Deification: A Popular Topic

The subject of deification (of which the Ascent to Heaven is often a part) has been, interestingly, hard to avoid in some of my classes at Marquette. The following is taken from a journal entry from my first semester, in which I had a class on New Testament Method from Dr. Andrei Orlov and on the History of Theology (Origen to Early Medieval) from Dr. Mickey Mattox.

The topic of deification has come up frequently in my classes this week. In Dr. Orlov’s class, one of my classmates presented a paper he had written comparing traditions about Moses to the story of the birth of Christ in Matthew. In one part, he compares the divinity of Jesus to traditions about Moses also being divine. He cited Exodus 4:16 and 7:1, in which Jehovah says Moses is to be like God to Aaron, and then to Pharoah. He notes that the Rabbis rendered Deut. 33:1 as “Moses, man and God,” although the text as we have it does not say that. He also noted that some early Christians suggested that Jesus should be called “God” in the same way that Moses is in Ex. 7:1.

It is interesting to note that Dr. Andrei Orlov, our professor, has written essays on the idea that Moses was made divine as a result of his vision of God on Mt. Sinai, and that was the reason that his face was shining when he came down from the mount-he had been transfigured into an angelic or divine being as a result of, and/or in preparation to behold the Divine Presence. This is a recurring theme, and comparisons can be made to Jesus on the Mt. of Transfiguration, Paul who was taken up to the Third Heaven (whether in the body or out he couldn’t tell) and as my dear Marluce reminded me, the Three Nephites who were taken up into heaven and transfigured. Many other examples can be noted, especially in the extra-biblical apocalyptic and mystical texts. A great scripture on this topic is Moses 1:2,11-where Moses is only able to see God after he is transfigured and then able to see with spiritual eyes.

The next day, my Christian History class (with Dr. Mickey Mattox) discussed a Christian theologian named Gregory of Palamas, who lived in the early 14th century. Gregory of Palamas was a monk who promoted a very mystical type of Christianity, in which he and his fellow monks believed that through meditation, contemplation and prayer, they could eventually reach a point in which they could ascend to Heaven, in a sense, and witness the Divine Presence. Now this was supposed to be a sort of out-of-body experience in which the soul left the body and was united with the Divine Light that it beheld. It supersedes the natural senses and perceives things in a spiritual sense. Gregory says that the “soul becomes deiform,” and “through this grace the mind comes to enjoy the divine effulgence, and acquires an angelic and godlike form.” Gregory refers to this process as “deification.” So the vision of God, and the unity of the soul with God is what it is, for Gregory Palamas, to become a god.

Although Joseph Smith gives us a much more detailed understanding of what it is to be a god, and what the process is to get there, it is amazing to note that this truly is a recurring theme in ancient Christianity and in religion from the beginning. And all this talk of deification at a Catholic university! Actually, we have talked about deification many times in both classes, but since I have just now started keeping track, I don’t have the time or space to expound on that now-suffice it to say that it is a major thrust of many, many Jewish and Early Christian writings.

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