Art Depicting Complicated Names of Gods and Spiritual Leaders

Glorification of a discipline to divine level

This article is about the term "Apotheosis". For the film by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, see Apotheosis (pic). For the series past Douglas Hill, see Apotheosis (series). For word on the theory that a deity was once an actual living person, come across Euhemerism.

Apotheosis (from Aboriginal Greek ἀποθέωσις ( apothéōsis ), from ἀποθεόω/ἀποθεῶ ( apotheóō/apotheô ) 'to deify'), likewise called divinization or deification (from Latin deificatio  'making divine'), is the glorification of a subject area to divine levels and, usually, the treatment of a human beingness, any other living thing, or an abstract idea in the likeness of a deity. The term has meanings in theology, where it refers to a belief, and in art, where it refers to a genre.

In theology, apotheosis refers to the idea that an private has been raised to godlike stature. In art, the term refers to the handling of any subject (a figure, group, locale, motif, convention or melody) in a particularly grand or exalted mode.

Ancient Eye East [edit]

Before the Hellenistic period, royal cults were known in Ancient Egypt (pharaohs) and Mesopotamia (from Naram-Sin through Hammurabi). In the New Kingdom of Arab republic of egypt, all deceased pharaohs were deified as the god Osiris. The architect Imhotep was deified after his death.

Aboriginal Hellenic republic [edit]

From at least the Geometric period of the 9th century BC, the long-deceased heroes linked with founding myths of Greek sites were accorded chthonic rites in their heroon, or "hero-temple".

In the Greek globe, the starting time leader who accorded himself divine honours was Philip II of Macedon. At his wedding to his 6th married woman, Philip'due south enthroned image was carried in procession among the Olympian gods; "his example at Aigai became a custom, passing to the Macedonian kings who were later worshipped in Greek Asia, from them to Julius Caesar and so to the emperors of Rome".^[1] Such Hellenistic state leaders might be raised to a status equal to the gods before death (e.g., Alexander the Cracking) or afterwards (e.g., members of the Ptolemaic dynasty). A heroic cult status similar to embodiment was besides an honour given to a few revered artists of the afar by, notably Homer.

Primitive and Classical Greek hero-cults became primarily civic, extended from their familial origins, in the 6th century; by the fifth century none of the worshipers based their authority by tracing descent back to the hero, with the exception of some families who inherited particular priestly cults, such as the Eumolpides (descended from Eumolpus) of the Eleusinian mysteries, and some inherited priesthoods at oracle sites. The Greek hero cults tin be distinguished on the other hand from the Roman cult of dead emperors, because the hero was not thought of as having ascended to Olympus or get a god: he was beneath the earth, and his power purely local. For this reason, hero cults were chthonic in nature, and their rituals more closely resembled those for Hecate and Persephone than those for Zeus and Apollo. 2 exceptions were Heracles and Asclepius, who might be honoured every bit either gods or heroes, sometimes by chthonic dark-time rites and sacrifice on the post-obit day. 1 god considered as a hero to mankind is Prometheus, he secretly stole burn from Mt Olympus and introduced information technology to mankind.

Aboriginal Rome [edit]

Up to the end of the Republic, the god Quirinus was the simply one the Romans accepted as having undergone apotheosis, for his identification/syncretism with Romulus. (Run across Euhemerism).^[two] Subsequently, apotheosis in ancient Rome was a process whereby a deceased ruler was recognized as having been divine by his successor, usually besides by a decree of the Senate and popular consent. In improver to showing respect, often the present ruler deified a popular predecessor to legitimize himself and gain popularity with the people. The upper-class did not always take part in the imperial cult,^{[ citation needed ]} and some privately ridiculed the embodiment of inept and feeble emperors, as in the satire The Pumpkinification of (the Divine) Claudius, usually attributed to Seneca.

At the height of the royal cult during the Roman Empire, sometimes the emperor'southward deceased loved ones—heirs, empresses, or lovers, as Hadrian'southward Antinous—were deified too. Deified people were awarded posthumously the championship Divus (Diva if women) to their names to signify their divinity. Traditional Roman religion distinguished between a deus (god) and a divus (a mortal who became divine or deified), though non consistently. Temples and columns were erected to provide a infinite for worship.

In the Roman story Cupid and Psyche, Zeus gives the ambrosia of the gods to the mortal Psyche, transforming her into a god herself.

