Deification and the Metaphysics of Participation

Abstract Deification has been set out as participation in God, both on biblical grounds (2 Pet. 1:4) and on account of the rich discussions of participation in Platonic texts, and theological writing influenced by them. In recent decades, participation has been celebrated by theologians, across confessional lines, as central to a theological and philosophical vision shared by writers down Christian history. In this chapter, the idea of a “metaphysics of participation” (largely illustrated by the works of Thomas Aquinas) is used to explore what has been meant by deification. The dependence of the creature on God is stressed, as is its transformation by grace, while also preserving the unalterable distinction between creature and Creator. After consideration of some objections to treating the relation of the creature to God in such metaphysical terms, the chapter concludes by showing how the theme of participation can serve to connect deification to other doctrinal topics.