The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification (continued)
The Son's Descent 97 must humbly put aside their fallen desire to manufacture their own "god" if the true God will ever be able to make them like himself. True power thus lies in receiving divinity, not manufacturing it.
The third section within sermo 23B stretches from paragraph 11 to 15 and deals with a more practically immediate concern, the tribulations of everyday Christian life. Augustine cleverly links daily trials with the divine perfection promised in Jesus Christ. Continuing the recapitulative pattern with which he opened, he now exhorts us to put up with our condition. The creator says, "I will recreate you; I created you mortal, I will recreate you immortal. Put up with your condition, so that you may receive your possession."39 In illustrating this recreation unto divine perfection, two analogies are given. The first is the craftsman's furnace (paragraph 12): as straw burns so as to purify gold, the blasphemies of unbelievers may be flaming up all around the faithful but that is only for the sake of their refinement. The second analogy is similar. The oil press (paragraph 15) shows how only through adverse pressure is purification possible: Augustine's Christian hearers may at times tend toward desolation when they see how "the dregs are running through the streets," but they must never lose heart.40 This contrast is further explained as those who appear to escape God's justice are in fact failing to be formed into his own children, while those who experience trials faithfully in Christ are being purified into God's own.
We began this section with sermo 23B because I wanted to show how it employs the term deificare and then opens up to the wider theme of recapitulation. The Son descends to accomplish the deification of humanity, but for this exaltation to take place the Son must encounter and thus convert all that is alien to the Father. Such Christian recapitulation enjoys a
39. s. 23B.11; Hill, Sermons (III/11), 43. 40. s. 23B.15; Hill, Sermons (III/11), 45.