CHAPTER 6

Becoming Gods: Deification and

the Supernatural
M. David Litwa
Lecturer in Classics
University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Throughout time, people have not been satisfied merely to reflect upon the supernatural worlds
that they imagine, they have wanted to become supernatural. They have not desired to be mere
voyeurs of fantasy, but to play an active part in the fantastic universes they create. Such people
have not simply yearned to hear and behold the gods—they have wanted to be gods.
As far as human memory goes, gods have been part of humanity’s cultural landscape,
and have served as imaginative models of its potential. Gods are, by one definition,
supernatural beings. Yet not all gods are beyond nature. Some constitute nature’s
aristocracy. Others are themselves the elemental forces of nature (e.g., Zeus is sky, Poseidon
is sea, Aphrodite is sex). Nonetheless, all gods are superhuman in some way—whether they
are in nature, as nature, or above it.

DEIFICATION

Deification, in its most basic sense, means becoming god or godlike. It is a form of
transcendence (going beyond one’s present state or nature). Indeed, it is often the most
striking and vivid form, since gods are the most popular and personal models of
transcendence. Gods are strangely near and far, both humanlike and wholly other.
Deification dances dialectically between the poles of identity with the divine and the
recognition of ultimate difference.
Both enemies and fans of deification have tended to assume that it means complete
fusion with godhead. Christian proponents of deification strongly oppose fusion models.
They prefer to combine some sort of (predominantly moral) likeness to God with an
emphasis on God’s essential difference. In fact, the clash between moral likeness and fusion
models of deification is something of an intra-Christian squabble, since it has been Christian
mystics like Meister Eckhart (c. 1260–1328) who are the most daring proponents of
absorption into God.
There are in fact many models of deification—at least as many as there are types of god.
There are monotheistic gods (gods who claim, with varying success, all the power in the
universe) and polytheistic gods (forced to operate together in a larger, usually hierarchical
bureaucracy). There are king gods who dwell on mountains, woodland sprites, and desert

89
COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

demons. There are worshipped gods and unworshipped ones—and those only invoked in
times of need. There are dead gods, live gods, and resurrected gods; evil gods, good gods, but
mostly ambivalent ones. There are male gods, female gods, and hermaphrodites (including a
god named Hermaphroditus). Each has a different power: to heal or destroy, to be invisible, to
chuck lightning, to sexually attract, to change shape, to create a universe, and so on. These are
the powers that humans, whether waking, sleeping, or dreaming, have wished to attain.
Deification most often involves the acquisition of immortal life, but not always.
Immortality is a kind of divine power, but there are many and various powers that deified
persons acquire: powers to fly, to walk on water, to destroy one’s enemies with a word, to see
through walls, to walk through them, to have a body of light, to have superior intelligence,
and so on. The eternality of the gods is often a way to distinguish them from deified
humans. Yet for some thinkers, humanity is as eternal as God. In what follows, we examine
some examples of deification, both past and present.

POLITICAL DEIFICATION

Human holders of extreme power are, in most societies, political leaders. In the realm of
politics, divine power and human power overlap. Throughout most of recorded human
history, rulers have played upon their close relation to the gods, and have sometimes used
deification as a warrant to legitimize, naturalize, and increase their power.
In a scene etched on stone, the Mesopotamian ruler Naram-Sin (2254–2218 BCE) is
depicted climbing a mountain, and trampling the bodies of his enemies. The muscles in his
arms and buttocks are tight and bulging. On his head he wears those ancient symbols of divine
power: the giant horns of a steer. The horns were a sign of Naram-Sin’s deification, and
reappear on the heads of later deified persons. The deified Moses, for instance, sprouted similar
horns as he descended Mount Sinai. His horns, however, were horns of light (Exod 34:29).
In a series of silver coins beginning in 172 BCE, the Greek king Antiochos “Epiphanes”
(Manifest or Illustrious) stamped in capital letters the word theos (Greek for god or divinity)
next to his name. Thus Antiochos became “god manifest.” Although at the time Antiochos
was middle-aged with a receding hairline, his idealized, youthful visage crowned with curly
locks still protrudes from these coins. Stars—another common symbol of divinity—shine
behind his diadem or directly above his forehead.
A third series of coins appears after Antiochos’s victories over Egypt (169–164 BCE).
Some of them feature the face of Zeus crowned with laurel, a face said to resemble that of
Antiochos himself (Houghton, Lorber, and Hoover 2002, 1.48). Most of these coins feature
the king’s head on the front with an enthroned Zeus on the back. The ability to flip from
the king’s face to Zeus must have made a powerful impression. Despite the skepticism of
some scholars, Antiochos seems to have deliberately assumed divinity by association with
the king god. On these coins, Epiphanes is depicted as the manifestation of Zeus.
Political rituals of deification are often employed to reinforce the fictive unity of far-
flung empires. Roman emperors, for instance, were only officially deified after their deaths.
Over the years, a vast and complex funerary rite developed. Dignitaries from all over the
empire assembled at Rome. A lifelike wax body of the emperor was fashioned and put on
display. This wax body would, after a set time, be placed atop a massive three-story funeral
pyre decked—like an elaborate wedding cake—with ivory, gold, and statues. Heaps of

