Clement of Alexandria
If one knows himself, he will know God, and knowing God will become like God…. His is beauty, true beauty, for it is God, and that man becomes a god, since God wills it. So Heraclitus was right when he said, “Men are gods, and gods are men.”
HippolytusYou will be a companion of God, and a co-heir with Christ . . . For you have become divine . . . God has promised to bestow these upon you, for you have been deified and begotten unto immortality.
Pierre Teilhard de ChardinA very real “pantheism” if you like (in the etymological meaning of the word) but an absolutely legitimate pantheism—for if, in the last resort, the reflective centers of the world are effectively “one with God,” this state is obtained not by identification (God becoming all) but by the differentiating and communicating action of love (God all in everyone ).
Elicia A. GristWhen we take into consideration the many opportunities and various ways of usefulness, and the amount of good that may be accomplished by us who are engaged in so great a cause, some of you may feel that it is not our prerogative to interfere in the least, or to take one step towards building up the kingdom of God. But I feel that it is a mistaken idea to suppose that we cannot perform acts that would ennoble our character and position, when we are so nearly allied to the brethren of the priesthood, and they are required to use strenuous efforts to advance the cause of God.
It leads us to the endless and perfect end, teaching us beforehand the future life that we shall lead, according to God, and with gods; after we are freed from all punishment and penalty which we undergo, in consequence of our sins, for salutary discipline.
The man of God is consequently divine and is already holy. He is God-bearing and God-borne.
Yea, I say, the Word of God became a man so that you might learn from a man how to become a god.