The One Christ: St. Augustine's Theology of Deification (continued)
The Son's Descent 125 forms of union with the demons who dwell in the heavens' lower regions.
Here is one of the few places Augustine quotes Porphyry favorably, drawing from his Philosophy from Oracles, where the Christian bishop finds non-Christian corroboration that monotheism is the true cult and there is one God who is the father of all, who "has indeed no lack of justice, chastity, and other virtues, making our life itself a prayer to him by imitating him and seeking to know him. For seeking to know him purifies us, while imitation of him deifies us by bringing our disposition in line with his."101 Many of the key elements of Augustinian deification again appear: the search for God as purificatory, the imitation of God, and consequently, becoming divine understood as aligning one's actions with God's own self [ad ipsum operando]. It is easy to see why Augustine would agree with Porphyry here. The Father lacks nothing [nullius indiget], and while he gains nothing from creaturely praise, it is essential for us [nobis est bene] that we adore him through lives of virtue. In this way, our very selves become a prayer consisting of two phases.
The initial phase is in the seeking to know God, leading to human purification, while next comes the imitation of God, leading to deification. This two-fold process thus configures all human operations to God himself [ad ipsum operando]. As Augustine closes the quote and moves on to comment, however, he unfortunately leaves the meaning of this divine disposition untouched. He instead concentrates on Porphyry's rightly calling God the only Father and on how such a posi-
101. ciu. Dei 19.23; Bettenson, City of God, 888: "Nam Deus quidem, utpote omnium Pater, nullius indiget; sed nobis est bene, cum eum per iustitiam et castitatem aliasque uirtutes adoramus, ipsam uitam precem ad ipsum facientes per imitationem et inquisitionem de ipso. Inquisitio enim purgat, inquit; imitatio deificat affectionem ad ipsum operando"; CCL 47.693. This passage is (all too briefly) discussed by John J. O'Meara, Porphyry's Philosophy from Oracles in Augustine (Paris: Études Augustiniennes, 1959), 57–59.