90 MACMILLAN INTERDISCIPLINARY HANDBOOKS

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
 Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

incense were already stuffed within the structure before it was ceremonially lit by torches.
Clouds of sweet perfume poured out for miles around.
Like Herakles (or Hercules) of old, deification was completed only after the flesh (here
represented by the wax body) was melted away. Suddenly, from the top of the pyre, a
massive eagle was released. Madly soaring upward to escape the heat, the eagle stunned
onlookers as it burst over the flames. The bird vividly symbolized the emperor’s divinized
soul as it flew to heaven and took its permanent place in the family of Roman gods.
Deification is often granted to founder figures or to those who have died to preserve the
nation. “For there is nothing,” Cicero observes, “in which human virtue approaches divine
power more closely than in founding new states and preserving those already founded”
(Republic, 1.12, cf. 6.13). In the United States, the great founder figure is George
Washington—general of the Continental army and first US president.
When one looks up at the rotunda inside the US Capitol, one sees Constantino Brumidi’s
painting The Apotheosis of Washington. There the general sits, draped in purple, one hand on
the hilt of a sword, the other pointing to an open book. He is flanked by two goddesses: Liberty
on his right, and Victory to his left. Thirteen additional maidens, with stars above their heads,
represent the original colonies. They form a circle of adoration around him. Above the
president, the maidens hold a banner with a profoundly social and religious message, written in
the ancient language of the Romans: “E Pluribus Unum” (“out of many—one”).

The Apotheosis of Washington fresco by Constantino Brumidi, US Capitol Building, 1865.

Founder figures are often the subject of political deification, with this fresco serving as a prime example.
George Washington, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States, is shown flanked by the goddesses
Liberty and Victory, while thirteen maidens, representing the original colonies, form a circle of adoration
around him. WILLIAM JU/ALAMY.

RELIGION: SUPER RELIGION 91

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

Four score and seven years later, Abraham Lincoln became America’s second founder
figure. He was granted even more divine honors because he, like Christ, died in his efforts to
save an elect nation. Currently Lincoln sits enthroned like Zeus Olympios in his own Doric
temple, glistening white before a reflecting pool in one of America’s most sacred sites. Like
deified rulers of Greece and Rome, he has his face and temple engraved on the obverse and
reverse of America’s most common coin (the penny). There, above Lincoln’s head, is the US
motto (adopted in 1956): “In God We Trust.” Lincoln’s sovereign visage and Zeus-like
beard indicate that he is, for many Americans, the image of God.

DEIFICATION THROUGH BEAUTY

For female gods and deified persons, divine power is often expressed through a fantastic
beauty that makes them (quite literally) irresistible (since physically stronger males cannot
deny their wishes). It is said that Helen of Troy’s divine visage launched a thousand ships. In
her monograph on Helen, Ruby Blondell writes that beauty “helps to blur … the normally
sharp line dividing humans from the gods. Beauty is a divine force.” Helen as the daughter
of Zeus “never quite loses the aura of divinity, threatening boundary confusion and anxiety
about the power of female beauty in the mortal world” (47).
According to the ancient historian Charax, the female hero Io was considered a goddess
on account of her beauty. Apuleius, in his novel The Golden Ass (mid-second century CE),
plays upon this theme. In a story woven within a story, he presents the young virgin Psyche
as a goddess by virtue of her beauty. People randomly pelt her with flowers and offer her
sacrifice, to such an extent that Aphrodite’s temple is left barren (making the rouged goddess
livid). By naturally imitating the goddess of beauty, Psyche was treated as a goddess herself
(4.29).
The instruments of beautification are themselves deifying. In the Jewish romance Joseph
and Asenath (c. 100 BCE–100 CE), we find reference to bread of life, oil of incorruption, a
chalice of immortality, and a honeycomb full of the “spirit of life” (8:5; 15:5). When
Asenath, the protagonist, applies these magical substances, an angel says to her: “Behold,
from this day your limbs of flesh [will] flourish like flowers of life from the ground of the
Most High, and your bones will grow strong like the cedars of the paradise of delight of
God, and untiring powers will embrace you, and your youth will not see old age, and your
beauty will not fail forever” (Charlesworth 1985, 16:16).
Feminine power expressed through beauty is still alive in Western culture. Millions of
women try to assimilate their faces to deified women on magazine covers and major motion
pictures. (Female actresses are even called divas, Italian for “goddesses.”) Here the magical
tools of deifying transformation are again quite concrete: lipstick, skin creams, eye shadow,
and the “Oil of Olay.”

DEIFICATION VIA ASCENT

Deification is often realized in an ascent to heaven. The ascent foreshadows one’s final rise
to deity at death. The Mithras Liturgy (second to fourth century CE) is a magical rite of
ascent wherein the magician, his body remaining on earth, flings his mind to the planets and
past all stars. Faced with attacking star gods, he takes astral form and slips by unnoticed.

92 MACMILLAN INTERDISCIPLINARY HANDBOOKS

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
 Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

Similarly, the prophet Isaiah in The Ascension of Isaiah (early second century CE) puts
on a new form for every level of heaven he attains. The new form is symbolized by a new
garment of light. Finally, in the seventh heaven, the prophet puts on a robe that makes him
shine brighter than the angels (Charlesworth 1985).
The antediluvian patriarch Enoch, in The Parables of Enoch (first century CE), soars to
heaven and morphs with God’s primary divine mediator called the Son of Man (1 En 70–
71). Prior to this, he feels his flesh melt away and his spirit transform. He opens his mouth
to sing in praise of God, and becomes a god.
Are these mere literary deifications? Perhaps. Nevertheless, historians have begun to
take seriously the idea that these accounts are records of real experiences shaped by the
structures of native myth. Yet even if these deifications are only fictional, they have the
power to evoke deific experiences among their readers. They have the power, that is, to
spark imaginative and emotive journeys that awaken humans to their (present and future)
potential.

