“It means we actualize our communion in Christ by the Holy Spirit with the Father. So that we share the Lord’s own Sonship to the Father. We share his relationship with the Father. And thus, the totality of our life is transformed, transfigured. . . . ”

Given the context here, it seems to me this might be more clearly transcribed:

“And that doesn’t mean that we become gods–[that] we can become God. [Rather] it means we actualize our communion in Christ by the Holy Spirit with the Father, so that we share the Lord’s own Sonship to the Father. We share his relationship with the Father. And thus, the totality of our life is transformed, transfigured. . . . ”

IOW, it looks to me like HB is describing what deification means in terms understandable for a western Christian audience, an audience that might tend to confuse traditional Orthodox language about deification with modern New Age concepts of man being “god” in his own right. But perhaps I’m mistaken.

Thank you, Father, for providing this service of love. I’ve worked as a secretary, so I appreciate the difficulties of transcription. Doing so from a less than optimal recording is even more difficult.

Do you believe that there is some deception at work here? If so, to what end?