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Divinization (Christian)

In Christian theology, divinization ("divinization" may also refer to apotheosis, lit. "making divine"), or theopoesis or theosis, is the transforming effect of divine grace, the spirit of God, or the atonement of Christ. Although it literally means to become divine, or to become God, most modern Christian denominations do not interpret the doctrine as implying an overcoming of a fundamental ontological difference between God and humanity; for example, John of the Cross (AD 1542–1591) indicated that while "God communicates to it [the individual soul] His supernatural Being, in such wise that it appears to be God Himself, and has all that God Himself has", yet "it is true that its natural being, though thus transformed, is as distinct from the Being of God as it was before".

Patristic writings
The term theosis was originally used in Greco-Roman pagan society to venerate a ruler. It was inconceivable to Jewish piety. Yet it was adopted in Eastern Christianity by the Greek Fathers to describe the spiritual transformation of a Christian. The change of human nature was understood by them as a consequence of a baptized person being incorporated into the Church as the Body of Christ. Divinization was thus developed within the context of incarnational theology.

The teaching about deification of a Christian can be found as early as in the works of Irenaeus (c. 130–202), a Greek Father who is also known as the Father of Catholic theology, and who was bishop of the church of Lyons in France. For example, in the preface to his apologetic work Adversus Haereses (Against Heresies) vol. 5, Irenaeus states that "[T]he Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ ... did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself"." Athanasius of Alexandria was an author of the phrase about Jesus Christ which has become popular in Christmas homilies: "He was made human so that he might make us sons of god" (De incarnatione 54,3, cf. Contra Arianos 1.39). Divinization in the context of the Eucharist was taught by Gregory of Nyssa and Cyril of Alexandria. The term never meant for them breaching the absolute ontological distinction between God and his creation.

There were many different references to divinization in the writings of the Church Fathers.

As previously noted, in the second century, Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons (c. 130–202) said that the Word Jesus Christ had "become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself." He added: "Do we cast blame on him [God] because we were not made gods from the beginning, but were at first created merely as men, and then later as gods? Although God has adopted this course out of his pure benevolence, that no one may charge him with discrimination or stinginess, he declares, 'I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are sons of the Most High.' ... For it was necessary at first that nature be exhibited, then after that what was mortal would be conquered and swallowed up in immortality."

At about the same time, Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–215), wrote: "Yea, I say, the Word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god." Clement further stated that "[i]f one knows himself, he will know God, and knowing God will become like God. . . . His is beauty, true beauty, for it is God, and that man becomes a god, since God wills it. So Heraclitus was right when he said, 'Men are gods, and gods are men.'" Clement of Alexandria also stated that "he who obeys the Lord and follows the prophecy given through him ... becomes a god while still moving about in the flesh."

Justin Martyr (c. 100–165) insisted that in the beginning men "were made like God, free from suffering and death," and that they are thus "deemed worthy of becoming gods and of having power to become sons of the highest."

Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria (c. 296–373), stated his belief in literal deification: "The Word was made flesh in order that we might be made gods. ... Just as the Lord, putting on the body, became a man, so also we men are both deified through his flesh, and henceforth inherit everlasting life." Athanasius also observed: "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."

Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said: "But he himself that justifies also deifies, for by justifying he makes sons of God. 'For he has given them power to become the sons of God' [referring to John 1:12]. If then we have been made sons of god, we have also been made gods." "To make human beings gods," Augustine said, "He was made man who was God" (sermon 192.1.1). Augustine goes on to write that "[they] are not born of His Substance, that they should be the same as He, but that by favour they should come to Him... (Ibid)".

Other references to divinization in the writings of the Church Fathers include the following:
 * Irenaeus (c. 130-200)
 * "[T]he Word of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, who did, through His transcendent love, become what we are, that He might bring us to be even what He is Himself."
 * "'For we cast blame upon [God], because we have not been made gods from the beginning, but at first merely men, then at length gods; although God has adopted this course out of His pure benevolence, that no one may impute to Him invidiousness or grudgingness he declares, "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are sons of the Most High." "
 * "For it was necessary, at first, that nature should be exhibited; then, after that, that what was mortal should be conquered and swallowed up by immortality, and the corruptible by incorruptibility, and that man should be made after the image and likeness of God."
 * Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215)
 * "[T]he Word of God became man, that thou mayest learn from man how man may become God."
 * "For if one knows himself, he will know God; and knowing God, he will be made like God"
 * "[H]is is beauty, the true beauty, for it is God; and that man becomes God, since God so wills. Heraclitus, then, rightly said, "Men are gods, and gods are men." For the Word Himself is the manifest mystery: God in man, and man God"
 * "[H]e who listens to the Lord, and follows the prophecy given by Him, will be formed perfectly in the likeness of the teacher—made a god going about in flesh."
 * "And to be incorruptible is to participate in divinity..."
 * Justin Martyr (c. 100-165)
 * "[Men] were made like God, free from suffering and death, provided that they kept His commandments, and were deemed deserving of the name of His sons, and yet they, becoming like Adam and Eve, work out death for themselves; let the interpretation of the Psalm be held just as you wish, yet thereby it is demonstrated that all men are deemed worthy of becoming "gods," and of having power to become sons of the Highest."
 * Theophilus of Antioch (c. 120-190)
 * "For if He had made him immortal from the beginning, He would have made him God. Again, if He had made him mortal, God would seem to be the cause of his death. Neither, then, immortal nor yet mortal did He make him, but, as we have said above, capable of both; so that if he should incline to the things of immortality, keeping the commandment of God, he should receive as reward from Him immortality, and should become God..."
 * Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170-235)
 * "And you shall be a companion of the Deity, and a co-heir with Christ, no longer enslaved by lusts or passions, and never again wasted by disease. For you have become God: for whatever sufferings you underwent while being a man, these He gave to you, because you were of mortal mould, but whatever it is consistent with God to impart, these God has promised to bestow upon you, because you have been deified, and begotten unto immortality."
 * "If, therefore, man has become immortal, he will also be God. And if he is made God by water and the Holy Spirit after the regeneration of the laver he is found to be also joint-heir with Christ after the resurrection from the dead."
 * Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296-373)
 * "Therefore He was not man, and then became God, but He was God, and then became man, and that to deify us"
 * "for as the Lord, putting on the body, became man, so we men are deified by the Word as being taken to Him through His flesh."
 * "For He was made man that we might be made God."
 * Gregory of Nyssa (c. 335-395)
 * "Since the God who was manifested infused Himself into perishable humanity for this purpose, viz. that by this communion with Deity mankind might at the same time be deified, for this end it is that, by dispensation of His grace, He disseminated Himself in every believer."
 * "For just as He in Himself assimilated His own human nature to the power of the Godhead, being a part of the common nature, but not being subject to the inclination to sin which is in that nature (for it says: "He did no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth), so, also, will He lead each person to union with the Godhead if they do nothing unworthy of union with the Divine."
 * Augustine of Hippo (c. 354-430)
 * "'For He hath given them power to become the sons of God.' If we have been made sons of God, we have also been made gods."
 * Maximus the Confessor
 * "Nothing in theosis is the product of human nature, for nature cannot comprehend God. It is only the mercy of God that has the capacity to endow theosis unto the existing... In theosis, man (the image of God) becomes likened to God, he rejoices in all the plenitude that does not belong to him by nature, because the grace of the Spirit triumphs within him, and because God acts in him."
 * Cyril of Alexandria
 * "[H]e came down into our condition solely in order to lead us to his own divine state."
 * "It follows, therefore, that He Who Is, The One Who Exists, is necessarily born of the flesh, taking all that is ours into himself so that all that is born of the flesh, that is us corruptible and perishing human beings, might rest in him. In short, he took what was ours to be his very own so that we might have all that was his."
 * "For we too are sons and gods by grace, and we have surely been brought to this wonderful and supernatural dignity since we have the Only Begotten Word of God dwelling within us."
 * Gregory of Nazianzus
 * implores humankind to "become gods for (God's) sake, since (God) became man for our sake.".
 * Likewise, he argues that the mediator "pleads even now as Man for my salvation; for He continues to wear the Body which He assumed, until He make me God by the power of His Incarnation."
 * "Through the medium of the mind he had dealings with the flesh, being made that God on earth, which is Man: Man and God blended. They became a single whole, the stronger side predominating, in order that I might be made God to the same extent that he was made man."
 * Basil of Caesarea stated that "becoming a god is the highest goal of all"

Biblical citations
"The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God. Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?"
 * Paul the Apostle taught in numerous passages that men are sons of God (as in chapter 8 of Paul's Epistle to the Romans). Paul conceives of the resurrection as immortalization of both the body and the soul (1 Cor 15:42-49). says that "we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another."
 * In, Jesus defends himself against a charge of blasphemy by stating: "Have I not said that ye are gods?" It is widely believed that Jesus is referring to in saying "Ye are gods and children of the most high."
 * Christ's defence against the charge of blasphemy includes the following passages from

 * In, the authors, who have traditionally been believed to be the same person, the apostle John the Beloved, speaks about how men can overcome the world, as Christ did, through Christ's sacrifice.
 * There are several Bible verses which, if summarized state that, through Christ, men may become "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ" and "will inherit all things" just as Christ inherits all things.

Eastern Orthodox

The teaching of deification or theosis in Eastern Orthodoxy refers to the attainment of likeness of God, union with God or reconciliation with God. Deification has three stages in its process of transformation: katharsis, theoria, theosis. Theosis as such is the goal, it is the purpose of life, and it is considered achievable only through a synergy (or cooperation) between humans' activities and God's uncreated energies (or operations). Theosis is an important concept in Eastern Orthodox theology deriving from the fact that Eastern Orthodox theology is of an explicitly mystical character. Theology in the Eastern Orthodox Church is what is derived from saints or mystics of the tradition, and Eastern Orthodoxy considers that "no one who does not follow the path of union with God can be a theologian." In Eastern Orthodoxy, theology is not treated as an academic pursuit, but it is based on revelation (see gnosiology), meaning that Eastern Orthodox theology and its theologians are validated by ascetic pursuits, rather than academic degrees (i.e. scholasticism).