DEIFICATION AS MAGIC

The rite of the Mithras Liturgy reminds us that deification is quintessentially magic (a common
term for religious practices viewed suspiciously by outsiders). Acts of magic sometimes involve a
ritual in which the state or essence of a person is changed by a superhuman agent or inherently
potent substance. Deific magic might be called alchemic. Alchemy is traditionally associated
with the attempt to convert base metals like lead into gold. Alchemists also aimed to synthesize
the elixir of life—an obviously deific substance. Other deifying substances include water or oil
used in baptismal and sealing rituals. Blood—or wine standing in for blood—can also help one
participate in the life of a god. According to Diodorus of Sicily (first century BCE), the goddess
Isis provided the athanasias pharmakon (the drug of immortality) (Library of History 1.25.6).
This same drug, according to Ignatius of Antioch (second century CE), is offered in the
Christian Eucharist (Letter to the Ephesians 20:2).

DEIFICATION AS IMITATION

Magic and alchemy highlight the ritual elements of deification, but it also typically features
an extensive mythology. That is, there are stories of gods who are held up as models of
imitation. The gods easiest to imitate are those most human. Some of them were previously
human (or divine-human hybrids) that later became fully fledged gods.
A popular example is Herakles. He is a mixed breed: half human, half god. Through
twelve deeds of power (and many side stunts) he proves his divine identity, is worshipped in
certain cities, and ascends through fire to his divine father.
The imitation of the gods allows a moral component to be introduced into deification. For
Philo (c. 25 BCE–50 CE), a Jewish philosopher of the first century, Herakles was a model of
patient endurance in suffering (1941, para 120). According to Epictetus (a Stoic of the second
century CE), Herakles travelled the world to cast out violence and introduce the well-ordered life
(1998, verse 3.24.13–16). And, it was according to Dio Chrysostom that Herakles, as a friend of
God and in obedience to God, “went about clearing away injustice and lawlessness” while at the
same time “introducing justice and right religion” (1992, verse 2.16.44, 3.26.32).

RELIGION: SUPER RELIGION 93

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

CHRISTIAN DEIFICATION

Christians assume a larger story of deification wherein one human god (Christ) paves the
way for human godhood. The way down is the way up. Christ takes the way down to earth
and humanity so that humans can ascend to heaven and deity. Historically, Christian
theologians have called this pattern the wondrous exchange. A fourth-century bishop,
Athanasius of Alexandria, expressed it most succinctly in On the Incarnation: “God was
made human so that we humans can become G/god (theopoiēthōmen)” (54.3).
In Christian thought, deification is also tied to the idea of resurrection. Although the
Platonic incorporeal, immortal soul remains popular in Christian thought, theologians since
the second century have insisted that the deified do not become disembodied. Instead, they
are given luminous super-bodies that can exist on some celestial plane (for an example, see
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Contra Gentiles, 4.86). When Christians receive these bodies is
never exactly made clear. But the idea of an immortal yet material mode of existence makes
Christian deification intensely personal and concrete.
Orthodox theologians are careful to insist that deified Christians do not become God or
Christ. Gregory Palamas (1296–1359) taught that Christians participate in the energies, not
the essence of God (though he added that God’s energies still express God’s real being). The
idea that there remains some gap between the God imitated and the deified imitator is
actually quite common in the history of religions. Roman emperors who imitate Zeus do
not thereby become Zeus. Likewise, Cynic and Stoic philosophers who imitate Herakles
(son of Zeus) do not in this way become Herakles.
Dionysiac religion told a different story: in moments of ecstasy, one could actually
become (or at least be fully possessed by) a god. The apostle Paul, one might argue, harbored a
similar view. He claimed that he no longer lived, but that Christ lived in him (Gal 2:20). He
wanted Christ to develop in Christians like a fetus (one organism with its mother) (4:19). The
apostle also wrote that the metamorphosed (i.e., deified) Christian becomes “the same image”
as Christ (2 Cor 3:18), which is clarified as the “image of God” (4:4).
From one point of view, Christianity makes deification banal. In The Antichrist,
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) wrote that “‘Immortality’ conceded to every Peter and
Paul has so far been the greatest, the most malignant, attempt to assassinate noble humanity”
(§43). Nietzsche’s point was that virtue or excellence does not mean anything in a world
where everyone who believes in Jesus gets to be immortal. In fairness, however, Christian
monastics have continued the tradition of deification by extreme moral and ritual practices.
There is also a distinction between immortality and divinity that one must bear in mind. In
Cicero’s Laws, the character Marcus says that “the souls of all people are immortal
(immortalis), but souls of the brave and good are divine (divinos).” Only the latter are
worshipped (2.27–28). Similarly, Christians do not worship their dead; they worship their
deified dead (or saints, who are said to be venerated in order to avoid the charge of idolatry).

