The Oxford Handbook of Deification

Modern theological engagements on deification have undergone two major paradigm shifts. First, the study of deification shifted from the periphery of theological discourse to its center. For Adolf von Harnack, deification was a pagan import that fatally corrupted and distorted the Gospel message of salvation. In response, the positive retrieval of the concept of deification belongs to the early years of the twentieth century. By the 1910s in Russian religious thought and by the 1930s in much Roman Catholic theology, deification had become a magnet concept attracting attention from many different viewpoints. The second important shift relates to how deification is characterized. Recent studies question the exclusively 'Eastern' character of deification and draw attention to the engagements of this theme in Latin patristic and later Western Christian sources. Reassessing the evidence for these two major shifts, The Oxford Handbook of Deification comprehensively explores the points of convergence and difference on the constitutive elements of deification in different traditions, and offers a foundation for ecumenical and interreligious dialogues. The Handbook's first part analyzes the cultural and scriptural roots of deification; the second part explores the most significant historical contributions to the understanding of deification in the early, medieval, and modern periods; the third part develops systematic connections. Readers will discover a surprizing breadth, depth, and diversity of theologies of deification in Christian traditions. Throughout the Handbook, leading scholars in the field of Deification Studies propose vital new insights from a variety of perspectives for this central mystery at the heart of the Christian faith.

1 - Ancient Greek Cultural and Philosophical Background
2 - Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
3 - The "Non-Biblical" Writings of Early Judaism
4 - Deification in the Pauline and Petrine Letters
5 - ication in the Synoptics and the Johannine Literature
6 - Second- and Third-Century Greek Fathers
7 - Athanasius of Alexandria and the Cappadocian Fathers
8 - Deification in Macarius, Evagrius, and Dionysius
9 - The Syriac Fathers
10 - The Latin Fathers and Augustine
11 - Cyril of Alexandria
12 - "Man became God to the degree that God became man": Maximus the Confessor and the Doctrine of Deification
13 - Deification in the Early Medieval Latin West
14 - Symeon the New Theologian and Byzantine Monasticism
15 - The Cistercians and Victorines
16 - Aquinas and Bonaventure on Deification
17 - St Gregory Palamas and Palamism
18 - Western Vernacular Mystics
19 - Martin Luther and the Early Lutherans
20 - John Calvin and Early Reformed Theology
21 - Pierre de Bérulle and François de Sales
22 - Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Anglicans
23 - Pietism, the Moravian Brethren, and the Wesleys
24 - Deification in St Nikodimos of the Holy Mountain, St Makarios of Corinth, and the Philokalia
25 - Jacob Boehme, German Idealism, and Romanticism
26 - Nineteenth-Century Catholic and Anglican Thinkers
27 - Nineteenth-Century Russian and Ukrainian Religious Thinkers
28 - Twentieth-Century Russian Orthodox Theologians
29 - Karl Barth's Critique of Deification
30 - Deification in Neo-Thomist and Ressourcement Theology
31 - Deification in Recent Anglican and Protestant Theology
32 - Deification in Contemporary Greek Orthodox Theologians
33 - Deification and the Metaphysics of Participation
34 - Deification and the Trinity
35 - Deification and Christology
36 - Deification and Ecclesiology
37 - Deification and Theological Anthropology
38 - Deification, Justification, and Sanctification: An Early Christian Philosophical Approach
39 - Deification in Sacraments, Liturgy, and Prayer
40 - Deification and Ecology
41 - Deification and Eschatology
42 - Deification and Ecumenical Dialogues
43 - Dialogues with Jews and Muslims
44 - Christian Deification: Dialogues with the Dharma Religions

Paul L. Gavrilyuk holds the Aquinas Chair in Theology and Philosophy in the Theology Department of the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, Minnesota. His many books include Perceiving Things Divine: Towards a Constructive Account of Spiritual Perception (OUP, 2022--co-edited with Frederick Aquino) and Georges Florovsky and the Russian Religious Renaissance (OUP, 2013). He is the founding president of two nonprofits: International Orthodox Theological Association (iota-web.org) and Rebuild Ukraine (rebuild-ua.org). Andrew Hofer, O.P. is Ordinary Professor of Patristics and Ancient Languages at the Pontifical Faculty of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington, DC, where he also serves as editor-in-chief of The Thomist. He is the author of Christ in the Life and Teaching of Gregory of Nazianzus (OUP, 2013) and The Power of Patristic Preaching: The Word in Our Flesh (2023). Matthew Levering holds the James N. Jr. and Mary D. Perry Chair of Theology at Mundelein Seminary. His recent books include Did Jesus Rise from the Dead? Historical and Theological Reflections (OUP, 2019) and Aquinas's Eschatological Ethics and the Virtue of Temperance (2019). He serves as co-editor of two quarterly journals, Nova et Vetera and International Journal of Systematic Theology.