Abbreviations; Introduction: The Logic and History of Deification in Pauline Research; Transcendence and Deification in Hellenistic Religion; The "Otherness" of Deification; Paul and Deification; History of Research; Recent Research on Paul and Deification; Results; The Method of this Study; Conclusion: A Working Definition of Deification, and Issues of Clarification; Part I: The Context of Deification in Paul; Chapter 1: What is a God? Defining Divinity in the Greco-Roman World; Introduction; Formulating the Right Question; Divinity in the Greco-Roman World; Immortality; Power.

Power, Divinity, and KingsAncient Jewish Conceptions of Divinity; The Pauline Understanding of Divinity; Conclusion; Chapter 2: Survey of Deification: Assimilation to Specific Deities; Introduction; The Greek Vocabulary of Deification; Evaluation; Deification in Homer; Deification in Hesiod, Pindar, and the Homeric Poets; Historical Precursors to Ruler Cult; Deification in the Ruler Cult; Philip II; Demetrius Poliorcetes; Ruler Cult in Ptolemaic Egypt; Ptolemaic Assimilation to Dionysus; Background on Dionysus-Osiris; The Beginnings of Roman Ruler Cult: Marc Antony's Assimilation to Dionysus.

ConclusionChapter 3 : The Jewish Roots of Deification; Introduction: Jews and Greeks on the Boundaries Between the Human and the Divine; The Biblical Roots of Deification; The Meaning of Iconic Similarity; The Glorified Moses in Philo; Sharing God's Divine Sovereignty: The Divinity of Israelite Kings; Conclusion; Part II Sharing the Divine Identity; Chapter 4: Divine Corporeality and the Pneumatic Body; Introduction; The Bodies of the Gods; From the Glory Body to the Pneumatic Body; The Problem at Corinth; The Nature of Paul's Pneumatic Body.

Comparison of the Pauline Pneumatic Body with the Stoic SoulCelestial Immortality; Celestial Immortality in Jewish Sources; Paul and Celestial Immortality; Chapter 5: Divine Corporeality and Deification; Introduction; Celestial Immortality as Deification; The Divinity of the Heavens; The Human Pneuma as a Divine Reality; Deification in Paul; Connaturality; Conclusion; Chapter 6: Deification and the Cosmic Rule of the Saints; Introduction; The Battle of the Gods: Cultural Antecedents; Paul's Myth of Battling Gods; The Rule of the Saints in Pre-Christian Judaism.

Paul and the Promise of Eschatological LordshipResults: The Question of Deification; Conclusion; Chapter 7: Paul and Moral Assimilation to God; Introduction; Platonic Assimilation to God; Virtue and Deification; The Mode of Deification through Moral Virtue; Paul, Virtue, Self-Transcendence, and the Question of Deification; Deepening the Comparison; Paul and Assimilation to God; 2 Corinthians 3:18 as Moral Assimilation to God; Conclusion; Part III: Addressing the Challenges: Monotheism and Divine Transcendence; Chapter 8: Monotheism and Divine Multiplicity.

Problematizing Exclusivist Monotheism.

Can Pauline soteriology be categorized as a form of deification? This book attempts to answer this question by keen attention to the Greco-Roman world. Deification, it is argued, provides a new historical category of perception by which to deepen our knowledge of the Apostle's soteriological thought in its own time. The range of topics discussed here should interest a wide array of scholars in the fields of Hebrew Bible, New Testament, Classics, and Patristics.

Print version record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

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