‘In the synagogue of gods’: Augustine’s Notion of Deification in Sermon 23B (Mainz 13)

Huian, Georgiana (2021). ‘In the synagogue of gods’: Augustine’s Notion of Deification in Sermon 23B (Mainz 13). Studia patristica, 102, pp. 191-204. Peeters Publishers

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In the recently discovered Sermon 23B (Dolbeau 6, Mainz 13), dated to the winter of 403-404 and probably preached in Carthage, we find interesting considerations on the deification of the human being. Commenting on Ps. 81 (82):1: ‘God has stood up in the synagogue of gods’, Augustine highlights that human vocation is, despite our mortality and infirmity, to tend to divinity, and that deification is a possibility opened with the Incarnation of the Son of God (S. 23B.1). Augustine explores here new ways of naming God according to his deifying power: ‘deifying God’, ‘god-making God’, ‘God not made making gods’ (S. 23B.2) and uses a refined vocabulary in relation to deification (deificator, deificus). In order to reveal the original aspects of this sermon, articulating Augustine’s mastery in both Biblical exegesis and preaching, I compare it with other writings where Augustine speaks of deification by transfiguration into what one loves (Ep. Io. Tr. 2.14), by becoming children of God (En. Ps. 49.2, 94.6), by seeing God (En. Ps. 49.2), by progressing into the loving knowledge of God (De Trinitate 9.11.16), or by achieving the eschatological perfection of the image of God in man (De Trinitate 14.19.25). In particular, I examine the image of ‘the synagogue of gods’ in connection to becoming god by participation or by grace (S. 23B.6, compared to En. Ps. 49.2; 94.6). I revisit the topic of idolatry as enhancing the likeness to senseless idols, as eclipsing the inner senses, and ruining the image of God in man (S. 23B.5). I also contextualize and interpret the metaphors of the goldsmith’s furnace (S. 23B.12) and oil press (S. 23B.15) as images related to the inner shaping of a true Christian and to the ‘time of discernment’.

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