Grace

Charis (grace, gift, favor) in Orthodox theology refers to the free self-communication of God to creatures: God's unmerited love and its effects in the soul. Orthodox theology insists, following Gregory Palamas, that grace is uncreated — it is the divine energies themselves, genuinely God, not a created supernatural quality infused into the soul. This is the theological foundation of theosis: the grace that transforms the soul is not a gift from God but God himself communicating himself.