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The self‐giving love of God deployed in the redemptive events creatively brings about a new and lasting mode of existence. The powerful and ‘performative’ language of Jesus transformed people. Then love exposed him to suffering and death, which brought the joyful union of risen life that will last forever. This chapter illuminates the nature of redemption by analysing love.

This chapter sets out the reasons why it is often thought that the Platonist philosophers of late Antiquity have no political philosophy. A preliminary definition is given of ‘political philosophy’ and it is shown that ‘political virtue’ can have two functions with regard to the goal of Late Antique Platonism (the divinization of the soul): preparing, as a preliminary stage, the divinization of the soul; and divinizing the state as a context providing this preparation. These two functions will be elaborated in Parts I and II of this book.

This chapter shows briefly that divinization is often the goal of Greek philosophers, be they Plato, Aristotle, Epicurean, or Stoic. It describes the variety of ways in which the goal of divinization is understood, the range of degrees of divinization, and of divine life conceived in Late Antique Platonism.

This chapter gives a new, comprehensive interpretation of Gregory's Christology, focusing on his account of creation, the fall, and final redemption; his seminal doctrine of divinization (theosis); the relationship between soteriology and Christology; the singular identity of Christ as “one and the same” God and Son; the unity of Christ, against longstanding dualistic interpretations of Gregory's Christology; the principles of Christological exegesis; Gregory's vivid sense of the divine suffering in Christ and the centrality of Christ's crucifixion and resurrection; the predominance and unifying effect of Christ's divinity on his humanity; and Gregory's Christological spirituality, whereby the doctrine of Christ is itself the means of the Christian's ascent to God. Attention is also given to Gregory's opposition to the Antiochene Christology of Diodore, in addition to as that of Eunomius and Apollinarius.

The central chapter of the book evaluates Gregory's distinctive doctrine of the Holy Spirit and the Spirit's role in the work of Christian theology, focusing on the soteriological character of Gregory's Pneumatology in distinction from that of his Christology. It traces the development of Gregory's doctrine of the Spirit from his early episcopal sermons to the climax of his work in Constantinople and provides a new reading of the structure and argumentation of his monumental Oration 31 On the Holy Spirit, which is aimed at both the Eunomians and Pneumatomachians. At the heart of the matter is Gregory's account of the full divinity of the Spirit in light of the Bible's silence at the literal level—an argument that involves tracing the sequence of Trinitarian revelation through the covenants and the age of the Church, the direct proof of the Spirit's divinity from baptismal divinization, and Gregory's subsequent exegesis of the Spirit “according to the Spirit.” In conclusion, the chapter identifies the Spirit's central epistemic function for all theology and Gregory's literary rhetoric of piety, which frames and unifies the Theological Orations as a series.

Having discussed Ambrose’s view of resurrection in Chapter 5, the book turns to the Christological and pneumatological foundation of Ambrose’s understanding of the Christian’s participation in the transformation of resurrection and the new humanity of the resurrection through an analysis of his use of the Pauline contrast between the inner man born in baptism and the outer man that is wasting away (Col. 3:9–10). In Christ Jesus, Ambrose sees the restoration and perfection of the harmonic relation of soul and body that is the prototype for the new humanity of the resurrection. In the Spirit, Ambrose locates the divine power that divinizes the soul and so allows the Christian’s life to be conformed to the model of the new Adam.

Redresses Gregory’s over-identification with a ‘mysticism of darkness’ and shows that he is no less concerned with a ‘mysticism of light’. The mysticism-of-darkness theme is grounded in exegesis; outside of commenting certain scriptural texts, Gregory does not concern himself with the divine dark but prefers instead to speak of the soul’s transformation in the language of light. Gregory does not subordinate light to dark or darkto light. This parity reflects his understanding of the relationship of knowledge to virtue.

Synthesizes the existing evidence for municipal imperial cults in the cities of Asia (Ephesos, Priene, Miletos, Sardis, Pergamon). An examination of imperial cults in temple settings and those without temples shows that municipal imperial cults permeated city life and were more attuned to local piety. In comparison with provincial imperial cults, the municipal institutions were more variegated in their formats and in the objects of worship. There was more incorporation of imperial figures into the cults of other deities, more assimilation of imperial figures to specific deities, and a different standard for the language of divinization.

Places Cyril in historical context, and outlines the theme of the appropriation of divine life in Cyril’s narrative of salvation. Through this narrative of divine life, Cyril links the inter-trinitarian life of God to the human reception of that life through the Incarnate Word and the Spirit. A concise account of Cyril as biblical exegete is offered, and the overall aims of the study are enumerated.