According to the Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology, as quoted by Millet and Reynolds:

"Deification (Greek theosis) is for Orthodoxy the goal of every Christian. Man, according to the Bible, is 'made in the image and likeness of God.' ... It is possible for man to become like God, to become deified, to become god by grace. This doctrine is based on many passages of both OT and NT (e.g. Ps. 82 (81).6; II Peter 1.4), and it is essentially the teaching both of St Paul, though he tends to use the language of filial adoption (cf. Rom. 8.9—17; Gal. 4.5—7), and the Fourth Gospel (cf. 17.21—23)."

"The language of II Peter is taken up by St Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, 'if the Word has been made man, it is so that men may be made gods' (Adv. Haer V, Pref.), and becomes the standard in Greek theology. In the fourth century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word, and in the fifth century St Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons 'by participation' (Greek methexis). Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the Confessor, for whom the doctrine is the corollary of the Incarnation: 'Deification, briefly, is the encompassing and fulfillment of all times and ages,' ... and St. Symeon the New Theologian at the end of the tenth century writes, 'He who is God by nature converses with those whom he has made gods by grace, as a friend converses with his friends, face to face.' ..."

Vision of God
According to Hierotheos Vlachos, divinization, also called theosis, "is the participation in the Uncreated grace of God" and "is identified and connected with the theoria (vision) of the Uncreated Light". "Theoria is the vision of the glory of God. Theoria is identified with the vision of the uncreated Light, the uncreated energy of God, with the union of man with God, with man's theosis. This vision, by which faith is attained, is what saves: "Faith comes by hearing the Word and by experiencing theoria (the vision of God). We accept faith at first by hearing in order to be healed, and then we attain to faith by theoria, which saves man." It is also one of the means by which Christians came to know the Trinity: "The disciples of Christ acquired the knowledge of the Triune God in theoria (vision of God) and by revelation."

As a patristic and historical teaching
For many Church Fathers, theosis goes beyond simply restoring people to their state before the Fall of Adam and Eve, teaching that because Christ united the human and divine natures in Jesus' person, it is now possible for someone to experience closer fellowship with God than Adam and Eve initially experienced in the Garden of Eden, and that people can become more like God than Adam and Eve were at that time. Some Eastern Orthodox theologians go so far as to say that Jesus would have become incarnate for this reason alone, even if Adam and Eve had never sinned.

Ascetic practice
The journey toward theosis includes many forms of praxis. The most obvious form being Monasticism and Clergy. Of the Monastic tradition the practice of hesychasm is most important as a way to establish a direct relationship with God. Living in the community of the church and partaking regularly of the sacraments, and especially the Eucharist, is taken for granted. Also important is cultivating "prayer of the heart", and prayer that never ceases, as Paul exhorts the Thessalonians (1 and 2). This unceasing prayer of the heart is a dominant theme in the writings of the Fathers, especially in those collected in the Philokalia. It is considered that no one can reach theosis without an impeccable Christian living, crowned by faithful, warm, and, ultimately, silent (hesychast), continuous Prayer of the Heart. The "doer" in deification is the Holy Spirit, with whom the human being joins his will to receive this transforming grace by praxis and prayer, and as Saint Gregory Palamas teaches, the Christian mystics are deified as they become filled with the Light of Tabor of the Holy Spirit in the degree that they make themselves open to it by asceticism (divinization being not a one-sided act of God, but a loving cooperation between God and the advanced Christian, which Palamas considers a synergy). This synergy or co-operation between God and Man does not lead to mankind being absorbed into God as was taught in earlier pagan forms of deification like Henosis. Rather it expresses unity, in the complementary nature between the created and the creator. Acquisition of the Holy Spirit is key as the acquisition of the spirit leads to self-realization.

Western Christianity
In Western Christian theology, divinization is emphasized among Catholics, as well as among Quakers who emphasize the living presence of Christ within each person and Christ-centered community. Methodists, whose religious tradition has always placed strong emphasis on entire sanctification, and whose doctrine of sanctification has many similarities with the Eastern Orthodox concept of theosis or divinization, teach the doctrine.

Patristic scholar Donald Fairbairn has argued that theosis in the Greek Fathers is not an ontological exchange between the Son and the Christian. In general Fairbairn argues that the change that occurs in theosis is "something more than mere status but less than the possession of God's very substance." In his book, Life in the Trinity, he argues that through our relationship with the Son we are brought into the same kind of relationship with the Father (and Spirit) that the Son has. He supports this argument by identifying a distinction between the Son's warm-fellowship with the Father, and his ontological union with the Father. He argues that the Greek Fathers, primarily Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria were clear that we never share ontological union with God, but only this intimate fellowship.

"Like Athanasius, but with much more precision, Cyril distinguishes two kinds of unity between the Father and the Son. The first is a unity of substance, and the Father and the Son do not share this kind of unity with us in any way whatsoever. The second, though, is a unity of love or fellowship that the father and the Son have enjoyed from all eternity precisely because of their unity of substance."

Catholic theology (including Latin and Eastern Churches)
The term divinization is characteristic of Eastern Christian thought. Western Christianity, at least since Augustine of Hippo (354-430) named as the doctor of grace, has always preferred to speak about supernatural grace transforming a Christian according to the Image of Christ. One cannot say, though, that the action of God on human nature conveyed in the term divinization (theosis) is alien to the Roman Catholic teaching, as is evident in Augustine repeating the famous phrase of Athanasius of Alexandria: "To make human beings gods, he was made man, who was God" (Deos facturus qui homines erant, homo factus est qui Deus erat ). It is evident from what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says of Christians as partakers of the divine nature:

"The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature": "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God." "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God." "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to make us sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made man, might make men gods.""

Arguably the most prolific of the medieval scholastic theologians, St. Thomas Aquinas, wrote: "Now the gift of grace surpasses every capability of created nature, since it is nothing short of a partaking of the Divine Nature, which exceeds every other nature. And thus it is impossible that any creature should cause grace. For it is as necessary that God alone should deify, bestowing a partaking of the Divine Nature by a participated likeness, as it is impossible that anything save fire should enkindle." He also wrote of God's "special love, whereby He draws the rational creature above the condition of its nature to a participation of the Divine good". and he ultimately roots the purpose of the Incarnation in theosis. It is important to note, however, that the divinization taught by Aquinas, Augustine, and other Fathers is not ontological, meaning that souls do not take on the substance of God, but rather through grace, are gifted with the participation in the Divine Life.

Of a more modern Roman Catholic theologian it has been said: "The theological vision of Karl Rahner, the German Jesuit whose thought has been so influential in the Roman Catholic Church and beyond over the last fifty years, has at its very core the symbol of theopoiesis. The process of divinization is the center of gravity around which move Rahner's understanding of creation, anthropology, Christology, ecclesiology, liturgy, and eschatology. The importance of this process for Rahner is such that we are justified in describing his overall theological project to be largely a matter of giving a coherent and contemporary account of divinization." Joshua Bloor in his article reveals the rise in deification from an array of Western traditions, looking closely at the Catholic Theologian Catherine LaCugna, arguing that LaCugna sees deification as "personal communion with God, which deifies the human in the process, conforming him/her into being Christ-like".

The Roman Rite liturgy expresses the doctrine of divinization or theosis in the prayer said by the deacon or priest when preparing the Eucharistic chalice: "Per huius aquae et vini mysterium eius efficiamur divinitatis consortes, qui humanitatis nostrae fieri dignatus est particeps" ("By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity.")

The Catholic Church teaches that God gives to some souls, even in the present life, a very special grace by which they can be mystically united to God even while yet alive: this is true mystical contemplation. This is seen as the culmination of the three states, or stages, of perfection through which the soul passes: the purgative way (that of cleansing or purification, the Greek term for which is κάθαρσις, katharsis), the illuminative way (so called because in it the mind becomes more and more enlightened as to spiritual things and the practice of virtue, corresponding to what in Greek is called Θεωρία, theoria), and the unitive way (that of union with God by love and the actual experience and exercise of that love, a union that is called θέωσις, theosis).

The writings attributed to St. Dionysius the Areopagite were highly influential in the West, and their theses and arguments were adopted by Peter Lombard, Alexander of Hales, Albert the Great, St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Bonaventure. According to these writings, mystical knowledge must be distinguished from the rational knowledge by which we know God, not in his nature, but through the wonderful order of the universe, which is a participation of the divine ideas. Through the more perfect knowledge of God that is mystical knowledge, a knowledge beyond the attainments of reason even enlightened by faith, the soul contemplates directly the mysteries of divine light. In the present life this contemplation is possible only to a few privileged souls, through a very special grace of God: it is the θέωσις (theosis), μυστικὴ ἕνωσις (mystical union). Meister Eckhart too taught a deification of man and an assimilation of the creature into the Creator through contemplation.

Deification, to which, in spite of its presence in the liturgical prayers of the West, Western theologians have given less attention than Eastern, is nevertheless prominent in the writing of Western mystics.

St. Catherine of Siena stated God as saying: ""They are like the burning coal that no one can put out once it is completely consumed in the furnace, because it has itself been turned into fire. So it is with these souls cast into the furnace of my charity, who keep nothing at all, not a bit of their own will, outside of me but are completely set afire in me. There is no one who can seize them or drag them out of my grace. They have been made one with me and I with them.""

St. John of the Cross wrote: ""In thus allowing God to work in it, the soul ... is at once illumined and transformed in God, and God communicates to it His supernatural Being, in such wise that it appears to be God Himself, and has all that God Himself has. And this union comes to pass when God grants the soul this supernatural favour, that all the things of God and the soul are one in participant transformation; and the soul seems to be God rather than a soul, and is indeed God by participation; although it is true that its natural being, though thus transformed, is as distinct from the Being of God as it was before.""

Orestes Brownson wrote: ""The principle of the order founded by the incarnation of the Word is the deification of the creature, to make the creature one with the Creator, so that the creature may participate in the divine life, which is love, and in the divine blessedness, the eternal and infinite blessedness of the holy and ineffable Trinity, the one ever-living God. Creation itself has no other purpose or end; and the incarnation of the Word, and the whole Christian order, are designed by the divine economy simply as the means to this end, which is indeed realized or consummated in Christ the Lord, at once perfect God and perfect man, indissolubly united in one divine person. The design of the Christian order is, through regeneration by the Holy Ghost, to unite every individual man to Christ, and to make all believers one with one another, and one with him, as he and the Father are one. All who are thus regenerated and united, are united to God, made one with him, live in his life, and participate in his infinite, eternal, and ineffable bliss or blessedness.""

