Luke 15:
...4 "Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Does he not leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? 5 And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders 6 and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.' 7 I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.8 "Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins[a] and loses one. Does she not light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? 9 And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, 'Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.' 10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
... 31" 'My son,' the father said, 'you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. 32. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.' "
Cordially,
D, how would you have Luke, in teaching pagan Greeks, speak about the theosis of a former sinner? Of course he speaks in terms of joy. After the Incarnation, it was and is appropriate to speak of God in anthropomorphic terms. The danger comes when one moves from anthropomorhic terminology to attributing human reactions to God as a matter of fact. The Fathers all used terminology from Greek philosophy to make theological points. A bad result of that was the rise of true Neo-Platonism in some and true Aristotelianism in others, notwithstanding the fact that the original users of Platonic or Aristotelian vocabulary and constructs absolutely rejected those philosophies. The bad result of believing that God is moved by emotion the same way we are is that it transforms God into a being moved by necessity and that, D, is heresy.