True Lent Humility Starts with the Realization That You’re Divine

The only real sadness, the only real failure, the only great tragedy in life, is not to become a saint.

But what does it mean to be like gods according to Hadjadj’s The Resurrection, or rather, the Gospel? It is not to cover our ears like Gaugin’s “Breton Eve.” The serpent’s message is sound and biblical (remember, even demons believe!), however, the execution of that message in a Christlike manner is what makes all the difference:

If we were to strive to be like the God that the Scriptures speak to us about, we would be slow to anger and merciful, we would love every creature tenderly, we would be self-effacing so as to make room for it [every creature] and to communicate to it the freedom to come to us or to rebel, and we would pardon it even when it went so far as to crucify us unjustly . . . Nothing makes you humbler than to acknowledge that you are divine.

Here Hadjadj brings together an Augustinian reflection upon Original Sin together with the Eastern Christian doctrine of theosis, divinization, that is, deification, becoming like God. I imagine the ignorance of this ancient doctrine among modern Christians, especially those who might see them as conservative and traditional, will make them instinctually stumble over the title and substance of this post without reading most of it. I suppose that’s why Christ, the bringer of our deification, said, “blessed is the one who takes no offense at me.”

Again, the two aren’t mutually exclusive, even if it might come as a surprise that Augustine was the Western Father who relied upon notion of deification the most.

Terry Eagleton notes that this aspect of humanity, participating in the life of God, is much more demanding than any atheist pieties.

If you are thirsty to learn more about the doctrine of Original Sin, then read through Identity-Protective Cognition: Science Finally Discovers Original Sin?! and TOP10 Books for Explaining Original Sin to Interested Nonbelievers.

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