Anabaptist theology
The early Anabaptists wrote quite extensively on the idea of theosis. Hutterite leader Peter Riedemann wrote, for example: "This shall be the covenant that I will make with them. I will set my law within them and write it on their hearts, and all of them shall know me. Through this knowledge, a person is led to God, is grafted into him, and becomes a fellow member of his nature and essence."

Among the Dutch Mennonites, Dirk Philips and Menno Simons wrote about the concept of theosis in many of their writings. Dirk Philips explained, for example, that although humans cannot become God, per se, they can become like Him in character: "In order to understand this yet more thoroughly, everyone should observe the similarity and fellowship of God and Christ with all believers; that is, that all believers are participants of the divine nature, yes, and are called gods and children of the Most High, and are in the world as Christ was the world, and shall become like him at his coming.  Whenever now human beings become participants in the divine nature, yes, conformed to Christ on earth and in heaven  , they yet do not become identical in nature and person to what God and Christ are. Oh, no! The creature will never become the Creator and the flesh will never become the eternal itself which God is , for this is impossible. But the believers become gods and children of the most high through the new birth, participation, and fellowship of the divine nature , of the piety, glory, and purity of eternal life, and they will be purified as God, shine as God shines, and live as God lives eternally."

Among the South German Mystics that became Anabaptists, the concept of divinization was also taught. In his confession, Hans Hut explained that holding spiritual communion with Christ would deify a person: "Whoever is thus-minded and drinks the invisible wine out of the invisible Cup, mixed by God from the beginning of time through his Son, the Word, will become drunk. He does not know anything about himself any more, but becomes deified (vergottet) through the love of God while God becomes incarnate in him (vermenscht). This what is meant when we speak of the eating of body and the drinking of the blood of Christ (John 6)."

For the early Anabaptist Matthias Servaes, baptism signified a dying to the old nature and "an incorporation into the unity of one mind, resulting in identical natures, patterned after God who is their Father, and becoming dead to the world, that is, to all unrighteousness and crucifying their flesh daily, no longer allowing sin to reign or have the upper hand in them, as Paul clearly tells the Romans (Chapter 6), with many clear words."

Lutheran theology
More recently, the Finnish school of Lutheran thought has drawn close associations between theosis and justification. Primarily spearheaded by Tuomo Mannermaa, this line of theological development grew out of talks between the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland and the Russian Orthodox Church between 1970 and 1986. Mannermaa argues in his book, Christ Present in Faith, that the real exchange between Christ and sinful humanity, a theme prevalent in Luther's writing, is synonymous with Eastern views of theosis. It is in this real exchange which Mannermaa says "the union between Christ and the believer makes the latter a ‘completely divine [person] [sic]." While this departure from traditional Lutheran thought is sometimes hailed as "the threshold of a third Luther Renaissance," other Lutheran scholars disagree and argue that the idea of theosis violates Luther's theology of the cross principles by ignoring the real distinction that is axiomatic for not only Luther, but for orthodox Christianity as a whole. One of the most prominent scholars is Robert Kolb, who primarily roots this critique in Luther's use of marriage metaphors concerning the Christian's relationship with God. Kolb writes "This view ignores the nature of the ‘union’ of bride and bridegroom that Luther employed so far."

Reformed theology
Early during the Reformation, thought was given to the doctrine of union with Christ (unio cum Christo) as the precursor to the entire process of salvation and sanctification. This was especially so in the thought of John Calvin.

Henry Scougal's work The Life of God in the Soul of Man is sometimes cited as important in keeping alive among Protestants the ideas central to the doctrine. In the introductory passages of his book, Scougal describes "religion" in terms that evoke the doctrine of theosis:

"... a resemblance of the divine perfections, the image of the Almighty shining in the soul of man: ... a real participation of his nature, it is a beam of the eternal light, a drop of that infinite ocean of goodness; and they who are endued with it, may be said to have 'God dwelling in their souls', and 'Christ formed within them'."

Anglican theology
Out of the English Reformation, an understanding of salvation in terms closely comparable to the Eastern Orthodox doctrine of theosis was recognized in the Anglican tradition, J. Bloor examines deification/theosis in the late Anglican Priest and theologian Canon A. M. (Donald) Allchin, but it is also explored in the writings of Lancelot Andrewes, who described salvation in terms vividly reminiscent of the early fathers:

"Whereby, as before He of ours, so now we of His are made partakers. He clothed with our flesh, and we invested with His Spirit. The great promise of the Old Testament accomplished, that He should partake our human nature; and the great and precious promise of the New, that we should be "consortes divinae naturae", "partake his divine nature," both are this day accomplished."

C.S. Lewis, speaking on his personal belief in the subject of literal deification, stated as follows:

"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship."

In a more complete statement on his beliefs in literal deification, C.S. Lewis stated in his book, "Mere Christianity" as follows:

"The command Be ye perfect is not idealistic gas. Nor is it a command to do the impossible. He is going to make us into creatures that can obey that command. He said (in the Bible) that we were "gods" and He is going to make good His words. If we let Him—for we can prevent Him, if we choose—He will make the feeblest and filthiest of us into a god or goddess, dazzling, radiant, immortal creature, pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine, a bright stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly (though, of course, on a smaller scale) His own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful; but that is what we are in for. Nothing less. He meant what He said."

Methodist theology
Theosis as a doctrine developed in a distinctive direction among Methodists, and elsewhere in the pietist movement which reawakened Protestant interest in the asceticism of the early Catholic Church, and some of the mystical traditions of the West. Distinctively, in Methodist (Wesleyan-Arminian) theology, the doctrine of entire sanctification teaches, in summary, that it is the Christian's goal, in principle possible to achieve, to live without any (voluntary) sin (Christian perfection).

In 1311 the Catholic Council of Vienne declared this notion, "that man in this present life can acquire so great and such a degree of perfection that he will be rendered inwardly sinless, and that he will not be able to advance farther in grace" (Denzinger §471), to be a heresy. Thus this Methodist understanding of theosis is substantially different from that of the Catholic Church, as well as other Protestant Churches. The Wesleyan-Arminian doctrine of Christian perfection was sharply criticized by many in the Church of England during the ministry of John Wesley and outside the Methodist tradition, it continues to be controversial among to this day among other Christian denominations.

Quaker theology
Based on their spiritual experiences and tested against the testimony of scripture, George Fox and early Quakers believed that transformation by the Holy Spirit was a normal experience within the early church, where individuals and communities were led by the living presence of Christ dwelling within them. George Fox wrote:

"The scriptures saith God will dwell in men, and walk in men … Doth not the Apostle say, the saints were partakers of the divine nature? And that God dwells in the saints, and Christ is in them, except they be reprobates? And do not the saints come to eat the flesh of Christ? And if they eat his flesh, is it not within them?"

Christian universalist theology
There has been a modern revival of the concept of theosis (often called "manifest sonship" or "Christedness") among Christians who hold to the doctrine of universal reconciliation or apocatastasis, especially those with a background in the charismatic Latter Rain Movement or even the New Age and New Thought movements. The statement of faith of the Christian Universalist Association includes theosis in one of its points.

A minority of charismatic Christian universalists believe that the "return of Christ" is a corporate body of perfected human beings who are the "Manifested Sons of God" instead of a literal return of the person of Jesus, and that these Sons will reign on the earth and transform all other human beings from sin to perfection during an age that is coming soon (a particularly "universalistic" approach to millennialism). Some liberal Christian universalists with New Age leanings share a similar eschatology.

Western views on hesychasm
The practice of ascetic prayer called hesychasm in the Eastern Orthodox Church is centered on the enlightenment or deification, theosis of man.

While Constantinople experienced a succession of councils alternately approving and condemning doctrine concerning hesychasm, the Western Church held no council in which to make a pronouncement on the issue, and the word "hesychasm" does not appear in the Enchiridion Symbolorum et Definitionum (Handbook of Creeds and Definitions), the collection of Roman Catholic teachings originally compiled by Heinrich Joseph Dominicus Denzinger.

Despite the fact that the hesychast doctrine of Gregory Palamas has never been officially condemned by the Catholic Church, Western theologians tended to reject it, often equating it with quietism. This identification may have been motivated in part by the fact that "quietism" is the literal translation of "hesychasm". However, according to Kallistos Ware, "To translate 'hesychasm' as 'quietism', while perhaps etymologically defensible, is historically and theologically misleading." Ware asserts that "the distinctive tenets of the seventeenth century Western Quietists are not characteristic of Greek hesychasm." Elsewhere too, Ware argues that it is important not to translate "hesychasm" as "quietism".

For long, Palamism won almost no following in the West,. and the distrustful attitude of Barlaam in its regard prevailed among Western theologians, surviving into the early 20th century, as shown in Adrian Fortescue's article on hesychasm in the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia. In the same period, Siméon Vailhé described some aspects of the teaching of Palamas as "monstrous errors", "heresies" and "a resurrection of polytheism", and called the hesychast method for arriving at perfect contemplation "no more than a crude form of auto-suggestion"

The 20th century saw a remarkable change in the attitude of Roman Catholic theologians to Palamas, a "rehabilitation" of him that has led to increasing parts of the Western Church considering him a saint, even if uncanonized. John Meyendorff describes the 20th-century rehabilitation of Palamas in the Western Church as a "remarkable event in the history of scholarship." Andreas Andreopoulos cites the 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia article by Fortescue as an example of how Barlaam's distrustful and hostile attitude regarding hesychasm survived until recently in the West, adding that now "the Western world has started to rediscover what amounts to a lost tradition. Hesychasm, which was never anything close to a scholar's pursuit, is now studied by Western theologians who are astounded by the profound thought and spirituality of late Byzantium."

Some Western scholars maintain that there is no conflict between Palamas's teaching and Roman Catholic thought, and some have incorporated the essence-energies distinction into their own thinking. For example, G. Philips asserts that the essence-energies distinction as presented by Palamas is "a typical example of a perfectly admissible theological pluralism" that is compatible with the Roman Catholic magisterium.

