## No explicit “theosis” doctrine
– Standard surveys of Zinzendorf’s theology emphasize Christ‑centered piety, the wounds of Christ, and the communal “Gemeine,” but do not identify a worked‑out theosis doctrine or technical deification vocabulary.[2][1]
– In modern scholarship on deification, Zinzendorf tends to appear (if at all) as an example in discussions of experiential, Christocentric spirituality, not as a primary source for theosis as such.[4][5][6]
## Union with Christ and “community of life”
– Zinzendorf describes the church as “spiritual, eternal, based on the **community of life** of its members with God and each other, in Jesus Christ, through faith and love,” which is structurally close to a participatory soteriology.[1]
– His emphasis is that God is known in and through the incarnate, suffering Christ, who “joins us in life and shares with us the limitations and difficulties of human life,” offering a living relationship rather than abstract metaphysical ascent.[1]
## Experiential, not metaphysical, emphasis
– For Zinzendorf, religion is “known by the heart, rather than the head,” as a direct, affective perception of Christ’s self‑revelation, and he is suspicious of speculative accounts of God “in himself,” which is one reason he does not build a formal deification scheme.[3][1]
– This experiential focus yields language of close fellowship with Christ, the Spirit as “Mother,” and the church as a “family” in which believers share life with the Savior, without moving to talk of participation in divine essence or energies.[2][1]
## Links to “partakers of the divine nature”
– Moravian piety in the 18th century certainly used 2 Peter 1:4 devotionally (e.g., the Moravian hymnals and later accounts cite “that ye should be partakers of the divine nature” as a key promise), but the extant summaries of Zinzendorf’s thought do not show him elaborating a technical theosis doctrine from this verse.[7][2]
– When Peter Böhler writes to Zinzendorf about the Wesleys using 2 Peter 1:4 (“partakers of the divine nature”) to characterize their desired experience, this is still in the register of assurance and heart‑religion, not of an explicit deification framework.[8][7]
## How to characterize him for teaching
– Historically, it is safest to present Zinzendorf as a Christocentric Pietist whose talk of “community of life” with Christ and the church anticipates some **relational** and **participatory** aspects later discussed under the rubric of theosis, but who did not himself formulate a doctrine of deification.[3][2][1]
– For a comparative lecture (e.g., Wesley–Zinzendorf–Orthodoxy), you can say: Zinzendorf contributes a strongly affective, experiential account of union with the crucified Christ that can be placed alongside more explicit theosis doctrines, yet remains distinct from them in content and intent.[2][3][1]
Sources
[1] Zinzendorf’s Theology https://zinzendorf.com/
[2] [PDF] Zinzendorf and the Moravians – Christian History Institute https://
[3] Contribution of Metropolitan John (Zizioulas) of Pergamon to … https://zizioulas.org/
[4] Theosis: Deification in Christian Theology, Volume One https://books.google.com/
[5] Theosis: Deification in Christian Theology. Vol. 1. Princeton … https://
[6] [PDF] The Waters of Rebirth: The Eighteenth Century and Transoceanic … https://resolve.cambridge.org/
[7] Chapter VII – The New Birth – The Wesley Center Online https://wesley.nnu.edu/john-
[8] John Wesley and Faith at Aldersgate https://www.
[9] Eastern Orthodox Mission Theology Today – The Gospel Coalition https://www.
[10] [PDF] Notes on Mormonism and the Trinity – BYU ScholarsArchive https://scholarsarchive.byu.
[11] Early History – – Reformed Church in the United States https://rcus.org/early-
[12] What source did Clark use to claim that Count Zinzendorf was not a … https://www.facebook.com/
[13] The passion of Christ is the ruling element in the Moravians’ lives. https://www.instagram.com/p/
[14] [PDF] The Old Wesley(s) and the New Luther https://oxford-institute.org/
[15] Experiencing God God’s way | The Hump of the Camel https://potiphar.jongarvey.co.
