Aquinas on Divinisation

All sorts of people desire to have a different kind of life. Christians propose that Jesus Christ offers the grace to have a life very different from what we have at birth. St. Thomas Aquinas, following Scripture and witnesses in the Christian tradition, uses deification language to describe this different kind of life. For example, Aquinas says, ‘The gift of grace surpasses every capability of created nature, since it is nothing short of partaking of the divine nature, which exceeds every other nature’ (Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 112, a. 1, co.; cf. 2 Pet 1:4). He also says, ‘The good of grace in one is more than the good of nature in the whole universe’ (Summa Theologiae I-II, q. 113, a. 9, ad 2). Do non-Christians realize that the Christian invitation is that radical? Do Christians? This talk explores what deification means for Aquinas—and what it can mean for us.

Rev Dr Andrew Hofer, OP

Father Andrew Hofer, OP grew up as the youngest of ten children on a Kansas farm. He entered the Dominican Province of St. Joseph in 1995 and professed simple vows the following year. He made his profession of solemn vows in the Great Jubilee Year of 2000, and was ordained a deacon in 2001 and a priest in 2002.

Father Andrew is on sabbatical in fall 2019 as a visiting lector at the Blackfriars Studium, Oxford and in spring 2020 as a visiting fellow at Yale Divinity School. During this sabbatical, he is at work on a book tentatively titled Patristic Preaching: The Word of God Becoming Flesh, funded by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship’s Teacher-Scholar grant.