Abstract
This essay argues that the contemporary philosophical discourse of ‘becoming like god’ (homoiōsis theōi) offers a relevant cultural frame to analyse both the convergences and divergences between Platonic, Stoic, Epicurean, and diverse biblical takes on deification. In particular, participation in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4) is interpreted in light of the close connection between ontological and ethical transformation found in Graeco-Roman sources. Additionally, it is observed that Paul limits his expressions of‘becoming like’ to Christ as the ultimate ‘image of God’, this in line with mediating figures in Middle Platonic traditions - traditions which were also concerned with upholding divine transcendence. The biblical material on this theme is found to be distinctive in at least three aspects: in the critical function and democratizing effect of the ‘image of God’ motive, in the kenosis and suffering of the mediating Image, and in the collective nature of the transformation, encompassing whole communities and, in somecases, the whole of creation.
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