Jeffrey D. Finch claims that "the future of East-West rapprochement appears to be overcoming the modern polemics of neo-scholasticism and neo-Palamism".

Pope John Paul II repeatedly emphasized his respect for Eastern theology as an enrichment for the whole Church, declaring that, even after the painful division between the Christian East and the See of Rome, that theology has opened up profound thought-provoking perspectives of interest to the entire Church. He spoke in particular of the hesychast controversy. The term "hesychasm", he said, refers to a practice of prayer marked by deep tranquillity of the spirit intent on contemplating God unceasingly by invoking the name of Jesus. While from a Catholic viewpoint there have been tensions concerning some developments of the practice, the Pope said, there is no denying the goodness of the intention that inspired its defence, which was to stress that man is offered the concrete possibility of uniting himself in his inner heart with God in that profound union of grace known as theosis, divinization.

Among the treasures of "the venerable and ancient tradition of the Eastern Churches" with which he said Catholics should be familiar, so as to be nourished by it, he mentioned in particular "the teaching of the Cappadocian Fathers on divinization (which) passed into the tradition of all the Eastern Churches and is part of their common heritage. This can be summarized in the thought already expressed by Saint Irenaeus at the end of the second century: God passed into man so that man might pass over to God. This theology of divinization remains one of the achievements particularly dear to Eastern Christian thought."

Latter Day Saint theology
Mormonism includes a belief in the doctrine of exaltation, by which is meant a literal divinization. According to Latter-Day Saint scholars, there are similarities between the Latter-Day Saint belief of eternal progression and the beliefs found in the patristic writings of the first, second, and third centuries A.D.

According to the founder of the Latter-Day Saint movement, Joseph Smith, through obedience to Christ and the gradual acquisition of knowledge, the faithful may eventually become heirs of God in the afterlife and "inherit all things" as Christ himself "inherited all things." Latter-Day Saints believe they will continue to worship and be subject to God the Father in the name of Christ in the afterlife.

Mormons do not characterize the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in terms of an immaterial, formless substance or essence that sets godhood apart as a separate genus from humanity. They believe that this classification of divinity was originated by post-apostolic theologians, whose speculations on God were influenced by Greek metaphysical philosophers such as the Neoplatonists, who described their notions of deity in similar terms of a divine substance/essence (ousia)—i.e. terms which were unknown to the pre-Nicean Christian world. Latter-Day Saints believe that through modern day revelation, God restored the doctrine that all humans are spiritually begotten (Hebrews 12:9, Acts 17:28–29) sons and daughters of Heavenly Father, and thus are all part of the same heavenly family. Because humans are literally God's children, they can also be heirs of his glory, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ (Romans 8:16–17).

Latter-Day Saints believe that the "glory of God is intelligence, in other words, light and truth" (D&C 93:36). Therefore the process of inheriting his glory is a process of learning. As a crucial step in this process, all of God's spirit children had the choice to come to earth in order to receive a body and continue their development. Latter-Day Saints believe that the fallen state of humanity (mortality) was not the result of an unplanned cancellation of God's plan for an eternal earthly paradise, rather it was a crucial step that provides the opportunity to learn and grow in the face of opposition (2 Nephi 2:11, 25). Thus, the purpose of earth life is to gain knowledge and experience—which includes overcoming trials and mistakes through the atonement of Jesus Christ and, using the lessons learned, to become stronger and wiser, more like their Heavenly Father (D&C 98:3). Those who endure to the end (Matthew 24:13, Mark 13:13) while in mortality, as well as those who accept the gospel after death (see baptism for the dead), will be able to dwell in the presence of God, where they can continue to grow in light and truth, which "light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day" (D&C 50:24). Latter-Day Saints believe that the Father and the Son both possess glorified, immortal, physical bodies (D&C 130:22) and that thanks to Christ's resurrection, humans will also be resurrected and inherit this same type of body (Philippians 3:21).

title: Divinization (Christian)


text:
1996 Governor General's Awards

The 1996 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit were presented on November 13, 1996.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: 1996 Governor General's Awards


text:
Denis Thatcher

Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, (10 May 1915 – 26 June 2003) was an English businessman and the husband of Margaret Thatcher, who served as the first female British prime minister from 1979 to 1990; thus he became the first male prime ministerial spouse.

Thatcher was granted the Thatcher baronetcy in 1990, the only baronetcy created since 1964, and remains the most recent commoner to have been awarded a hereditary title.

Early life
Denis Thatcher was born on 10 May 1915 at 26 Southbrook Road, Lee, Lewisham, London, as the first child of New Zealand-born British businessman Thomas Herbert "Jack" Thatcher (15 October 1885 – 24 June 1943) and Lilian Kathleen Bird At age eight, Denis entered a preparatory school in Bognor Regis as a boarder, following which he attended the nonconformist public school Mill Hill School in north London. At school he excelled at cricket, being a left-handed batsman.

Thatcher left Mill Hill School in 1933 and joined the family paint and preservatives business, Atlas Preservatives. He also studied accountancy to improve his grasp of business, and in 1935 he was appointed works manager. He joined the Territorial Army shortly after the Munich crisis, as he was convinced war was imminent – a view reinforced by a visit he made to Nazi Germany with his father's business in 1937.

War record
During the Second World War, Thatcher was commissioned as a second lieutenant into the 34th Searchlight (Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment) of the Royal Engineers. He transferred to the Royal Artillery on 1 August 1940. During the war he was promoted to war substantive captain and temporary major. He served throughout the Allied invasion of Sicily and the Italian campaign and was twice mentioned in dispatches, and in 1945 was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). The first mention in dispatches came on 11 January 1945, for service in Italy, and the second on 29 November 1945, again for Italian service.

His MBE was gazetted on 20 September 1945, and was awarded for his efforts in initiating and supporting Operation Goldflake, the transfer of I Canadian Corps from Italy to the north-west European theatre of operations. Thatcher was based in Marseille, attached to HQ 203 sub-area. In the recommendation for the MBE (dated 28 March 1945), his commanding officer wrote: "Maj. Thatcher set an outstanding example of energy, initiative and drive. He deserves most of the credit for [...] the excellence of the work done."

Thatcher also received the approximate French equivalent of a mention when he was cited in orders at Corps d'Armée level for his efforts in promoting smooth relations between the Commonwealth military forces and the French civil and military authorities. He was promoted to substantive lieutenant on 11 April 1945. Demobilised in 1946, he returned to run the family business – his father having died (aged 57) on 24 June 1943, when Thatcher was in Sicily. Because of army commitments, Thatcher was unable to attend the funeral.

He remained in the Territorial Army reserve of officers until reaching the age limit for service on 10 May 1965, when he retired, retaining the honorary rank of major.

On 21 September 1982 he was awarded the Territorial Decoration (TD) for his service.

Marriages
Thatcher married twice, during wartime to Margot Kempson in 1942 (divorced in 1948), and in 1951 to Margaret Roberts.

Margot Kempson
On 28 March 1942, Thatcher married Margaret Doris "Margot" Kempson, the daughter of a businessman, at St Mary's Church in Monken Hadley. They met at an officers' dance at Grosvenor House the year before.

Thatcher and his first wife never lived together. Their married life became confined to snatched weekends and irregular leaves as Thatcher was often abroad during the war. When Thatcher returned to England after being demobilised in 1946, his wife told him she had met someone else and wanted a divorce.

Thatcher was so traumatised by the event that he completely refused to talk about his first marriage or the separation, even to his daughter, as she states in her 1996 biography of him. Thatcher's two children found out about his first marriage only in 1976 (by which time, their mother had become Leader of the Opposition) and then only when the media revealed it.

Margaret Thatcher
In February 1949, at a Paint Trades Federation function in Dartford, he met Margaret Hilda Roberts, a chemist and newly selected parliamentary candidate. When she met Denis for the first time, she described him as "not a very attractive creature" and "very reserved but quite nice". They married on 13 December 1951, at Wesley's Chapel in City Road, London; the Robertses were Methodists. Margaret Thatcher was elected Leader of the Conservative Party in 1975. She went on to win the 1979 general election to become the first female prime minister in British history. Denis became the first husband of a British prime minister.

In 1953, they had twin children (Carol and Mark), who were born on 15 August at Queen Charlotte's and Chelsea Hospital in Hammersmith, seven weeks premature. Thatcher was watching the deciding Test of the 1953 Ashes series at the time of the twins' birth. They had watched the Coronation earlier in the year from Parliament Square.

Not long after the 1964 general election, Thatcher suffered a nervous breakdown which put a severe strain on his marriage. The breakdown was probably caused by the increasing pressure of running the family business, caring for his relatives, and his wife's preoccupation with her political career, which left him lonely and exhausted. Thatcher sailed to South Africa and stayed there for two months to recuperate. His wife's biographer David Cannadine described it as "the greatest crisis of their marriage", but immediately after, he recovered and returned home, he maintained a happy marriage for the rest of his life.

This second marriage for Thatcher led to the future prime minister being sometimes referred to as "Mrs Denis Thatcher" in such sources as selection minutes, travel itineraries, and society publications such as Queen, even after she was elected a Member of Parliament. As Margaret's political career progressed, she preferred to be known only as "Mrs Thatcher".

According to John Campbell, a biographer of his wife, "their marriage was more a partnership of mutual convenience than a romance", quoting their daughter Carol in her biography of Denis:

"If marriage is either a takeover or a merger, then my parents enjoyed the latter. There was a great deal of common ground and a tacit laissez faire agreement that they would get on with their own interests and activities. There was no possessiveness, nor any expectation that one partner's career should take precedence."

Business career
Thatcher was already a wealthy man when he met Margaret, and he financed her training as a barrister, and a home in Chelsea, London. He also bought a large house in Lamberhurst, Kent, in 1965. His firm employed 200 people by 1957.

Thatcher became managing director of his family's firm Atlas Preservatives in 1947 and chairman in 1951, leading its overseas expansion. By the early 1960s, he found being in sole control of the family company difficult. This, his wife's political career, and their desire for financial security caused Thatcher to sell Atlas to Castrol in 1965 for £530,000 (£ today). He continued to run Atlas and received a seat on Castrol's board; after Burmah Oil took over Castrol in 1966, Thatcher became a senior divisional director, managing the planning and control department. He retired from Burmah in June 1975, four months after his wife won the Conservative Party leadership election.