DEIFICATION AND MONOTHEISM

It is often thought that monotheism makes deification impossible. But this is not necessarily
so. In fact, radical monotheism can lead to striking forms of deification and absorption into
God. The Muslim Sufi Husayn ibn Mansur al-Hallaj (c. 858–952 CE) believed that only
Allah (God) truly existed. God’s “Is-ness” overwhelmed the world and the human self, such

94 MACMILLAN INTERDISCIPLINARY HANDBOOKS

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
 Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

that it was idolatry even to say “I” (for there is no independent existence outside of God).
Al-Hallaj could only participate in the Is-ness of God. In effect, if he was to exist at all, he
could only be God, to exist as God, and—from the cross on which he was crucified—cry
out with God’s voice: “I am the Truth!”
The plethora of gods, spirits, ghosts, jinn, genies, angels, devils, sprites, and different
persons of the godhead indicates that, for most advocates of monotheism, God is not
mathematically one. Rather, the divine being is a fullness containing different aspects in
which humans can participate. Trinitarian monotheism is one way to express the fullness of
the one God, as is Egyptian henotheism (the worship of one god among people who believe
in many gods), and Greek philosophical monotheism (which recognized a range of
mediating divinities). In these systems, divinity—though often professed to be one or
focused on a single being—actually includes an extended family of gods.
The family model of godhead is nicely expressed in Mormon deification. In Mormon
theology, humans are already part of God’s family or gene pool. Mormons might be accused
of diminishing God’s transcendence, but they have a ready response. Humans, though of
the same species as God, never attain the status of God the father. Even in eternity, they
always persist as subordinate deities, not the supreme God, whose greatness remains
inexpressible.

SELF-DEIFICATION

One of the more prickly forms of deification is self-deification. Self-deifiers actually make
the claim to be god or in some way attempt to engineer their own godhood. Self-deification
is typically associated with megalomaniacs and madmen, but these associations usually
proceed from rhetorical attacks on self-deifiers. In the Bible, for instance, self-deifiers like
Lucifer are depicted as rebels against a high God. Lucifer says in his heart:
I will ascend to the heavens.
Above the stars of God I will raise my throne.…
I will rise over the heights of cloud.
I will be like the Most High! (Isa 14:13–14)

Often the attempt to be like God is valorized. In this story, however, God immediately
throws Lucifer down into “the depths of the pit” (v. 15).
But Lucifer’s plans indicate that not all is well in God’s self-constructed Camelot. Some
of God’s subjects hold him to be a tyrant, and one wonders if they are right. If God was so
good and just, why would Lucifer wish to rebel at all? Lucifer became jealous, perhaps, of
God’s absolute power. But if God was willing to share this power in the first place, perhaps
jealousy might not have entered the divine choir.
Self-deification is a power grab. But the power grab is made necessary by an extreme
and dangerous concentration of power. It may be true that God is love (to use Christian
language). But if so, why does he reserve all the power for himself—doling out privileges
only to those who submit to him? As long as there is absolute monarchy in heaven, there is
the potential for tyranny on earth. The very structure of radical inequality above justifies
social inequalities below. The very structure of monarchial monotheism calls forth
rebellion.

RELIGION: SUPER RELIGION 95

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

GNOSTIC DEIFICATION

Gnostic Christians (i.e., early Christians who claimed some special knowledge, or gnosis)
pointed out an embarrassing fact for their co-religionists who read the Hebrew Bible as scripture.
The primary self-deifier in Jewish sacred texts is not Lucifer, but YHWH—the Jewish god himself.
It is YHWH who peremptorily proclaims: “I, even I, am he; there is no god besides me!” (Deut
32:39); “I am God and there is no other!” (Isa 46:9). Not only does YHWH proclaim himself to
be god, he attacks and attempts to exclude the deity of others. It seems no wonder that gnostics
could not accept the claims of this angry, jealous god. The writer of the Secret Book of John
logically asks the question: if god is one, “of whom would he be jealous?” (13.9–13).
Ancient gnostics (many of whom were Christians) proposed their own theory of
deification. They posited an intimate relation between a lower, immanent self, and a higher,
divine Self. Augustine, in his Confessions, wrote that assimilation to (or integration into)
one’s higher Self may come “in the flash of one tremulous glance” (7.17.23), but in most
cases the cultivation of one’s divine Self is a lifelong process. It is a process of recollection:
remembering who one truly is, and thus becoming who one truly is. Out of the self’s own
reflexive awareness of its divinity, the process of deification occurs.
Gnostic technologies of the self support contemplative, ethical, and ritual acts not of
self-renunciation (since the fleshly body is not the true self), but of Self-realization. The
human self realizes itself as divine Self. Such practices are the instrumental causes of
deification. They grow out of the Self-recognition of one’s inward divinity, and are means to
an end. The purpose of assimilation is to realize oneself as the divine Self (which is higher
than the social self, or any possible human self-conception).
The Gnostic Savior (who is often Jesus) may come to the self as other, but he (or she)
also comes as the fullest manifestation of the Self. As in other forms of deification, the Savior
is the god to whom one conforms. But since the Savior is also the higher Self, the gnostic
truly becomes who he or she fundamentally is.
We can thus isolate three elements of gnostic deification: (1) the presence of divinity in
the human being, (2) ritual, moral, and contemplative practices of Self-recognition, and (3)
integration into a higher Self (identical with the Savior). The last element can be achieved in
moments of ecstatic contemplation, but full attainment must typically await the final
separation of soul and body at death.
For example, the Gospel of Thomas (first to second century CE) proposes that humans
have a divine core. This core is spoken of as light. Jesus says that “there is light existing
within a person of light, and it enlightens the whole world. If he does not shine, he [or it,
i.e., the world] is darkness” (saying 24, cf. Matt 5:14). What signals the divine character of
the light is its power to illumine the entire world (cf. John 8:12, where Jesus says, “I am the
light of the world”).
Logically, salvation involves discovering and cultivating this inward light, thereby
increasing its luminosity. Since the light is within, it is discovered through reflexive practices
of Self-knowledge. Jesus says, “When you know yourselves, then you will be known, and
you will understand that you are children of the living father” (saying 4). Self-knowledge
does not mean that one knows oneself as an independent deity, but as a child of God.
Self-knowledge is a necessary cause for salvation, but it is not sufficient. Jesus says:
“When you produce that [which is] in you, what you have will save you’” (saying 70).