Ancient Red china [edit]

The Ming dynasty epic Investiture of the Gods deals heavily with deification legends. Numerous mortals accept been deified into the Taoist pantheon, such every bit Guan Yu, Iron-crutch Li and Fan Kuai. Vocal Dynasty General Yue Fei was deified during the Ming Dynasty and is considered by some practitioners to be ane of the three highest-ranking heavenly generals.^{[3] [four]}

Aboriginal Republic of india, Southeast Asia and North korea [edit]

Diverse Hindu and Buddhist rulers in the by have been represented equally deities, specially later death, from India to Indonesia.

Deceased N Korean leader Kim Il-Sung is the principal object of the North Korean cult of personality in which he is treated similarly to an explicitly apotheosized leader, with statues of and monuments dedicated to the "Eternal President", the annual commemoration of his birth, the paying of respects past newlyweds to his nearest statue,^[5] and the North Korean calendar being a Juche calendar based on Kim Il-sung'southward appointment of nativity.

Christianity [edit]

Instead of the give-and-take "apotheosis", Christian theology uses in English language the words "deification" or "divinization" or the Greek word "theosis". Pre-Reformation and mainstream theology, in both East and Westward, views Jesus Christ equally the preexisting God who undertook mortal existence, non equally a mortal being who attained divinity. It holds that he has made information technology possible for man beings to be raised to the level of sharing the divine nature: he became human to make humans "partakers of the divine nature"^{[vi] [ original research? ]} "For this is why the Word became homo, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, past inbound into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."^[seven] "For He was made man that we might be made God."^[8] "The only-begotten Son of God, wanting to brand united states of america sharers in his divinity, assumed our nature, so that he, made human being, might make men gods."^[ix]

The Westminster Lexicon of Christian Theology, authored by Anglican Priest Alan Richardson,^[x] contains the following in an article titled "Deification":

Deification (Greek theosis) is for Orthodoxy the goal of every Christian. Man, according to the Bible, is 'made in the prototype and likeness of God.'. . . It is possible for man to go like God, to go deified, to become god by grace. This doctrine is based on many passages of both OT and NT (e.thousand. Ps. 82 (81).6; 2 Peter 1.iv), and information technology is essentially the teaching both of St Paul, though he tends to employ the language of filial adoption (cf. Rom. 8.9–17; Gal. 4.v–7), and the Quaternary Gospel (cf. 17.21–23).

The language of II Peter is taken up by St Irenaeus, in his famous phrase, 'if the Word has been made human being, it is so that men may be fabricated gods' (Adv. Haer V, Pref.), and becomes the standard in Greek theology. In the 4th century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus about word for give-and-take, and in the fifth century, St. Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons 'by participation' (Greek methexis). Deification is the central idea in the spirituality of St. Maximus the Confessor, for whom the doctrine is the corollary of the Incarnation: 'Deification, briefly, is the encompassing and fulfillment of all times and ages,' . . . and St. Symeon the New Theologian at the end of the tenth century writes, 'He who is God by nature converses with those whom he has fabricated gods by grace, as a friend converses with his friends, confront to confront.'

Roman Cosmic Church building [edit]

The Roman Catholic Church does not use the term "apotheosis".

Corresponding to the Greek give-and-take theosis are the Latin-derived words "divinization" and "deification" used in the parts of the Catholic Church building that are of Latin tradition. The concept has been given less prominence in Western theology than in that of the Eastern Catholic Churches, but is nowadays in the Latin Church'due south liturgical prayers, such as that of the deacon or priest when pouring vino and a lilliputian water into the chalice: "By the mystery of this water and vino may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity."^[11] The Canon of the Cosmic Church quotes with approval Saint Athanasius's saying, "The Son of God became human and so that we might get God."^{[eight] [12]}

Catholic theology stresses the concept of supernatural life, "a new creation and pinnacle, a rebirth, it is a participation in and partaking of the divine nature"^[13] (cf. 2 Peter 1:iv). In Catholic teaching in that location is a vital distinction between natural life and supernatural life, the latter being "the life that God, in an human action of love, freely gives to human beings to drag them higher up their natural lives" and which they receive through prayer and the sacraments; indeed the Catholic Church sees human beingness as having every bit its whole purpose the conquering, preservation and intensification of this supernatural life.^[14]

