St. Augustine (354-430) was bishop in Hippo near Carthage in North Africa. During his early life he fell away from the church, embracing philosophy and even Manicheism. Later he became disillusioned by the teaching o f Mani and opened up a school o f rhetoric in Rome. Soon he was
disgruntled with his students and took a professorship in Milan where he began studying Neoplatonism and heard St. Ambrose’s sermons. Eventually he turned back to Christianity. Following this he started a monastic community in North Africa but was soon made bishop of Hippo while maintaining a monastic lifestyle. In Hippo he wrote most o f his major works and later died. While St. Augustine is known as one o f the greatest thinkers in the church, most o f his theology originates in the practical problems o f
shepherding the flock o f Hippo. Thus Augustine the practical pastor is the basis o f Augustine the theologian. Although some theologians resented him and disagree with his views, his theology soon eclipsed all others in western Christendom until its convolution in the Middle Ages. He was a prolific writer and an extremely gifted individual. He is considered to be the greatest o f the western fathers and even the greatest father o f the church in western Christendom.
Since theosis is usually considered to be an exclusively eastern teaching in the ancient church more attention will be given to St. Augustine’s view o f theosis. In typical western fashion he tends to emphasize the mystical union a little over theosis, yet as will be demonstrated he clearly taught theosis.
Augustine’s conception o f the nature o f the union is clearly a union o f substances that does not destroy
man’s nature or produce a third substance with God. St. Augustine confirms this union o f substances in his Commentary on the Gospel St. John and his Commentary on the Psalms.
And accordingly, though the Father and Son, or even the Holy Spirit, are in us, we must not suppose that they are o f one nature with ourselves. And hence they are in us, or we are in them, in this sense, that they are one in their own nature, and we are one in ours. For they are in us, as God in His temple; but we are in them, as the creature in its Creator (Augustine. Commentary on the Gospel St. John. 110;
NPNF. Series 1. 7:408).
Therefore if He Himself is the Selfsame and cannot in any way be changed, by participating in His divinity we too shall be made immortal in eternal life, and this pledge has been given to us by the Son o f G od.. .that before we should be made partakers o f His immortality, He should Himself first be made a partaker our mortality. For just as He was made mortal, not o f His substance but o f ours, so we shall be immortal, not o f our substance but o f His (Augustine. Enar. in Ps. 146).
In the next citation Augustine explains the union o f substances via the term participatio, the Latin equivalent o f κοι,νωιήα.
The teacher o f humility and sharer (particeps) o f our infirmity, giving us
participation (participationem) o f His divinity, coming down that He might both teach and be the Way, has deigned most highly to commend His humility to us (Augustine. Enar. in Ps. 58)
Augustine’s use o f theosis is very interesting especially when one remembers that he is the great teacher o f salvation apart from works in antiquity. This is pointed out to demonstrate that justification does not contradict theosis as long as both are kept in their respective spheres, namely, justification and sanctification. Augustine’s use o f theosis included both the broad and narrow sense. In the following citation he echoes St. Athanasius, “Deos facturus qui homines erant, homo factus est qui Deus erat” that is “To make human beings gods, He was made man who was God” (Augustine. Sermon 192.1.1). In the next citation against a Platonist who rejected Christ as the means o f deification, Augustine states that theosis can take place only by participation in the divine nature which is manifested in the imitation of Christ, “For inquiry,” says he, “purifies and imitation deifies us by moving us nearer to Him”
(Augustine. City o f God. 19.23; NPNF. Series 1. 2:417). In his sermons he equates the mystical union
125
and theosis by equating their unions, ”God wishes to make you a god, not by nature, like Him whom he begot, but by His gifts and adoption. For just as He through His humanity was made a partaker o f your morality, so He makes you a partaker o f His immortality by exultation” (Augustine. Sermon 166; PL.
38:909). Like his Greek counterparts Augustine proves the divinity o f Christ by virtue o f His ability to cause theosis (Augustine. On the Gospel o f St. John. 48:9-10; NPNF. Series 1. 7:269). In the following quote Augustine emphasizes grace as the means o f theosis while distinguishing the theosis o f Christ’s humanity from the theosis o f man.
We too are made by His grace what we were not, that is, sons o f God. Yet we were something else, and this much inferior, that is sons o f man. Therefore He descended that we might ascend, and remaining in His nature was made a partaker o f our nature, thay we remaining in our nature might be made partakers o f His nature. But not simply thus; for His participation in our nature did not make Him worse, while participation in His nature makes us better (Augustine. Epistle 140;
CSEL. xliv. 162).
With respect to his life in the monastic community that he started, Augustine wrote that he enjoyed the
“leisure in which to deify oneself (deiflcari in otio)” (Augustine. Letter 10.2; NPNF. Series 2. 1:228 cf.
varient). However some claim this previous remark is referring more to a Neoplatonic theosis rather than a Christian theosis. In the final citation one will see Augustine’s emphasis on theosis via the grace o f adoption which set the tone for deification in the western church.
The Word o f God, if He is God, is truly the God of gods; but whether He be God the Gospel answereth, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” And if all things were made by Himself, as He saith in the sequel, then if any were made gods, by Himself were they made. For the one God was not made, and He is Himself alone truly God. But Himself the only God, Father and Son and Holy Ghost, is one God. But then who are those gods, or where are they, o f whom God is the true God? Another Psalm saith,
“God hath stood in the synagogue o f gods, but in the midst He judgeth gods.” As yet we know not whether perchance any gods be congregated in heaven, and in their congregation, for this is “in the synagogue,” God hath stood to judge. See in the same Psalm those to whom he saith, “I have said, Ye are gods, and children o f the Highest all; but ye shall die like men, and fall like one o f the princes.” It is evident then, that He hath called men gods, that are deified o f His Grace, not born o f His Substance. For He doth justify, who is just through His own self, and not o f
another; and He doth deify who is God through Himself, not by the partaking of another. But He that justifieth doth Himself deify, in that by justifying He doth make sons o f God. “For He hath given them power to become the sons o f God.” If we have been made sons o f God, we have also been made gods: but this is the effect o f Grace adopting, not o f nature generating. For the only Son o f God, God, and one God with the Father, Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, was in the beginning the Word, and the Word with God, the Word God. The rest that are made gods, are made by His own Grace, are not bom o f His Substance, that they should be the same as He, but that by favor they should come to Him, and be fellow-heirs with Christ. For so great is the love in Him the Heir, that He hath willed to have fellow-heirs (Augustine. On the Psalms. 40; NPNF. Series 1.
8:178).