In addition to being a director of Burmah Oil, Thatcher was a director and deputy chairman of Attwoods from July 1983 until January 1994. [https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/document-api-images-live.ch.gov.uk/docs/xCuFSYuDmrFO7xU5ikpOpYfPWOfX4MKkbF4JWdeFTxc/application-pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAWRGBDBV3KO6ISEHX%2F20221026%2Feu-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20221026T071708Z&X-Amz-Expires=60&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEAsaCWV1LXdlc3QtMiJGMEQCIBjhA%2BpdEURVV8Ghsxx5GE3h3gul15U01vZTUPOe7Li4AiB9TauCkIFMI7gK8%2B3rqDjC8ow51k3gqxJ1%2BcI8Fjpo2SrWBAjk%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F8BEAQaDDQ0OTIyOTAzMjgyMiIMGsf2iZfjuHPckUstKqoEi6SXFynPRjiyfGtKpWIOd3Pj%2BrB63eHZ2xWpi8gDGebT5W1jSgSEccSQB6ZfV07k1KdqbAKDUF2%2Ft4k7IQHEA2GdeWx4J16RwD9fLOTzffAbM%2B0a2y5cKJ8nviVYICGZMrXdqzyRpd7oFuiqf%2Bc5oN7tnpF1L4JdDxm%2BI5gYtzDxA%2FCdg95Wtrnk5L3hD0ZzHqnQWZ1InsdnpLWr4d4mWgVjTzo6gyxCGaaVncQOM%2BhKRFQvvyp9Y617CaD54EOeSsOvT9kNvRdDnnrubber%2BpPMmgHezhtB3hivbFJGJF1cbrLZLoIc5nysPJS5NGsl31LPyNvn7chS%2B4mgv1TRB4tuhhbDW60y608hLVnhOoibcq7HGDDephfawmQX6n6Sopqd8H8AQRQbi6aj6BNI%2Fw6pPEftBcVqdMd8AZhpIksh4gXAdZ91CZgs07Be8wypnfqDIUHYtRxGUswmTLyONAvayS%2F72kWYhEjEf9fcz95C8ayrzcNXkuxkZWme71HhraOdf%2B7UVdjjcLtMchSAjSAsb1fxjkf9bHhBJpo05F3eDRlx8A3aJOVFuY%2BkBQYqsqq5nl7EbmIaHv%2BtBi%2BlUVP3LkG91MGAI222i1fepPSUuXSv1K0IIKSOVF6urFF%2F92C4e442w9xdWnJaNEcYxrQi9OHitqCl3JulirkxGldEfBqXgtUblzUXsWGoK6GqBQfmyGymuVYfBPbtOGxb%2FQTfz6P8DBm5oRowoLjimgY6qgFCfz66qs7VaNhSiX3oesnB8Xuh50%2F0scR%2BiUgUZAXCcW8sOleyWuIvcg1RjBp70LHmPBg16sJ2EiWjZGzPWt8YyAsxve8XvJ9xCAM0G7Av74%2FAmN5oVvMUo5XjOtlGZXlLf7JFg9G5TrzlwLPxtIof9wWBT3T7kRFZ3kZ7y0A4%2FChyAR9k5gq%2F9Dl%2FmnIrd%2F4Nbi9w7SgPR17xWZez2gFcbwkddDQo1Jc1tA%3D%3D&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22companies_house_document.pdf%22&X-Amz-Signature=67139a9f15d25eb4306ad13fd255c3be2b707f2cf1255bb9b40d2ceb1e9b159c Annual accounts for year ended 31 July 1994] Attwoods 5 December 1994 page 14 He was also a director of Quinton Hazell and a consultant to Amec and CSX. [https://s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/document-api-images-live.ch.gov.uk/docs/guWBuIaa45FJW1fWv9MB1jmc7X5Ud5xa3pUsMmUSMIc/application-pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=ASIAWRGBDBV3D3GECL4I%2F20221026%2Feu-west-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20221026T070606Z&X-Amz-Expires=60&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEA4aCWV1LXdlc3QtMiJGMEQCICJ4cJtBhjZd23Gdm3e%2BjIzcbuNm0RAIfB4f3kEy9BybAiAVGqtG5rcZiHBs6F7Svk4aGV3TV1iDgl3BCJaMAGkOpyrWBAjn%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F%2F8BEAQaDDQ0OTIyOTAzMjgyMiIMaHOG89svuUWAtxIuKqoEGJMSD4%2FS5DT%2FG6POXbp7Dt1cXTLa2B%2FIp7nl9%2FCG8oOROUsQ69Xom0eYxGBBNvbvyIMhs3RGK7uLDX1dnrOR6izAdsVUsiafCc1%2F77DiuWZtZ0QAFZBcyONX7ARe8aE8sjVuuG42fhZM%2BHSBRMFAsh4mBduUKuvFp4PtlXakGHSao5RdP9qjssC666Ig%2B0NcQCE9Dw6uZ3Flmo7jpNOQRaqVsMR5Lv0TKykkdVK3qCf1Edm8bJkquNcQty02rObFl1P6ItrAgI%2FQ%2B5UkhQTBUsJ7qbMI6d4blvrb86IBNFalNPttiJHGo%2FYqv%2F6ssxPVpz70fSnCujfjO1WToL6DCn4Jq8I%2Fwv%2FHdDDfSsNDixiRii%2FcidKd7%2BYd%2FvMjlb74xXzsWAkSXm6oTiyl3pTHCaki1o4J6Ohy%2Fq64lkBLQQIyao9I0L0OBnIWVItn%2FqNQpVSpPEE9JYoA6EZ3yy2ZLnmzCYzqPcYplNvkLQjTpIzolNdPOoXsNrCsi2h5dVJIF87CxqJhy4N4lMAPaIIpGjEYW3rLF%2FwoiPv9tudp6S3VJoVt2emp0M%2FHVg9yRXmQri4RqAX4xmgTkDP7j52Te3k47ODev%2BxgjWKaDqWVR1FknLxtlbNZ26pQ3WVdt3QjWndSnrt3EO1xq25mgiv3lddRmkBGBsscD7O9wlJCLjd%2FQRCf9nEXiq87j%2FEG3UZA94%2BNgsAXeGEsU%2BPFnOGPDsMCeTiwfN7Q7Nkw1ZTjmgY6qgFx2wJQ7hTSHsaPp6O9tG30IZcJBEpQVa6wziyRepf%2BUxQUdQ9hd1%2BM1pJxJn3UO3%2FbtCZlZV0n%2BNbN%2FnDfRBS%2F1zwyYFskSgvxx3xYB4JBUHhe0nZlu5ioQjZTI2Cs0Jjlu3tFf6SqL3IwEFW0XSiFmERAu%2BEJipUfLcT9X3VK8ypFCmpEkht9HVrRswtDl9HCVGmAzDahufMd%2B0ob0qSz1L79Yx3rkiK75w%3D%3D&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=inline%3Bfilename%3D%22companies_house_document.pdf%22&X-Amz-Signature=fd32656c235eed1858b6653189133e55910dd2f97c32537f2cfaf4d9470dfc1a Annual accounts for year ended 31 July 1992] Attwoods 2 December 1992 page 9

His wife's biographer Robin Harris concludes:"He was not, in fact, a particularly good businessman: he had inherited shares in a family firm which he managed, and he was lucky enough to sell his interest on terms that gave him a large pay-off and a good salary to boot. But it is significant that he left a very modest legacy at his death. This was because, throughout his life, and despite his training as an accountant and his eagle-eyed scrutiny of the Stock Exchange, he was a poor investor. Once his wife had become Prime Minister, and even after her retirement, it was Denis who lived off her and not vice versa. He matched Alf Roberts in his dislike of spending his own money. More generally, while (in contrast to certain of his successors) he did not raise eyebrows about exploiting his position, he certainly made the most of it. He was a celebrity exclusively because of whom he had married."

Public life and perceptions

Thatcher refused press interviews and made only brief speeches. When he did speak to the press, he called his wife "The Boss". Margaret Thatcher often acknowledged her husband's support. In her autobiography, she wrote: "I could never have been Prime Minister for more than 11 years without Denis by my side." Thatcher saw his role as helping her survive the stress of the job, which he urged her to resign on the tenth anniversary of her becoming prime minister in 1989, sensing that otherwise she would be forced out.

In an interview with The Times in October 1970, Thatcher said: "I don't pretend that I'm anything but an honest-to-God right-winger –those are my views and I don't care who knows 'em." His public image was shaped by the satirical "Dear Bill" columns appearing since 1979 in Private Eye, which portrayed him as a "juniper-sozzled, rightwing, golf-obsessed halfwit", and Thatcher found it useful to play along with this image to avoid allegations of unduly influencing his wife in political matters.

Given his professional background, Thatcher served as an advisor on financial matters, warning Margaret about the poor condition of British Leyland after reviewing its books. He often insisted that she avoid overwork, to little avail, sometimes pleading, "Bed, woman!" They otherwise usually kept their careers separate; an exception was when Thatcher accompanied his wife on a 1967 visit to the United States sponsored by the International Visitor Leadership Program.

Thatcher was consistent in his strong opposition to the death penalty, calling it "absolutely awful" and "barbaric". He said that he was against it because of innocent people being wrongly hanged and because juries could also be afraid to convict for fear of making a mistake. Like his wife, Thatcher was consistently anti-socialist. He told his daughter in 1995 that he would have banned trade unions altogether in Britain. He had low regard for the BBC, thinking it was biased against his wife and her government, as well as unpatriotic. In his most famous outburst about the corporation, he claimed his wife had been "stitched up by bloody BBC poofs and Trots" when she was questioned by a member of the public about the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano on Nationwide in 1983.

Thatcher was reported by New Zealand (NZ) broadcaster and former diplomat Chris Laidlaw—at the time NZ High Commissioner to Zimbabwe—as leaning towards him during a Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, asking "So, what do you think the fuzzy wuzzies are up to?"