96 MACMILLAN INTERDISCIPLINARY HANDBOOKS

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
 Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

Salvation is the realization of what is already possessed; it is Self-realization. Nevertheless, it

is assumed that the Savior kick-starts the process of Self-knowledge. The main speaker in the
Gospel of Thomas is Jesus. Without him, one would find neither wisdom nor the light
within.
Jesus does not flesh out the exact mechanisms of Self-knowledge. They likely involve
practices of subordinating the body as the false self. There is evidently a contemplative
reading practice: the seeker must thoughtfully read and investigate the sayings of Jesus
(saying 1). Why this investigation constitutes Self-investigation becomes clear when the
reader understands the intimate relation between the Self and Savior.
The Gospel of Thomas envisions a kind of identification between the divine Jesus and the
seeker. No verse more starkly expresses this identification than saying 108: “Jesus said, ‘He
who will drink from my mouth will become as I am. I myself shall become he, and the
things that are hidden will be revealed to him.’” Here the identification between Jesus and
the elect occurs through a kind of intimate kiss whereby the waters of life flow from Jesus’s
mouth to the mouth of the disciple.
Since the Savior is the true Self, salvation is a process of identifying with the Savior to
restore one’s transcendent identity. In The Gospel of Thomas, the elect identify with Jesus,
but it is not Jesus, the Jew from Galilee, who is important in this process. From a gnostic
point of view, the quest for the historical Jesus (which Albert Schweitzer exposed as
European man’s self-quest) is the pursuit of the wrong mythology. Jesus is important
because he is the reality of the true Self. The sayings of Jesus, which are revelations from the
true Self, thus logically manifest the divine S/self of the seeker.
To use another image from The Gospel of Thomas: Jesus and the seeker are spiritual twins.
Thomas, called Didymos (Twin), is himself the model of a greater, spiritual twinship. In The
Book of Thomas the Contender, Jesus does not consider it right that his twin be ignorant of
himself: “For he who has not known himself has known nothing, but he who has known
himself has at the same time already achieved knowledge about the Depth of the All”
(138.10–12, 16–18). As the twin of the seeker, Jesus provides the mirror of self-knowledge.
By looking at Jesus, the seeker looks into himself, and understands “the Depth of the All” (or
the fullness of God, which Jesus mediates and represents). Yet ultimately, the twinship
metaphor breaks down. Jesus and the seeker are more than non-identical repetitions of the
same genetic code. They are one Self, one divine image. As Jesus says: “I shall become him.”

TECHNO-DEIFICATION

In the modern world, technology is a very real way of attaining at least a limited deification
for those with the means to purchase it. Some modern prophets claim that within the near
future the advance of technology will in fact provide what was formerly considered to be
solely a divine prerogative: a healthy, vibrant life—with no end.
Among these techno-optimists are the transhumanists. Transhumanism is a broad
movement that has developed over the past thirty years. According to Max More (1964–)
on the Humanity+ website, “Transhumanism is a class of philosophies of life that seek the
continuation and acceleration of the evolution of intelligent life beyond its currently human
form and human limitations by means of science and technology, guided by life-promoting
principles and values” (“Philosophy”).

RELIGION: SUPER RELIGION 97

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

Speaking from the perspective of evolutionary biology and biotechnology, transhuma-

nists believe that “the human species in its current form does not represent the end of our
development but rather a comparatively early phase” (Bostrom 2012). Biological evolution
has taken humans far, but it can only bring them part of the way. Guided by the hand of
natural selection, people need only live long enough to generate progeny that are healthy
and adapted to their environment. Currently there is no evolutionary mechanism favoring a
longer, healthier life after the peak of humanity’s reproductive years. Now, however,
humans have the capacity to take evolution into their own hands.
Technology, according to the transhumanists, is the great mechanism for the next step
of human evolution. If present technologies already slow the breakdown of the body,
transhumanists believe that future technologies can be used to stop degradation altogether.
Extended health, expanded cognition, and even immortality can be obtained by
technological means. The end goal is nothing short of transcending the human (biological)
condition as we know it. The result is what transhumanists call the posthuman (the
technologically transformed human that arises after the current human species).
Though variously defined, the posthuman is, in essence, a being that so radically exceeds
the capacities of present people as to be no longer unambiguously human by current standards.
Part flesh and part machine, the posthuman will be a type of cybernetic organism, or in techno-
speech, a cyborg. Whatever the exact shape of the posthuman, such a being will have advanced
far beyond present human beings. As far as humans exceed apes, we are told, so far will the
posthuman mind outpace the current state of cognition. No longer restricted by the limitations
of flesh, the posthuman will be disease-resistant and ageless, bursting with boundless energy,
and in full control over moods and mental states. Unsurprisingly, such a grand vision of human
destiny has led some writers to envision the posthuman as a kind of god.
For transhumanists, imagining oneself as one with God now or living godlike lives in
some postmortem fairyland (e.g., heaven) is not enough: radical technological modifications
to human brains and bodies are required. Flesh and silicon must cooperate and act as one
organism. Cognition, booted up with advanced technology, must run at a faster speed.
Hunger, sickness, and even death must be eliminated from the human condition.
The posthuman is not a machine that is different from ourselves, infinitely smarter than
the human race, and bent on destroying it. The god(s) we create will still be ourselves
enhanced by technologies that become part of our bodies. It is even possible, according to
Ray Kurzweil (1948–), that, with the advance of scanning technology, our brains could be
xeroxed down to the last neuron and our consciousness uploaded onto a vast network that
connects all our brains to an over-arching cyber intelligence. In this state, humans would
have the opportunity to infinitely expand their cognitive capabilities in a vast kingdom of
knowledge. Swimming in the paradise of virtual reality, humans could also achieve
cybernetic immortality.
Admittedly, transhumanists can be portrayed as rebelling against nature. They point
out, however, that what is natural is not always desirable. Racism, sexism, and class
inequality were once viewed as natural. It is not rebellion to envision—and create—a better
world. Technology can increase inequality, but it can also help eliminate basic inequalities:
making the paralyzed mobile, the hungry full, the purblind see, the genetically impaired
person healthy and vibrant. Transhumanists are committed to reducing the prohibitive costs
of medical procedures that allow miracle cures, and (in the future) they vow to give all
people freedom to accept or deny enhancements.

