The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification
The Son's Descent 87
It does not seem that the term deificus itself is limited to any one philosophical or ecclesial perspective, as Augustine displays no problem putting it into the mouth of both Manichee and Donatist alike. While it most often refers to the canonicity of sacred scripture, it can also have a wider application. In a passage from the anti-Donatist De Baptismo, a certain Crescens calls a theological point that Cyprian makes about baptism to Bishop Iubaianus a "deifica scriptura" because Cyprian's teaching contains sacred teaching derived from and consonant with scripture.22 This is the only occurrence within this literary use of deification where the text in question is not sacred scripture but one of the great North African Church Fathers, Cyprian of Carthage, whom both the Catholics and the Donatists claimed for their own purposes.
Since these six instances of "deification" do not convey much theological significance in and of themselves, let us bring this section to a rapid conclusion. But first allow me to make one more point regarding possible provenance. It seems very likely that Augustine received the term "deifying scriptures" from Marius Victorinus (d. after 362). Other than Victorinus, no form of scriptura deifica or sermo deificus appears in the West before these instances and it only appears again well after Augustine's death.23 We know, however, that the literati at the end of the fourth century were no doubt familiar with the life and works of the great Latin rhetor and Catholic convert. In the writings of Marius Victorinus, Augustine and his circle would have encountered lectio deifica when, against
22. The De Baptismo is the fulfillment of a promise Augustine made earlier to explain the true nature of baptism (cf. c. ep. Parm. 2.14.23). The text in question here is from Cyprian's ep. 73, addressed to Iubaianus. For the identity of this otherwise unknown bishop, see G. W. Clarke, The Letters of St. Cyprian 4, Ancient Christian Writers 47 (New York: Newman Press, 1989), 221, n.2. The Stephen in question is certainly Pope Stephen (254–57).
23. Cf. ep. 11.1 of the Epistulae Austrasicae, 48 letters collected in Metz between 460 and 590 concerning mainly the relationship between Frankish bishops and rulers, employs deificus sermo; CCL 117.429.