In December 1990, following the resignation of his wife as prime minister, it was announced that Thatcher would be created a baronet, (the first and only baronetcy created since 1964). The award was gazetted in February 1991, giving his title as Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, of Scotney in the County of Kent. Thus, his wife was entitled to style herself Lady Thatcher while retaining her seat in the House of Commons; however, she made it known that she preferred to remain addressed as "Mrs Thatcher", and would not use the style. She was created a life peeress as Baroness Thatcher (Lady Thatcher in her own right) shortly after she retired from the Commons in 1992.

In July 1991, Thatcher was created a Commander of the Order of St John; his wife was also made a Dame of the order.

Illness and death

In the autumn of 1992, Thatcher was diagnosed with prostate cancer, but it was caught early. He responded well to treatment.

On 17 January 2003, Thatcher underwent a six-hour heart-bypass operation and aortic valve operation at a Harley Street clinic. He had complained of breathlessness for several weeks before Christmas 2002, and the problem was diagnosed in early January. He left the clinic on 28 January 2003 and appeared to recover fully after recuperation. Thatcher returned home on 14 February and visited his son Mark in South Africa in April, but in early June, he again complained of breathlessness and listlessness. Lady Thatcher's staff also thought he looked unwell, and on 13 June, he was admitted to the Royal Brompton Hospital for further tests. Nothing wrong was found with his heart but terminal pancreatic cancer was diagnosed, along with fluid in his lungs. He was told nothing could be done for him, and after seven days there, on 20 June, he was transferred to the Lister Hospital. He lost consciousness on 24 June and never regained it. He died on the morning of 26 June, at the age of 88.

His funeral service took place on 3 July 2003 at the chapel of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in London, followed by a cremation at Mortlake Crematorium in Richmond, London. On 30 October, a memorial service was held at Westminster Abbey. His ashes were buried under a white marble marker just outside the Royal Hospital in Chelsea. After his wife's death in 2013, her ashes were buried near his.

Married to Maggie
Produced by his daughter Carol, Thatcher's single public interview was made into a documentary film titled Married to Maggie, broadcast after his death. In it he revealed that the spouses he liked were Raisa Gorbacheva, Nancy Reagan and Barbara Bush. He called his wife's successor, John Major, "a ghastly prime minister", saying that "[i]t would have been a [...] very good thing" had he lost the 1992 general election. He added that he thought his wife was "the best prime minister since Churchill."

Below the Parapet
(1996) is the biography by his daughter Carol. In it, he said that politics as a profession or way of life did not appeal to him. World leaders he got on with included George H. W. Bush, F. W. de Klerk, Hussein of Jordan and Mikhail Gorbachev, whilst he disliked Indira Gandhi and Sir Sonny Ramphal. Thatcher admitted that he was not sure where the Falkland Islands were until they were invaded in 1982.

Medals and honours
Thatcher was awarded the following British medals and honours:

title: Denis Thatcher


text:
HarperCollins

HarperCollins Publishers LLC is an Anglo-American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette, Macmillan, and Simon & Schuster. HarperCollins is headquartered in New York City and is a subsidiary of News Corp.

The company's name is derived from a combination of the firm's predecessors. Harper & Brothers, founded in 1817, merged with Row, Peterson & Company in 1962 to form Harper & Row, which was acquired by NewsCorp in 1987. The Scottish publishing company William Collins, Sons, founded in 1819, was acquired by NewsCorp in 1989 and merged with Harper & Row to form HarperCollins. The logo for the firm combines the fire from Harper's torch and the water from Collins' fountain.

HarperCollins has publishing groups in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, India, and China. The company publishes different imprints, including former independent publishing houses and new imprints. The company's worldwide CEO is Brian Murray.

History

The earliest of the publishing firms that comprise HarperCollins was founded in 1817 by James Harper and his brother John, initially operating under the name J & J Harper. They were later joined by two other brothers, Joseph Wesley and Fletcher Harper, with the firm becoming Harper & Brothers in 1833.

Harper & Brothers originated several notable magazine publications in the nineteenth century that would later be sold or discontinued, including Harper's Magazine, Harper's Weekly, Harper's Bazaar, and Harper's Young People.

In 1962, Harper & Brothers merged with Row, Peterson & Company to become Harper & Row. The firm acquired Thomas Y. Crowell Co. and J. B. Lippincott & Co. in the 1970s, with Crowell and the trade operations of Lippincott merged into Harper & Row in 1980. In 1988, Harper & Row purchased the religious publisher Zondervan, including subsidiary Marshall Pickering.

William Collins, Sons was established in Glasgow in 1819 by Presbyterian schoolmaster William Collins. The firm's early emphasis was on religion and education, but diversified over time, making a significant move into fiction in 1917 under the leadership of Godfrey Collins.

The Collins Crime Club imprint published many works in the Golden Age of Detective Fiction, including novels by Agatha Christie and Rex Stout. The religious imprint Fount would be home to C. S. Lewis. Collins would become the British Commonwealth publisher for a number of popular American juvenile series and authors, including the Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, and Dr. Seuss.

Mergers and acquisitions
Rupert Murdoch's NewsCorp acquired Harper & Row in 1987. NewsCorp had owned a 40% stake in Collins since 1981 and became the sole owner in 1989. NewsCorp merged the two publishers in 1990, combining the name as HarperCollins and creating a logo with a stylized depiction of flames atop waves derived from the torch logo for Harper & Row and the fountain logo for Collins.

In 1990, HarperCollins sold J. B. Lippincott & Co., its medical publishing division, to the Dutch publisher Wolters Kluwer.

In 1996, HarperCollins sold Scott Foresman and HarperCollins College to Pearson, which merged them with Addison-Wesley Longman.

News Corporation purchased the Hearst Book Group, consisting of William Morrow & Company and Avon Books, in 1999. These imprints are now published under the rubric of HarperCollins. HarperCollins bought educational publisher Letts and Lonsdale in March 2010.

In 2011, HarperCollins announced they had agreed to acquire the publisher Thomas Nelson. The purchase was completed on 11 July 2012, with an announcement that Thomas Nelson would operate independently given the position it has in Christian book publishing. Both Thomas Nelson and Zondervan were then organized as imprints, or "keystone publishing programs," under a new division, HarperCollins Christian Publishing. Key roles in the reorganization were awarded to former Thomas Nelson executives.

In 2012, HarperCollins acquired part of the trade operations of John Wiley & Son in Canada.

In 2014, HarperCollins acquired Canadian romance publisher Harlequin Enterprises for C$455 million.

In 2018, HarperCollins acquired the business publisher Amacom from the American Management Association.

In 2020, HarperCollins acquired the children's publishers Egmont Books UK, Egmont Poland and Schneiderbuch Germany from the Egmont Group.

On 29 March 2021, HarperCollins announced that it would acquire HMH Books & Media, the trade publishing division of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for $349 million. The deal would allow HMH to pay down its debt and focus on digital education. The deal was completed on 10 May. As of 7 July 2021, HMH's adult books will be published as Mariner Books, while HMH's children's books will be published as Clarion Books.

In 2021, HarperCollins acquired the British publishers Pavilion Books.

In 2022 HarperCollins acquired Cider Mill Press.

Management history
Brian Murray, the current CEO of HarperCollins, succeeded Jane Friedman who was CEO from 1997 to 2008. Notable management figures include Lisa Sharkey, current senior vice president and director of creative development and Barry Winkleman from 1989 to 1994.

United States v. Apple Inc.
In April 2012, the United States Department of Justice filed United States v. Apple Inc., naming Apple, HarperCollins, and four other major publishers as defendants. The suit alleged that they conspired to fix prices for e-books, and weaken Amazon.com's position in the market, in violation of antitrust law.

In December 2013, a federal judge approved a settlement of the antitrust claims, in which HarperCollins and the other publishers paid into a fund that provided credits to customers who had overpaid for books due to the price-fixing.

US warehouse closings
On 5 November 2012, HarperCollins announced to employees privately and then later in the day publicly that it was closing its remaining two US warehouses, to merge shipping and warehousing operations with R. R. Donnelley in Indiana. The Scranton, Pennsylvania, warehouse closed in September 2013 and a Nashville, Tennessee, warehouse, under the name Thomas Nelson (which distributes the religious arm of HarperCollins/Zondervan Books), in the winter of 2013. Several office positions and departments continued to work for HarperCollins in Scranton, but in a new location.

The Scranton warehouse closing eliminated about 200 jobs, and the Nashville warehouse closing eliminated up to 500 jobs; the exact number of distribution employees is unknown.

HarperCollins previously closed two US warehouses, one in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, in 2011 and another in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 2012. "We have taken a long-term, global view of our print distribution and are committed to offering the broadest possible reach for our authors," said HarperCollins Chief Executive Brian Murray, according toPublishers Weekly. "We are retooling the traditional distribution model to ensure we can competitively offer the entire HarperCollins catalog to customers regardless of location." Company officials attribute the closings and mergers to the rapidly growing demand for e-book formats and the decline in print purchasing.

Internet Archive lawsuit
In June 2020, HarperCollins was one of a group of publishers who sued the Internet Archive, arguing that its collection of e-books was denying authors and publishers revenue and accusing the library of "willful mass copyright infringement".

Lindsay Lohan lawsuit
In September 2020, HarperCollins sued Lindsay Lohan for entering into a book deal and collecting a $350,000 advance for a tell-all memoir that never materialized.

Anne Frank's betrayal
A 2022 book written by Rosemary Sullivan, with HarperCollins as main publisher, designated a Jewish notary as the most likely suspect in Anne Frank's betrayal. The conclusion was challenged by experts. The notary's family members threatened a lawsuit and started a foundation. The Dutch publisher withdrew the book, but HarperCollins has not taken any definitive decision.

UAW strike
On 10 November 2022, approximately 250 unionized workers at HarperCollins began an indefinite strike. Local 2110 of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union includes people in design, marketing, publicity, and sales for the company. The UAW union made the decision to strike after drawn-out negotiations between it and HarperCollins, which resulted in members "working without a contract since April." According to a spokesperson, HarperCollins "has agreed to a number of proposals that the UAW is seeking to include in a new contract" and "is disappointed an agreement has not been reached" but "will continue to negotiate in good faith."

On 21 December 2022 the local put their in-person picketing on "pause" to give strikers an opportunity to spend time with their loved ones. The picketing resumed as scheduled on 3 January 2023.

