Athanasius and Arius in Deificational Tandem

Athanasius is considered a champion of deification in patristic theology. The Athanasian application of deification, however, presents a number of scholarly acknowledged issues that make comprehensive assessment of this notion in his thought rather troubling. The reason for such incongruity lies in the overlooked theological contextualization that initially lured him to deification. Athanasius develops deification predominantly on the background of Arius’s theology. The Athanasian diatribe against Arius involves deification in two major directions. In the first, relying on a traditional Christian approach for criticism of pagan divinization, Athanasius presents Arius’s theology as the paganization of Christianity. The second direction shows how he construes deification in response to the main deificational propositions of Arius. Four themes emerge most frequently: the full divinity of the Son and the Holy Spirit, the deification of Son’s assumed humanity, the role of participation as the process of deification, and divine filiation.