Called to Be the Children of God: The Catholic Theology of Human Deification

by David Vincent Meconi, Carl E. Olson (Contributor)

This book gathers fourteen Catholic scholars to present, examine, and explain the often misunderstood process of "deification". The fifteen chapters show what "becoming God" meant for the early Church, for St. Thomas Aquinas and the greatest Dominicans, and for St. Francis and the early Franciscans. This book explains how this understanding of salvation played out during the Protestant Reformation and the Council of Trent. It explores the thought of the French School of Spirituality, various Thomists, John Henry Newman, John Paul II, and the Vatican Councils, and it shows where such thinking can be found today in the Catechism of the Catholic Church. No other book has gathered such an array of scholars or provided such a deep study into how humanity's divinized life in Christ has received many rich and various perspectives over the past two thousand years. This book seeks to bring readers into the central mystery of Christianity by allowing the Church's greatest thinkers and texts to speak for themselves, demonstrating how becoming Christ-like and the Body of Christ on earth, is the only ultimate purpose of the Christian faith.

"Rescue from sin and death is indeed a wonderful thing—but the salvation won for us by Jesus Christ is incomparably greater. And that is the subject of this book. In all its parts, this book, like Christianity in all its parts, is about salvation. But that means it's about everything that fills our lives, on earth and in heaven."
— Dr. Scott Hahn, Author, Rome Sweet Home

Genres: Theology, Catholic, Christianity, Religion

304 pages, Paperback

Published April 19, 2016

About the author

In 1992, David Meconi entered the Jesuit novitiate. He was sent to Xavier University to teach Classics and Philosophy, and then to the University of Innsbruck to obtain a pontifical license in Patrology. There he wrote a thesis on the apologetic nature of the Christian cento.

He was missioned to Oxford, studying Augustine under one of Henry Chadwick's last students. His dissertation was on Augustine’s use of deification and the Christian’s call to become Christ.

Reviews

[Darrick Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

This collection of essays on the theme of deification in Christian theology--the idea that through the Incarnation, Christians are able to become "partakers of the divine nature" (2 Peter 1:2-40)--is an excellent introduction, accessible to the educated lay reader. In fact, as the introduction states, it is one of the few books on the topic with regards to the Western Tradition, so much is the idea associated with Eastern Christianity. One thing the book certainly clears up is that this sort of language (theosis, deification, divinization) is NOT limited to Eastern writers, but has long played a role in Western Christian thought. The book contains chapters on the biblical roots of the doctrine, its early development in the Fathers of the Church (both East and West), and the rest of the book charts key moments in the development of the Western Catholic Tradition: Augustine, the Dominican and Franciscan traditions, Trent, the French School, the Neo-Scholastics, Newman, 20th century theology before and after Vatican II, ending with chapters on the Catechism of the Catholic Church and an especially fine chapter by David Fagerberg on deification in the liturgy. For some reason, the chapters on the 20th century were a bit less satisfying for me, possibly because the doctrine itself seemed to be less in evidence among modern theologians than in previous centuries. But in any case, the book is a fine introduction to a key but underappreciated aspect of Christian belief, namely that, as St. Irenaeus put it, "God became man that man might become God."

[Stuart · Rating 5 out of 5]

"The new way of life in Christ is ultimately the essence of love: for the lover is never content simply gazing upon the beloved but longs to be mutually transformed into the other, thereby becoming no longer two but one. This is the heart of love, to find one's own eternal welfare in another." This is how the introduction begins for Called to be the Children of God. Unlike many other books, which focus on the Incarnation and God becoming man, this book looks at the other side of the coin, man becoming God. As the opening lines suggest, if we truly love God, then we will not be happy simply staring at Him and all His goodness. No! We must want to be changed into His Image and become just like him.

In this book, the reader is presented with fifteen essays which systematically walk us through human deification. The first essay/chapter presents us with the Scriptural roots of human deification, both Old and New Testament. The next two chapters give us the views of the Greek Fathers and the Latin Fathers. I was pleasantly surprised that the Greek Fathers (including great men like the Apostolic Fathers and the Cappadocian Fathers to name a few) were included in this book, as we Roman Catholics have a tendency to forget about our Eastern brothers. Chapter Four addresses St. Augustine's view on the subject. And the rest of the chapters work us through various schools of thought including the what the Dominicans and Franciscans thought and how our understanding grew before and after major Councils like Trent, Vatican I and Vatican II.

One of the most interesting chapters to me was Chapter Ten - "John Henry Newman on Deification." In this essay, it talks about how he converted from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism by reading the Eastern Church Fathers. (Side Note: It was always amazing to me that he didn't convert to Eastern Orthodoxy instead.) The essay also talks about how :Roman Catholics have been engaged in a ressourcement - a 'return to the sources' of the Christian faith represented by the writings of the Church Fathers." The East has also experienced this, perhaps to a lesser degree, as they didn't lose touch as much as we did. The author of this essay, Daniel J. Lattier, believes that this gives us hope for an ecumenical reunion.

The doctrine of human deification is not an easy one to grasp, but it is a fascinating one to study. With Fr. David Meconi as the editor of Called to be the Children of God, you know you have a solid guide on this subject.

[Kiel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible set of essays that’s changed my life forever. Wish I had read this years ago. Can’t recommend highly enough.

[J. Heath Vogel · Rating 5 out of 5]

The heart of the gospel (theosis/deification) as expressed in different generations and cultures of the Church. Introduces and/or summarizes movements in the Church and how they presented the central teaching of theosis, such as: Greek Fathers, St. Augustine, the Dominican and Franciscan traditions, the French School, Scheeban, and Newman, and pre and post V2. Each section is an essay (15 total) and only a few are not up to 5 stars. Overall I would rate 4 1/2.