Interpretation of Luther (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Press, 1998).
240 Conclusion
Further Questions
If the doctrine of humanity's transformative union with the divine is an inextricable element of Augustine's theological macrostructure, what implications could this hold for how we read him? Too many studies have allowed the clear division between Augustinian nature and grace to distort the deiformity of nature and the glory the human person achieves in Christ. As this thesis has set out to show, the language of deificare may not be pervasive in Augustine's words and writings but the reality of a renewed humanity is.
First, would not reading Augustine as one neither lacking nor hostile to a theology of deification help his students estimate his impact on later theologians? In the past decade or so, many scholars have sought to rediscover deifying elements in the West's most renowned Christian thinkers. Various Finnish scholars, for example, have published a monograph interpreting Martin Luther's understanding of Christian salvation as essentially divinizing. The traditional forensic understanding of Lutheran justification, these scholars argue, simply does not account for all Luther had to say about the Christian life, the role of grace, and the "great exchange" achieved by the Son's incarnation.7 Similar studies have likewise attempted to bring deification to the fore in the Western tradition. Take the recent collection of essays, Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Tradition. Here are essays treating not only the more standard theologians of antiquity (the Cappadocians, Maximus the Confessor, etc.) but also intriguing studies on Anselm, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, as well as twentieth-century theologians, such as Sergius Bulgakov and Karl Rahner.8
7. Carl E. Braaten and Robert Jenson, eds., Union with Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans Press, 1998).
8. Michael J. Christensen and Jeffery Wittung, eds., Partakers of the Divine Na-