98 MACMILLAN INTERDISCIPLINARY HANDBOOKS

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
 Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

As a form of utopianism, transhumanism resonates with religious visions. It is part of

the Christian story, for instance, to believe that this world is fallen or incomplete. Death is
not God’s design; nature groans for redemption. The final vision is of a new heaven and a
new earth where justice reigns. Jesus told his followers that those who live in heaven will be
like or equal to the angels (Luke 20:36). Paul promised his converts a future transfiguration
in which human bodies would become pneumatic (i.e., made of spirit) and ascend to the
stars (1 Cor 15:44–52). The kingdom of God is in fact a renewed earth where death, crying,
and pain will be no more.
In sum, it is part of the West’s religious heritage to envision a transformation of our
nature and our world into a state transcending its current condition. Transcendence is built
into Western religious thought. The question is how we attain it. Do we take the ultimate
gamble and sacrifice our lives for a supernatural dream, or use every opportunity to extend
what is already intrinsically and infinitely valuable—life on earth?
Although it may be selfish to will one’s own eternity, the vision of the posthuman is not
necessarily individualistic. Posthumans will not simply sit contemplating the magnificence
of their own consciousness. They will together make up a renewed society. A new creation
within implies the kingdom of God without. Humans hooked up to the same cybernetic
interface will in fact be supremely together—perhaps even cognitively one.
The major religious objection to transhumanism is hubris: it is prideful to make oneself
posthuman. Yet this objection too often assumes a jealous god resentful of humans attaining
his status (even though people were made in God’s image), and that humans are born to
rebel against an all-powerful suzerain. Such a picture of deity and humanity, although
popular among fundamentalists, is not the view of mainstream Christianity. In fact,
Christian theology from Paul to Palamas, from Luther to the Latter-day Saints, has
presented a God open to sharing divinity. Human deification, in these thinkers at least, is
not God’s dismay, but the divine design.
Now and in the future, human nature will have to be constantly renegotiated and
redefined. But self-definition is part of human creativity. One of the greatest gifts humans
have is the ability to construct themselves and their own identities. We might even say that
the very fact that humans have the freedom to construct and choose their identity
constitutes their existence as God’s image.

DEIFICATION AS MUTATION

Inevitably, however, humans search for cheaper and more universal means of deification. In
the modern world, the idea of mutation generally fits the bill. Mutation has the advantage of
being natural (that is, occurring through natural processes of genes combining and
recombining). Mutation, at least in the mythology of Marvel comics, can also be artificially
engineered through directed or accidental radiation. In this mythology, radiation is not the
death-dealing wave that decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but a kind of occult,
transformative energy. Eastern Christians have spoken of participating in divine energies for
centuries. The energy of radiation is now suffused with the aura of divinity.
In theory, at least, mutation is a democratic means of deification, since all biological
evolution occurs through mutation that helps to adapt a species to its environment.
Humans are all evolving or can evolve into higher states. The issue of controlled evolution is

RELIGION: SUPER RELIGION 99

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

politically more sensitive. Suffice it to say that scientists have not yet learned how to deify
anyone in the lab by granting them superpowers. Nonetheless, Marvel comics—and the
superhero industry in general—have helped human societies think seriously about natural
and directed deification in the modern world, as well its social and political repercussions.
Unfortunately, some mutants become heroes (like Charles Xavier in X-Men), while others
become villains (like Magneto). Further reflection on humanity’s moral evolution is
something greatly desired.

