Theos, Theoria, and Therapeia in Aristotle's Ethical Endings
Lawrence Jost
In Destree and Zingano, eds., Theoria.
Peeters, 2014

"One clear difficulty in the final remarks of EE VIII 3 concerns what precise meaning to attribute to therapeuein at 1249b20 where it is allied with theorein.... As for the proper interpretation of therapeia and its cognate verb in our text we should note that at Metaphysics 981a20-24 Aristotle suggests that the man of experience has the better of one who knows the universal but not the particulars: this latter sort "will often fail in his treatment (therapeia); for it is rather the particular" (not the universal) that is treatable (therapeuton) [fn39: This passage has important connections to a prominent theme in the book on phronesis, viz., that practical experience often trumps theoria when it comes to successful treatment not only in medicine but in practical reasoning leading to praxis quite generally.]" (JOST-2014b, pp. 306-308) In this context, Jost also cites 1178b35, 1179a23, 545b32, and 760a3.

"[T]herapeia and its cognates need not mean 'service' of a divinity as in the Euthyphro. It could be translated quite generally as "attendance upon" as the Loeb has it in the sense of those with requisite of knowledge of horses, dogs, etc. attend upon the needs of their charges. Since the gods don't need us, remember, we can't attend upon them in this way. [fn43 in part: [E]ven in Plato's text therapeia turns out to be doing things that the gods would approve of rather than 'waiting on them hand and foot.' .... Doing the best we can in all our actions is pleasing to the gods and shows that we have the proper respect for them and their concerns insofar as they care about what we here below do.] But we can if we are spoudaioi - morally serious about our lives - attend to our own human natures as individually variable as they are and with whatever self-understanding we have been able to muster and do the right things, hit the moral targets as regularly as we can, all the time allowing for variation in the specific circumstances....  Ton theon therapeuein, then, 'servicing the god' turns out to be *attending* as faithfully and carefully as we can to our own moral development, improving our performance - 'self-cultivation,' if you will - but always trying to do this better as well as striving to know theoretically what we can if we are so inclined and this, too, to the best of our unique abilities." (JOST-2014b, pp. 308-309) [PSA: note the connection to gnothe sauton and the examined life.] 

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