit,” and victory over sin, but make no mention of theosis, deification, or participation in divine energies as a formal doctrine.[3][4][1]
– Recent critiques of Keswick spirituality discuss “let go and let God,” quietist tendencies, and higher‑life sanctification, not deification; when 2 Peter 1:4 is used, it is as a sanctification proof‑text, not a theosis locus.[2][5][6][7][8]
### Use of “partakers of the divine nature”
– Keswick‑influenced preachers often appeal to 2 Peter 1:3–4 to stress that believers share in God’s life and power to live holy lives (“partakers of the divine nature… having escaped the corruption that is in the world”), but then immediately press this into exhortations to consecration and “victorious living.”[6][7][2]
– Other evangelical writers warning against Keswick explicitly contrast its “let go and let God” reading of sanctification with a more effort‑and‑means model, again treating “partakers of the divine nature” as shorthand for new nature/new life, not ontological theosis.[7][1][6]
### Where theosis language appears
– Some later theologians note that the **idea** of deeper participation in God’s life in Keswick preaching “resembles” certain aspects of theosis, but they do so as an analytic comparison, not because Keswick speakers themselves taught deification.[4][8][9]
– A contemporary Reformed critique lumps theosis together with various “deeper life” and renewal movements in discussing a shared “yearning for spiritual transcendence,” but again this is an external categorization, not a Keswick self‑description.[8][4]
So, if you are mapping traditions: Keswick speakers talk a great deal about union with Christ, fullness of the Spirit, and being “partakers of the divine nature” in terms of higher‑life sanctification, but there is no developed Keswick doctrine of theosis comparable to Orthodox or even some Wesleyan/Patristic retrievals.[1][2][3][4][6]
Sources
[1] The Keswick Movement: In Precept and Practice – Wholesome Words https://www.wholesomewords.
[2] Keswick Convention – The Glorious Deeds of Christ https://www.canonglenn.com/
[3] Keswick Convention – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
[4] [PDF] The Triune God in Christian Thought and Experience http://www.christinyou.net/
[5] Debbie Downer – Mockingbird https://mbird.com/theology/
[6] Sanctification: The Process of True Biblical Change – Part 3 https://countrysidebible.org/
[7] Effort — English Ministry at Bethel Church https://www.bethelchurchem.
[8] [PDF] Watchman Nee and John Sung on Scriptural Interpretation https://repository.seabs.ac.
[9] [PDF] Wesleyan Theological Journal – The Wesley Center Online https://wesley.nnu.edu/
[10] Does the Believer Have One Nature or Two? (Part 1) https://sharperiron.org/
[11] The Doctrine of the Perseverance of the Saints, part II – SLJ Institute https://sljinstitute.net/
[12] Is the CHM’s theology like John Wesley or Phoebe Palmer? Until … https://www.facebook.com/
[13] 2025 Convention – Week 2 – Keswick Ministries https://keswickministries.org/
[14] FAITH IS REST And then, next, we must understand that … – Facebook https://www.facebook.com/
[15] Luther's Theology of the Cross and Pentecostal Triumphalism https://www.academia.edu/
