The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification
Introduction
. . . et ubi haeret, quod non diuellit satietas
Deification of the human person is central to how St. Augustine presents a Christian's new life in Christ. Augustine accordingly presents the Christian life in terms of the Son of God's becoming human so humans can become God. This transformative union thus allows the Bishop of Hippo to exhort his congregation: "Let us thus rejoice and give thanks, for we have been made not Christians, but we have been made Christ."1 Or employing his preferred scriptural idiom, the Holy Spirit's pouring charity into our hearts (cf. Rom. 5:5), Augustine could teach those before him that through charity [per dilectionem] they have become members of the body of Christ: "and through love become incorporated [in compage] into the body of Christ; and there will be one Christ loving himself."2 Passages of this kind are surprisingly numerous. The subject of this book is to show in what indispensable ways Augustine relies on images of union between God and creation. In particular, this work will argue against much of previous scholarship to show that the deification of the human
1. Jo. eu. tr. 21.8: "Ergo gratulemur et agamus gratias, non solum christianos factos esse, sed Christum" (my translation); CCL 36.216.
2. Ep. Jo. 10.3: "Et diligendo fit et ipse membrum, et fit per dilectionem in compage corporis Christi; et erit unus Christus amans seipsum" (my translation); PL 35.2056.