Aims to investigate what Cyril means by the phrase, ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Pet. 1:4), in the hope that this will provide us with a key for unlocking his understanding of the extent and limit of our kinship with God and its relation to Christ’s unique sonship. Does Cyril’s account of our participation in the divine nature threaten to blur the distinction between the Creator and creation, between things divine and things human? Focusses especially on the concept of participation in Cyril and concludes that Cyril presents us with a rather complex christology in which the incarnate Christ, as genuinely occupying the common frontier of humanity and divinity, in one sense is, and in another sense is not, the pattern for our participation in the divine life.

Offers a critical summary, under the rubric of divinization, of Cyril’s account of salvation and offers a hypothesis for why Cyril made use of the technical vocabulary of divinization so infrequently. Explores the exegetical foundations of Cyril’s narrative and attempts to describe the theological shape of his account of divine life in the human race.

Aims to bring Cyril into discussion with three of his near contemporaries, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Augustine, and Leo the Great, with the aim of gaining further clarity to the Christological debates of the fifth century, and a better grasp of the theological similarities and differences between the East and West. In each case, a comparison is made at the level of Christology, pneumatology, and sacramental mediation. Closes with a modest appraisal of two issues commonly perceived as dividing the East and West, namely, salvation as divinization and the personal role of the Holy Spirit is the economy of redemption.

This chapter examines commonalities between the theology of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and patristic and medieval theology. Teilhard's theology resembles that of the Fathers in stressing the cosmic dimension of salvation and sanctification and in taking the hypostatic union of natures in Christ as an analogy for the relation of God and the cosmos. His theology is directed towards consummation towards which the entire cosmos is evolving, and this theme echoes strands of earlier theology. His stress on the Christocentric renewal of the cosmos resembles the Irenanaean doctrine of recapitulation. Consummation, as Teilhard envisages it, consists in humanity's union with God, expressed in the traditional language of divinization. While he apparently believed his notion of original sin challenged traditional misreadings of the Bible, what he in fact affirms is consonant with the teaching of the Fathers.

This chapter examines the present communion with God through Christ and the Holy Spirit and the consummation of this graced life in the final kingdom. The Catholic doctrine of grace emerged through two controversies. In the fourth and fifth centuries, Pelagius represented human beings as capable of achieving salvation largely through their own resources. In the sixteenth-century, Protestant Reformers highlighted the damage done by original sin, which has made human beings incapable of any good actions. In the twentieth-century, biblical, ecumenical, liturgical and patristic influences have enriched Catholic teaching on grace. The chapter ends by presenting Christ as the glorious destiny of the whole world, and by explaining the “last things”: death, resurrection, judgement, purgatory, heaven, and hell.

The fifth chapter explores Origen's spirituality. It argues that his theodicy does not dissociate the logical and spiritual problem of evil: they are deeply interconnected. It shows how the themes of his theodicy calibrate with the journey of the soul to perfection. In particular, this chapter traces his theory of the progressive ascent of the soul in his allegorical interpretation of the Exodus in his Homilies on Numbers and the union of the Bride and Bridegroom in his commentaries and homilies on the Song of Songs. The stages of the Exodus correspond to the stages of the soul's purification. Similarly, the three books of Solomon correspond to the threefold ascent of the soul. Just as the fall of the soul occurred gradually, so its restoration occurs gradually. Finally, the chapter engages the problem of the nature of the resurrected body in Origen's eschatology.

The sixth chapter examines Origen's universalism. It argues that the story of his theodicy ends with the annihilation of evil when God will be all in all. It clarifies the ambiguity in Origen's position on universal salvation. Origen accommodates his teachings on hell to the intellectual and spiritual capacity of his audience. As a caretaker of souls, he warns against the fires of hell to the simple and immature, while to the more advanced, he cautiously speculates on the possibility of salvation beyond hell, even the salvation of the Devil. Just as parents must sometimes deceive their children to promote their physical, intellectual, and spiritual well-being, so God must sometime deceive us with the threat of eternal, physical hellfire to promote our spiritual well-being. In his teaching, Origen employs the principles of pedagogical accommodation and pastoral edification.

This chapter explores the relationships between the Mormon Chain of Belonging and Smith's “divine anthropology,” his belief that humans, Gods, and angels are members of a species of eternal being he termed “Ahman.” This divine anthropology situates and clarifies Mormon beliefs about human preexistence, Mother in Heaven, human divinization, and divine anthropomorphism.