After three months of negotiations, the union agreed to a new contract with HarperCollins on February 16, 2023. Under the new terms, the annual starting pay of HarperCollins employees has increased from $45,000 to $47,500 upon ratification, and is set to rise to $50,000 by 2025. Additionally, full-time employees in the union will receive a lump sum payment of $1,500. The contract also allows workers making less than $60,000 to file for two hours of overtime pay per week without approval from a manager, and puts measures in place to compensate junior-level staff for diversity and inclusion work which is typically unpaid in the industry.

The workers returned to their duties on February 21.

Noted books
HarperCollins maintains the backlist of many of the books originally published by its many merged imprints, in addition to having picked up new authors since the merger. Authors published originally by Harper include Mark Twain, the Brontë sisters, and William Makepeace Thackeray. Authors published originally by Collins include H. G. Wells and Agatha Christie. HarperCollins also acquired the publishing rights to J. R. R. Tolkien's work in 1990 when Unwin Hyman was bought. Following is a list of some of the more noted books and series published by HarperCollins and their various imprints and merged publishing houses.

 * The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien (1937) (originally published by George Allen & Unwin)
 * The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien (1954–1955) (originally published by George Allen & Unwin)
 * The Art of Loving, Erich Fromm (1956)
 * Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian (1970) (adapted into the 2003 film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World)
 * the Leaphorn and Chee books, Tony Hillerman (1970–2006)
 * The Silmarillion, J. R. R. Tolkien (ed. Christopher Tolkien with Guy Gavriel Kay ) (1977) (originally published by George Allen & Unwin)
 * Collins English Dictionary (1979), a major dictionary
 * Sharpe series, Bernard Cornwell (1981–2006)
 * Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo, Hayden Herrera (1983), adapted into the 2002 film Frida
 * The History of Middle-earth series, J. R. R. Tolkien (ed. Christopher Tolkien) (1983–1996)
 * Weaveworld, Clive Barker (1987)
 * the Paladin Poetry Series (1987–1993)
 * The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho, (1988) (first published in Portuguese as O Alquimista, 1988)
 * subsequent novels in the Take Back Plenty series, Colin Greenland (1990+)
 * Where There's a Will: Who Inherited What and Why, Stephen M. Silverman (1991)
 * Dorothy Wordsworth's Illustrated Lakeland Journals (1991, Diamond Books)
 * The Language of the Genes, Steve Jones (1993)
 * The Gifts of the Body, Rebecca Brown (1994)
 * Microserfs, Douglas Coupland (1995)
 * Thoughts, Tionne Watkins (1999)
 * Shuka Saptati: Seventy tales of the Parrot a new translation from the Sanskrit by A. N. D. Haksar (2000)
 * First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers, Loung Ung (2000)
 * Bel Canto, Ann Patchett (2001)
 * A Theory of Relativity, Jacquelyn Mitchard (2001)
 * recent volumes in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (books from 2001 to present)
 * American Gods, Neil Gaiman (2001)
 * Boonville, Robert Mailer Anderson (2003 reprint)
 * Quicksilver, Neal Stephenson (2003)
 * Don Quixote, a new translation by Edith Grossman (2003, Ecco)
 * Acquainted with the Night, Christopher Dewdney (2004)
 * State of fear, by Michael Crichton (2004)
 * Darkhouse, Alex Barclay (2005)
 * Anansi Boys, Neil Gaiman (2005)
 * The Hot Kid, Elmore Leonard (2005)
 * Freaky Green Eyes, by Joyce Carol Oates (2006)
 * Next, Michael Crichton (2006)
 * Domicilium Decoratus, Kelly Wearstler (2006) ISBN 0-06-089798-8
 * Pretty Little Liars, Sara Shepard (2006)
 * Mister B. Gone, Clive Barker (Harper) (2007)
 * Loving Natalee: A Mother's Testament of Hope and Faith, Beth Holloway (2007) (about Natalee Holloway)
 * The Raw Shark Texts, Steven Hall (2007)
 * The Children of Húrin, J. R. R. Tolkien (ed. Christopher Tolkien) (2007)
 * The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, Jeff Sharlet (2008)
 * Going Rogue: An American Life, Sarah Palin (2009)
 * Pirate Latitudes, Michael Crichton (2009) (posthumous publication)
 * Wolf Hall, Hilary Mantel (2009)
 * Shattered: The True Story of a Mother's Love, a Husband's Betrayal, and a Cold-Blooded Texas Murder, Kathryn Casey (2010)
 * Micro, Michael Crichton (2011) (posthumous publication)
 * The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon (2011)
 * A Shot at History: My Obsessive Journey to Olympic Gold by Abhinav Bindra (2011)
 * Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee (2015)
 * The Poppy War, R. F. Kuang (2018)
 * Inside the Tablighi Jamaat, Ziya Us Salam (2020)

Harper children's books
Children's book editor Ursula Nordstrom was the director of Harper's Department of Books for Boys and Girls from 1940 to 1973, overseeing the publication of classics such as Goodnight Moon, Where the Wild Things Are, The Giving Tree, Charlotte's Web, Beverly Cleary's series starring Ramona Quimby, and Harold and the Purple Crayon. They were the publishing home of Maurice Sendak, Shel Silverstein, and Margaret Wise Brown. In 1998, Nordstrom's personal correspondence was published as Dear Genius: The Letters of Ursula Nordstrom (illustrated by Maurice Sendak), edited by Charlotte Zolotow. Zolotow began her career as a stenographer to Nordstrom, became her protégé, and went on to write more than 80 books and edit hundreds of others, including Nordstrom's The Secret Language and the works of Paul Fleischman. Zolotow later became head of the children's books department, and went on to become the company's first female vice president.

The Chronicles of Narnia series by C. S. Lewis, while not originally published by a merged imprint of HarperCollins, was acquired by the publisher.

HarperCollins has published these notable children's books:

 * the I Can Read! series for beginning readers, including the Amelia Bedelia (Peggy Parish), Frog and Toad (Arnold Lobel) and Little Bear (Else Holmelund Minarik and Maurice Sendak) books
 * the Warriors series (2003–present)
 * the Pretty Little Liars series, by Sara Shepard (2007–present)
 * A Series of Unfortunate Events, Lemony Snicket
 * A Taste of Blackberries, Doris Buchanan Smith (1973)
 * Skulduggery Pleasant series, Derek Landy
 * Bart Simpson's Guide to Life (1993)
 * international rights to Dr. Seuss (inherited from Collins; 1950s–present)
 * Love That Dog, Sharon Creech (2001)
 * The Giving Tree, Shel Silverstein (1964)
 * Where the Sidewalk Ends (book), Shel Silverstein (1974)
 * The Saga of Darren Shan, Darren Shan (2000–2004)
 * Cirque du Freak manga series, Darren Shan and Takahiro Arai (2006–2009)
 * The Dangerous Book for Boys, Conn and Hal Iggulden (2006)
 * Sabriel, Garth Nix (1995)
 * A Barrel of Laughs, a Vale of Tears, Jules Feiffer (1995)
 * Mister God, This Is Anna, Fynn (pseudonym of Sydney Hopkins) (1974)
 * the Little House on the Prairie series, Laura Ingalls Wilder (1932–2006)
 * The Wolves in the Walls, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (2003)
 * Monster, Walter Dean Myers (1999)
 * Coraline, Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean (2002)
 * Surviving the Applewhites, Stephanie S. Tolan (2002)
 * The Gollywhopper Games (2008)
 * Ruby Redfort (series), Lauren Child (2011)
 * Divergent, Veronica Roth (2011)
 * Survivors series (2012–2019)
 * The School for Good and Evil, Soman Chainani (2013–present)
 * Splat the Cat, Rob Scotton (2007–present)
 * The Secret Zoo, Bryan Chick (2010–2023)
 * Charlotte's Web, E. B. White (2015)
 * Little Penguin, Tadgh Bentley (2015–present)
 * Elinor Wonders Why adapted books (2021–present)

Imprints
HarperCollins has more than 120 book imprints, most of which are based in the United States. Collins still exists as an imprint, chiefly for wildlife and natural history books, field guides, as well as for English and bilingual dictionaries based on the Bank of English, a large corpus of contemporary English texts.

HarperCollins' imprints, including current and defunct imprints prior to various mergers, include:

Adult
• Amistad Press, primarily books of African-American interest, named for the storied ship La Amistad; launched as an independent imprint in 1986 by Charles F. Harris (1934–2015), it merged with HarperCollins in 1999.

• Harlequin Enterprises

• * Carina Press

• * Graydon House Books

• * Hanover Square Press

• * Harlequin Teen

• * Harlequin Kimani Arabesque

• * Harlequin Kimani TRU

• * Harlequin Kimani Press

• * Harlequin Luna

• * HQN

• * Mira

• * Park Row Books

• * Rogue Angel

• * Silhouette Special Releases

• * Spice

• * Worldwide Mystery

• Harper

• *Broadside Books (American conservative imprint)

• *Ecco

• * Harper Business

• * Fontana Books

• * Harper Hardcover

• * Harper Paperbacks

• ** Bourbon Street Books

• * Harper Perennial, originally Perennial Library

• ** Harper Perennial Modern Classics

• * HarperLuxe (Large print)

• * HarperImpulse (Digital first imprint)

• * HarperTrue (Non Fiction digital first)

• * HarperOne

• * HarperVoyager, formerly Voyager, HarperCollins's worldwide science-fiction and fantasy imprint, combining the UK imprint HarperCollins Science Fiction & Fantasy (which had inherited the sci-fi and fantasy list of Collins's Grafton Books and its predecessors (Granada, Panther), as well as J. R. R. Tolkien's books from the acquisition of George Allen & Unwin) and the US imprint Eos (from the acquisition of Avon Books, which incorporated the former Harper Prism)

• *Mariner Books

• * Killer Reads (digital first Crime & Thriller imprint)

• * One More Chapter Books (Digital first Crime & Thriller imprint)