A PROVISIONAL TYPOLOGY

In sum, there are many modes of deification. The question then becomes, how do we
organize them? There is a whole set of criteria for creating a typology of deification, that is,
for creating a scheme of different types. Throughout this essay, I have tried to avoid
hackneyed dualisms between God and self, grace and works, inner potential and external aid
that already Christianize the material and often lead to facile conclusions. In many models
of deification, the boundary between God and self is quite fluid, grace is not opposed to
works, and divine gifts are built into the human self.
One must realize that every typology of deification involves a certain simplification.
Nevertheless, taxonomy is necessary for knowledge, and so a nondistorting simplification
must be sketched here. The one dynamic that seems to be genuinely present in all models of
deification is that between otherness and difference. In some models of deification, deity
remains other (even wholly other); in other models, deity and humanity even share the same
identity. Intermediate theories of deification promote a version of interpenetration in which
deity and humanity retain their distinct identities.
We can think more concretely of these three types of deification in terms of the Stoic
theory of mixture. The Stoics were a group of philosophers in the ancient Mediterranean
who flourished from about 250 BCE to 150 CE. They identified three basic types of
mixture: composition (parathesis), blending (krasis), and fusion (sugchusis) (Stobaeus,
Anthology, 1.17.4). Composition is the juxtaposition of two or more entities. Pebbles in a
heap, for instance, are mixed by composition. Blending is the complete interpenetration
(antiparektasin di’ holōn) of two or more entities that preserve their peculiar qualities. The
example commonly given is wine mixed with water. The ancients thought that wine
retained its essential characteristics in water since when an oiled sponge was lowered into the
mixture, the water separated from the wine and was soaked up in the sponge. The final form
of mixture is fusion, defined in Stobaeus as “the transformation (metabolē) of two or more
qualities in bodies to produce another quality different from them.” The ancients considered
this transformation to occur when, for example, medical drugs were mixed with perfumes.
Traditionally, scholars have attempted to understand deification through the concept of
union with God. The problem of union language is its vagueness: it could refer to
composition, blending, or fusion. Using the Stoic theory of mixture helps to parse out the
differences in the models. Yet since blending and fusion carry negative nuances, it is better
to generate new categories using more neutral language. I propose, then, that deification can
be (1) thetic, (2) kratic, or (3) metabolic.
Thetic deification is relatively easy to understand. It is the deification of proximity or
intimate relation: deity and humanity are closely juxtaposed but still divided in their
fundamental natures. Kratic deification expresses what Christians call divine inhabitation or

100 MACMILLAN INTERDISCIPLINARY HANDBOOKS

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
 Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

perichoresis (a Greek term denoting the interweaving and circular motion of dancers). It
refers, that is, to the realistic union of God and human beings without compromising their
individuality. Perichoresis allows for interpenetration—even interpenetration of being—but
(at least in theory) we could still pull apart deity and humanity after their union and make
them distinct again. Metabolic deification, by contrast, involves a full transformation of
humanity into deity.
Recall from the Stoic definition that the metabolic is the only type of mixture that
involves a true transformation (metabolē) of quality. The transformation can be conceived of
in at least three ways: (1) the human becomes or evolves into a god (i.e., an immortal and
superhumanly powerful being), (2) the human realizes an essential union with God that is
already a pre-established fact (as in gnostic thought), and (3) the human enters into
indistinct union with deity such that God truly becomes all in all. In short, the three types
of metabolic deification are deification by (1) graduation, (2) realization, and (3) absorption.
By calling only one type of deification metabolic, I do not wish to suggest that kratic
deification does not involve some sort of transformation—it simply does not entail
transformation of humanity into deity. In thetic and kratic deification, god and deified
humans (somewhat paradoxically) remain two separable kinds of being. In metabolic
deification, the human is truly transferred to the level or class of god or divine being. The
human changes, in other words, from a human to a divine identity. This, we might say, is
deification in its purest form.
In metabolic deification, nevertheless, a relation with deity is still possible if we
distinguish between a higher, primal deity, and a lesser, mediate deity. For instance, in
Christian deification, one can completely share the identity and essence of Christ (the
mediate deity) while theoretically maintaining a relation with the father or primal deity. In
other words, one can become a god while still being in relation to a higher, more primal
deity.
When deity is conceived of as one and inclusive, a true indistinct union with deity in its
fullness is made possible. That is to say, in the models of realization and absorption, the
notion of relation becomes superfluous because humanity and deity become essentially and
indistinguishably one.
The second Hebrew Creation story (Gen 2–3) seems to define deification in terms of
transgression. Adam became godlike only when he disobeyed YHWH and ate of the tree of
knowledge (Gen 3). To be sure, deification involves transcending certain imposed and self-
imposed boundaries. The thrill of such transcendence (itself a type of transgression) has
provided deification with an enduring fascination throughout history. Due to our nominal
monotheism in the West, we have in general ceased to call superhuman figures gods and
prefer terms like hero, superhero, dragon lord, or what have you. But the gods are always with
us. The words that Thales spoke millennia ago remain true today: Panta mesta theōn (“All
things are full of gods!”). The emperor Julian (330–363) stated it more floridly: “When the
soul gives all it has to the gods …—for all things are in the gods and subsist in their presence
and all things are full of gods—then at once divine light emblazons souls and they are made
divine (theōtheisai)” (Oration 5, 178b).
People who are religiously unmusical might think of the world as a disenchanted place.
But to most people, the sacred is everywhere. Or rather: it has the potential to be everywhere
inasmuch as the human imagination has the power to bring order out of chaos, light out of

RELIGION: SUPER RELIGION 101

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
Chapter 6: Becoming Gods

darkness, and something from nothing. Deification is exciting because it is not just ideas,
institutions, objects, or rites that are constituted as sacred—it is human beings themselves.
Consequently, deification has enormous implications for human morality. If we
imagine the world from humanity’s astounding potential, we truly do behold a world full of
gods. The fact that humans can be deified—or simply imagine deification—indicates that
they are, even now, beings of sacred worth. To lift one’s hand against a fellow human is thus
not only an act of injustice, but of sacrilege.
The human imagination has always been the chief means to transcendence.
Imagination is infinitely diverse in practice, but it is also one of those rare human
universals. It is our very act of creating ourselves as deiform that helps us to transcend our
limits. Deification, in the end, is not just an individualistic power trip; it is a beautiful and
socially relevant form of self-creation. Whatever its physical or metaphysical truth,
deification is a concrete and enduring way that humans present their sense of infinite
significance to themselves. Yes, deification is an act of fantasy, insofar as it is a product of the
human imagination. But the imagination, that surprising gift of evolution, is well honed to
transform the self and society in a way most supremely and wonderfully real.

