This is part 8 of the series blogging through the book On the Incarnation by Athanasius. You might want to start with part 1 and work your way through the series.

In the last entry we explored Athanasius’ view on mankind as beings that were created as moral creatures who enjoyed immortality through their participation with the Word Jesus. In describing how man was to enjoy God forever, Athanasius quotes Psalm 81 and asserts that we are gods.

And being incorruptible, [human beings] would have lived thereafter like God, as somewhere the Divine Scripture also signals, saying “I said you are gods, and all sons of the Most High; but you die like human beings and fall like any prince” (Ps 81.6–7).

(On the Incarnation ch 4)¹

The idea of saying “we are gods” would draw the ire of most modern Christian readers. Yet consider the more famous statement from Athanasius as he wraps up his work that says the same thing in rather blunt terms.

For [the Word of God] was incarnate that we might be made god. (On the Incarnation ch 54)

Before we write off Athanasius, let’s explore this topic a bit further. It was for this very purpose that C.S. Lewis, in the preface, advises us to read the old books. To understand the outlook of a different age and see certain truths from their perspective, perhaps learning from their mistakes or seeing clearer our own.

“We might be made god”. If we were to interpret this statement in a wooden literal sense we would get Athanasius all wrong. Just as we can often err when doing the same with the Scriptures themselves. Athanasius is not claiming that humans would become deities or advocating some form of polytheism. Nor should we think that in saying “we might be made god” that he was a radical teaching something novel.

The idea that humans would be “made divine” was to suggest we would become partakers of the divine nature.

For He has become Man, that He might deify us in Himself, … and [we might become] ‘partakers of the Divine Nature,’ as blessed Peter wrote (2 Peter 1:4)

(Athanasius to Adelphius in Letter 60.4)²

The idea being referred to here is called deification or theosis. It was a commonly held idea throughout early Christianity. In fact, by the mid to late 2nd century, we find the concepts involved in theosis in many extant writings by writers living throughout the Roman Empire. From Hippolytus in Rome (Refutation of All Heresies Book 10.30), Theophilus in Antioch (To Autolycus Book 2.27), Irenaeus in Lyons (Against Heresies Book 3.19), Tertullian in Carthage (Against Hermogenes chap 5) and Clement in Alexandria (Exhortation to the Heathen chap 1, 10) we find all of them at some point describing man as being “made gods”.³ That theologians held this idea across such a large geographic area by the mid 2nd century suggests that the view was widely held even earlier as it would have taken time to spread and gain traction.

So just what was the idea behind theosis?