The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition

Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition traces the history of deification from its birth as a second-century metaphor with biblical roots to its maturity as a doctrine central to the spiritual life of the Byzantine Church. Exploring the richness and diversity of patristic approaches from Irenaeus to Maximus the Confessor, Norman Russell sheds light on two important features of this doctrine. First, while it was developed as a means of responding to Platonism and other pagan philosophies in which divinization was conceived primarily as an extrinsic process affecting our capacities; deification is properly understood as a matter pertaining to our very nature, one that transforms us inwardly by transforming our will. Second, though it emerged out of discussions about Christology, deification was not only a Christian doctrine. Although modeled on Christ’s example and following his pattern, what Christians called their “deification” could also be discovered in certain passages in Scripture—more specifically those dealing with Adam’s prelapsarian state.