• * HarperWave

• * Harper Muse

• HarperCollins Focus

• *Blink

• *Harper Celebrate

• *Harper Horizon

• * HarperCollins Leadership

• **Amacom

• *Harper Muse

• HarperCollins UK

• * 4th Estate/Fourth Estate

• * Collins Bartholomew

• * HarperFiction

• **The Borough Press

• * HarperNonFiction

• **Thorsons

• * Pavilion Books

• * William Collins

• William Morrow

• * Avon

• **Avon Red

• **Avon Romance

• **Mischief (digital imprint)

• * Custom House (since 2015, led by Geoff Shandler)

• * Dey Street (formerly It Books)

• * Witness

• * William Morrow Paperbacks

• * Morrow Cookbooks, a highly respected series of cookbooks

Children

 * HarperCollins Children's Books
 * Harper Festival, a publisher of novelty books founded in 1992
 * HarperTeen
 * HarperTeen Impulse (digital imprint)
 * HarperTrophy
 * Amistad
 * Balzer + Bray
 * Collins
 * Clarion Books
 * Greenwillow Books
 * Heartdrum
 * HMH Books for Young Readers
 * Katherine Tegen Books
 * Walden Pond Press
 * Blink Young Adult
 * Farshore (formerly Egmont UK)
 * Electric Monkey

Christian

 * Thomas Nelson
 * Grupo Nelson
 * Nelson Books
 * Tommy Nelson
 * W Publishing Group
 * WestBow Press
 * Zondervan
 * Editorial Vida
 * Zonderkidz
 * Zondervan Academic
 * Zondervan Reflective

Audio

 * HarperAudio
 * Caedmon, audiobooks
 * HarperCollins Children's Audio

Bureau

 * HarperCollins Speakers Bureau

Digital

 * HarperCollins e-Books
 * HarperCollins Productions

Digital first

 * One More Chapter

Film and television

 * 3000 Pictures (joint venture with Sony Pictures)

Defunct
• Unwin Hyman (formerly Allen & Unwin, which is now an independent Australian publisher)

• Angus & Robertson

• The Julie Andrews Collection

• Avon A

• Cliff Street Books

• Collins Press

• Collins GEM

• Diamond Books

• Eos Books, science fiction/fantasy, formerly an Avon Books imprint

• Flamingo

• Fontana Books / Fontana Press (see Fontana Modern Masters)

• Harper & Brothers

• Harper & Row

• Harper Design

• Harper Perennial Modern Thought

• Harper Prism, science fiction imprint (merged with Eos)

• Harper San Francisco, with a focus on religious and spiritual books (now HarperOne)

• Harper Torch

• Harper Trophy, children's book imprint

• Harper True

• HarperCollins West

• Lothrop, Lee & Shepard

• Marshall Pickering

• Moonstone

• New Naturalist

• Rayo (a Latino-focused imprint)

• ReganBooks

• Salamander

• Thorsons

Web approach
In 2008, HarperCollins launched a browsing feature on its website where customers can read selected excerpts from books before purchasing, on both desktop and mobile browsers. This functionality gave the publisher's website the ability to compete with physical bookstores, in which customers can typically look at the book itself, and Amazon's use of excerpts ("teasers") for online book purchasers.

At the beginning of October 2013, the company announced a partnership with online digital library Scribd. The official statement revealed that the "majority" of the HarperCollins US and HarperCollins Christian catalogs will be available in Scribd's subscription service. Chantal Restivo-Alessi, chief digital officer at HarperCollins, explained to the media that the deal represents the first time that the publisher has released such a large portion of its catalog.

HarperCollins formerly operated authonomy, an online community of authors, from 2008 to 2015. The website offered an alternative to the traditional "slush pile" approach for handling unsolicited manuscripts sent to a publisher with little chance of being reviewed. Using authonomy, authors could submit their work for peer review and ranking by other members; the five highest-ranked manuscripts each month would be read by HarperCollins editors for potential publication. The site was closed after authors "learned to game the system" to earn top-five rankings, and fewer authonomy titles were selected to be published.

From 2009 to 2010, HarperCollins operated BookArmy, a social networking site.

Speakers Bureau
The HarperCollins Speakers Bureau (also known as HCSB) is the first lecture agency to be created by a major publishing house. It was launched in May 2005 as a division of HarperCollins to book paid speaking engagements for the authors HarperCollins, and its sister companies, publish. Andrea Rosen is the director.

Some of the notable authors the HCSB represents include Carol Alt, Dennis Lehane, Gregory Maguire, Danny Meyer, Mehmet Oz, Sidney Poitier, Ted Sorensen, and Kate White.

HarperAcademic
HarperAcademic is the academic marketing department of HarperCollins. HarperAcademic provides instructors with the latest in adult titles for course adoption at the high school and college level, as well as titles for first-year and other common read programs at academic institutions. They also attend several major academic conferences to showcase new titles for academic professionals.

HarperAcademic Calling, a podcast produced by the department, provides interviews with authors of noteworthy titles.

HarperStudio
HarperCollins announced HarperStudio in 2008 as a "new, experimental unit... that will eliminate the traditional profit distributions to authors. The long-established author advances and bookseller returns has not proved to be very profitable to either the author or the publisher. The approach HarperStudio is now taking is to offer little or no advance, but instead to split the profit 50% (rather than the industry standard 15%), with the author." The division was headed by Bob Miller, previously the founding publisher of Hyperion, the adult books division of the Walt Disney Company. HarperStudio folded in March 2010 after Miller left for Workman Publishing.

HarperCollins India
HarperCollins Publishers India Pvt Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of HarperCollins Worldwide. It came into being in 1992.

If I Did It
If I Did It was a book written by O. J. Simpson about his alleged murder of Nicole Simpson, which was planned as a HarperCollins title, and which attracted considerable controversy and a legal battle over publication.

Ben Collins
In August 2010, the company became embroiled in a legal battle with the BBC after a book it was due to publish, later identified as the forthcoming autobiography of racing driver Ben Collins, revealed the identity of The Stig from Top Gear. In his blog, Top Gear executive producer Andy Wilman accused HarperCollins of "hoping to cash in" on the BBC's intellectual property, describing the publishers as "a bunch of chancers". On 1 September, the BBC's request for an injunction preventing the book from being published was turned down, effectively confirming the book's revelation that "The Stig" was indeed Collins.

East and West
The company became embroiled in controversy in 1998 after it was revealed it blocked Chris Patten's (the last British governor of Hong Kong) book East and West after a direct intervention by the then-CEO of News International, Rupert Murdoch. It was later revealed by Stuart Proffitt, the editor who had worked on the book for HarperCollins, that this intervention was designed to appease the Chinese authorities—of whom the book was critical—as Murdoch intended to extend his business empire into China and did not wish to cause problems there by allowing the book to be published.

Murdoch's intervention caused both Proffitt's resignation from the company and outrage from the international media apart from affiliated companies. Chris Patten later published with Macmillan Publishing, initially in America, where it carried the logo "The book that Rupert Murdoch refused to publish". After a successful legal campaign against HarperCollins, Patten went on to publish the book in the UK in September 1998 after accepting a sum of £500,000 and receiving an apology from Rupert Murdoch.

Ebooks
In March 2011, HarperCollins announced it would distribute ebooks to libraries with DRM enabled to delete the item after being lent 26 times. HarperCollins has drawn criticism of this plan, in particular its likening of ebooks, which are purely digital, to traditional paperback trade books, which wear over time.

Omission of Israel from an atlas
In December 2014, The Tablet reported that an atlas published for Middle East schools did not label Israel on a map of the Middle East. A representative for Collins Bartholomew, a subsidiary of HarperCollins that specializes in maps, explained that including Israel would have been "unacceptable" to their customers in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf and the omission was in line with "local preferences". The company later apologized and destroyed all the books.

What the (Bleep) Just Happened?
HarperCollins announced in January 2017 that they would discontinue selling copies of Monica Crowley's book What the (Bleep) Just Happened?, due to allegations of plagiarism. The 2012 book had lifted passages from a number of sources including columns, news articles and think tank reports. HarperCollins said in a statement to CNN's KFile, "The book which has reached the end of its natural sales cycle, will no longer be offered for purchase until such time as the author has the opportunity to source and revise the material."

title: HarperCollins


text:
Talk:List of mayors of Washington, D.C.

Untitled
There is a hundred year gap in this list - What gives? Rmhermen 15:48 26 Jun 2003 (UTC)

That the info I found. I know that DC had some sort of appointed commission before home rule.Smith03

DC was governed by a three-member commission, appointed by the President, for some (all?) of the time. In fact, the first home-rule mayors had the title of "Mayor/Commissioner" to emphasize that the position was considered a successor to the commissioners. BRG

Adrian Fenty as next DC mayor
Since the Democratic primary winner is almost 100% sure to be elected Mayor of DC, here's the next line of the home rule mayor boxes to insert in 2007:

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Article name; also Alexandria
This isn't really a "List of mayors of Washington, DC", but rather the executives of the District plus those of the included municipalities. I have tried to clean up the intro to reflect this a little better. The title (today's COMMONNAME notwithstanding) is a bit confusing. Perhaps it can be retitled. "List of mayors of and within the District of Columbia"? With the current title as a redirect to the Home Rule period? Food for thought. Someone can surely do better. Possibly we break out "DC executives", City of Washington, Georgetown, with appropriate cross-links to connect them all up. Also, if the article is to include the City of Washington and Georgetown when they existed separately within the District, shouldn't it also include Alexandria for the period prior to 1846 when it was part of the District? Also food for thought, but that one seems clearer to me. "Yes." Comments welcome. JohnInDC (talk) 22:16, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * JohnInDC, I hope we're headed in the same direction here, with good faith and good humor. You'll let me know if not.  I just discovered that the list of Alexandria's mayors during its D.C. period is -- entirely missing from List of mayors of Alexandria, Virginia, without explanation.  Very odd.  Odd indeed.  --Lockley (talk) 23:36, 11 January 2019 (UTC)
 * Putting my money where my mouth is, Lockley - I keep saying that if these other articles are confusing, we should improve them! (Elsewhere I have said that our, um, disputed article could be / should be reconciled as "Municipal Governments in DC, 1801-1871".  If we did that, we could revise this article very nicely in parallel.)  JohnInDC (talk) 23:43, 11 January 2019 (UTC)

title: Talk:List of mayors of Washington, D.C.