Semiosis as theosis ? Becoming the living interpreter of the Father

Here is a shortened summary done by Taylor Somers of "Representation and Interpretation as the Basis of Participation in the Trinity," by Andrew Robinson. He uses the rich, fascinating and largely untapped semiotics of Charles Pierce.

Basically, Pierce comes up with the semiotic triad of object, representantion, and interpretation, and Robinson links this to the Trinity, the images & large text come from Jason Booms power point.

The Father is unoriginate and unknown :: Object

The Word/Son is the perfect image of the Father :: Representation

The Holy Spirit perfectly interprets the Word/Son's representation of the Father : Interpretation

Robinson writes,

"God’s life is the Spirit’s eternal interpretation of the Word as the perfect sign (representation) of the Father. Creaturely interpretations imperfectly mirror the perfect coherence of being and representation that is God’s life. When we respond to the incarnate Word we are adopted into the place occupied by the Spirit within the Trinity. By responding to the Word with the fullness of our being we are incorporated into the divine dynamic of truthful representation and loving response."

Within the divine life it is the Spirit who interprets the Word. When, as creatures, we interpret the Word, it is we who are adopted into that role of interpreter. Just as the divine Spirit interprets the eternal Word as a perfect representation of the Father, so we finite creatures now likewise interpret the incarnate Word as the image of the invisible God. We may say, then, that we participate in God’s life when we respond to the Word with appropriate feelings, thoughts, or actions.

In any interpretative response the interpreter is always changed in the process. It follows that within the eternal life of the Trinity, when the Spirit interprets the Word the Spirit must be “changed”, and hence become a new sign available for further interpretation. But within the perfection of the divine life the Spirit cannot become a sign of anything less than the perfect goodness and love of the Father....

• We participate God by being adopted into the place occupied by the Spirit within the divine life.
  
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• We participate in God's life when we respond to the Word with appropriate feelings, thoughts, and activities.
  
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• Conclusion: (Right) semiosis is theosis.
  

....the intra-Trinitarian dynamic may be understood as a continual magnification and glorification of the Word. A consequence of this way of picturing the life of the Trinity and our participation in it is that it offers a context in which to understand the scriptural claim that by responding to the Word we are progressively transformed into a closer likeness to the Word (e.g., 2 Corinthians 3: 18). For if the Spirit’s interpretation of the Word must, by virtue of the logic of the intra-divine dynamic of perfect representation and interpretation, result in further expressions of the Word, so, if we properly interpret the Word as a sign of the Father, we must be incrementally changed into likenesses of the Word [. . .]

The processes of creaturely responses to the Word ― in thoughts, feelings, and actions ― are the basis of our adoption into the place of the Spirit and our transformation into a likeness of the Word.

Knowledge of God is participation in God, where “knowledge” is understood in the broadest sense in terms of the engagement of the whole person in interpretative response to a sign. Or, one might say, semiosis is theosis: the dynamic of representation and interpretation is participation in God.


The Word’s perfect representation of the Father within the eternal Trinity establishes Being and Knowledge as ultimately related to, and inseparable from, one another. Knowledge is always mediated by representations of various kinds, so God’s eternal act of self-representation and self-interpretation is an eternal act of self-knowledge. Ontology and epistemology are indissolubly linked because Being and Representation are essential and equal aspects of God’s eternal nature. 

• Robinson's definition of sacrament: a sign that actualizes what it signifies, where what it signifies is the gift of participation in the divine life.
  
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• Sacraments, especially the Eucharist, establish right collective interpretative responses.
  
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• The Eucharist an example of habit as ultimate interpretant 

God’s eternal act of self-representation is, similarly, the basis of God’s self-revelation to the world. God’s absolute Otherness from the world would make the infinite gap between creature and Creator unbridgeable were it not for the fact that God’s eternal nature is one of self-representation. Because representation is essential to God’s nature it is possible for God’s eternal Word to reveal God’s very self, even to creatures who are not essentially divine. This requires the eternal Word to be embodied in a form that is accessible to, and interpretable by, such creatures. In other words, it requires the Word to become incarnate and the Spirit to enable creatures to be interpreters of that incarnate Word, just as the Spirit eternally interprets the Word within God’s essential being.


That the Word reveals the Father makes sense within the framework of the “semiotic model” of the Trinity. What the Word reveals about the Father is a matter of empirical experience in the lives of those who met Jesus in person or encounter him through the gospels. This perspective is able to emphasize that the primary focus of Christian experience and life lies in our responses to the incarnate Word..."

You can read more HERE

Or check out Dr Andrew Robinson's book God and the World of Signs: Trinity, Evolution, and the Metaphysical Semiotics of C. S. Peirce