Summary
Throughout time, people have not been satisfied to merely reflect upon the supernatural
worlds that they imagine, they have wanted to become supernatural. They have not desired to
be mere voyeurs of fantasy, but to play an active part in the fantastic universes they have
created. Such people have not simply yearned to hear and behold the gods—they HAVE
wanted to be gods. This chapter is an introduction to deification (becoming god or godlike) in
the ancient and modern worlds. Inquiry is made into what a god is, what kinds of gods
humans typically become, and how the deifying transformation takes place. Brief case studies
serve as examples for different forms of deification: political, technological, Christian, magical,
and gnostic. After a provisional typology of deification is offered, a brief conclusion explores
the continuing Western fascination with deification and its moral implications.

Bibliography
Apuleius. The Golden Ass. Translated by Sarah Ruden. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011.
Aquinas, Thomas. Summa Contra Gentiles. Notre Dame, IN:
University of Notre Dame Press, 1975.
Athanasius of Alexandria. On the Incarnation. Translated by
John Behr. Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary, 2011.
Charlesworth, James H. The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha,
2 Vols. New York: Doubleday, 1985.
Christensen, Michael J., and Jeffrey A. Wittung. Partakers of
the Divine Nature: The History and Development of
Deification in the Christian Traditions. Grand Rapids, MI:
Baker Academic, 2007.

Augustine. Confessions. Edited by Carolyn J.-B. Hammond.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2014.
Blondell, Ruby. Helen of Troy: Beauty, Myth, Devastation.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Bostrom, Nick. “Transhumanist FAQ: General Introduction.”
2012. http://www.nickbostrom.com/views/transhumanist
.pdf.
Chrysostom, Dio. Orations. Edited by D. A. Russell. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1992.
Cicero, Marcus Tulius. On the Republic, and on the Laws.
Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2014.
Cole, Spencer. Cicero and the Rise of Deification at Rome.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013.

102 MACMILLAN INTERDISCIPLINARY HANDBOOKS

COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210

Epictetus. Discourses. Translated by Robert F. Dobbin. New
York: Oxford University Press, 1998.
Gradel, Ittai. Emperor Worship and Roman Religion. Oxford:
Clarendon, 2002.
Houghton, Arthur, Catharine Lorber, and Brian Kritt. Seleucid
Coins: A Comprehensive Catalogue, Part I. London:
Classical Numismatic Group, 2002.
Ignatius of Antioch. “The Letters of Ignatius.” In The
Apostolic Fathers, translated by Bart D. Ehrman. Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004.
Janowitz, Naomi. Icons of Power: Ritual Practices in Late
Antiquity. University Park: Pennsylvania State University
Press, 2002.
Janowitz, Naomi. Magic in the Roman World: Pagans, Jews,
and Christians. London: Routledge, 2001.
Knowles, Christopher. Our Gods Wear Spandex: The Secret
History of Comic Book Heroes. San Francisco: Weiser,
2007.
Kripal, Jeffrey J. Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction,
Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal. Chicago: Uni-
versity of Chicago Press, 2011.
Litwa, M. David. Becoming Divine: An Introduction to
Deification in Western Culture. Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2013.
Meyer, Marvin W. The Nag Hammadi Scriptures: The
International Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 2007.
Miller, Patrick Lee. Becoming Divine: Pure Reason in Early
Greek Philosophy. London: Continuum, 2011.
RELIGION: SUPER RELIGION
COPYRIGHT 2017 Macmillan Reference USA, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning WCN 02-200-210
Chapter 6: Becoming Gods
More, Max. “Philosophy.” 2012. http://humanityplus.org
/philosophy/philosophy-2/.
Morgan, Ben. On Becoming God: Late Medieval Mysticism
and the Modern Western Self. New York: Fordham
University Press, 2013.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Antichrist + Fragments from a
Shattering Mind. Translated by Domino Falls. London:
Solar Books, 2007.
Philo. Philo Volume IX: Every Good Man Is Free. Translated
by F. H. Colson. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University
Press, 1941.
Russell, Norman. The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek
Patristic Tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Williams, A. N. The Ground of Union: Deification in Aquinas
and Palamas. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999.
FILMS
Hulk. Dir. Ang Lee. 2003. Scientist transforms himself into a
virtually all-powerful monster.
Lucy. Dir. Luc Besson. 2014. A woman gains psycho-kinetic
abilities from a mind-altering drug.
Transcendence. Dir. Wally Pfister. 2014. Scientist uploads
his consciousness into a computer and onto the Internet.
Transcendent Man: The Life and Ideas of Ray Kurzweil. Dir.
Barry Ptolemy. 2011. Documentary covering issues of
biological immortality and the uploading of human
consciousness.
103