James Papandrea: Loaning and Borrowing: Novatian's Concept of the communicatio idiomatum and its Place in the Development of the Doctrine of Theosis.

Novatian is a pioneer of the doctrine of communicatio idiomatum, using the language of “loaning” and “borrowing” to preserve the immutability of the divine, while still allowing for the divine nature of Christ to experience the human condition. This paper will outline Novatian’s understanding of the communicatio idiomatum, and demonstrate how he believed that it led to a conferral of divinity on humanity, placing Novatian among the earliest theologians to articulate a doctrine of theosis.