Eastern Orthodox Church [edit]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints [edit]

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church building or Mormons), which believes itself to be the restored Church of Jesus Christ, believes in apotheosis forth the lines of the Christian tradition of divinization or deification but refers to it as exaltation, or eternal life, and considers it to be accomplished by "sanctification." They believe that people may live with God throughout eternity in families and eventually become gods themselves simply remain subordinate to God the Begetter, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. While the master focus of the LDS Church is on Jesus of Nazareth and his apologetic sacrifice for human being,^[15] Latter-24-hour interval Saints believe that ane purpose for Christ's mission and for his atonement is the exaltation or Christian deification of man.^[xvi] The third Article of Faith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints states that all men may exist saved from sin by the atonement of Jesus Christ, and LDS Gospel Doctrine (as published) states that all men will be saved and will be resurrected from expiry. Nevertheless, but those who are sufficiently obedient and take the atonement and the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ before the resurrection and last judgment volition be "exalted" and receive a literal Christian deification.

One pop Latter-day Saint quote, often attributed to the early Church leader Lorenzo Snow in 1837, is "As homo at present is, God one time was: As God now is, man may be."^{[17] [18]} The pedagogy was taught commencement by Joseph Smith while he was pointing to John five:19 in the New Testament; he said that "God himself, the Begetter of us all, dwelt on an globe, the same equally Jesus Christ himself did."^[nineteen] Many^{[ who? ]} LDS and non-LDS scholars also take discussed the correlation between Latter-twenty-four hours Saint conventionalities in exaltation and the ancient Christian theosis, or deification, as set along by early on Church Fathers.^{[18] [ folio needed ] [ tertiary-party source needed ] [ specify ]} Several^{[ who? ]} LDS and non-LDS historians specializing in studies of the early Christian Church as well claim that the Latter-day Saint belief in eternal progression is more than like to the aboriginal Christian deification as fix forth in numerous patristic writings of the 1st to 4th centuries Ad than the behavior of whatsoever other modern faith group of the Christian tradition.^{[18] [ page needed ] [ third-political party source needed ] [ unreliable source? ]}

Members of the Church believe that the original Christian belief in human'south divine potential gradually lost its meaning and importance in the centuries after the expiry of the apostles, equally doctrinal changes past mail service-apostolic theologians caused Christians to lose sight of the true nature of God and his purpose for creating humanity. The concept of God'south nature that was eventually accepted every bit Christian doctrine in the 4th century set divinity apart from humanity by defining the Godhead as three persons sharing a common divine substance. That classification of God in terms of a substance is not plant in scripture^{[20] [21]} merely, in many aspects, mirrored the Greek metaphysical philosophies that are known to have influenced the thinking of Church Fathers^[22] such every bit Justin Martyr, Origen, and Augustine. Mormons teach that by mod revelation, God restored the knowledge that he is the literal father of our spirits (Hebrews 12:9) and that the Biblical references to God creating mankind in his image and likeness are in no way allegorical. As such, Mormons assert that every bit the literal offspring of God the Male parent (Acts 17:28–29), humans accept the potential to be heirs of his glory and co-heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17). The celebrity, Mormons believe, lies non in God's substance merely in his intelligence: in other words, low-cal and truth (Doctrine and Covenants 93:36^[23]). Thus, the purpose of humans is to grow and progress to get like the Male parent in Heaven. Mortality is seen equally a crucial step in the process in which God's spirit children gain a body, which, though formed in the image of the Father'due south trunk, is subject area to pain, disease, temptation, and death. The purpose of this earth life is to learn to cull the right in the face of that opposition, thereby gaining essential experience and wisdom. The level of intelligence nosotros attain in this life will rising in the Resurrection (Doctrine and Covenants 130:xviii–19). Bodies will and so be immortal similar those of the Father and the Son (Philippians three:21), but the caste of glory to which each person will resurrect is contingent upon the Last Judgment (Revelation 20:13, 1 Corinthians 15:40–41). Those who are worthy to render to God's presence tin continue to progress towards a fullness of God's glory, which Mormons refer to equally eternal life, or exaltation (Doctrine and Covenants 76).

The LDS concept of apotheosis/exaltation is expressed in LDS scriptures (Mosiah iii:nineteen, Alma 13:12, D&C 78:7, D&C 78:22, D&C 84:4, D&C 84:23, D&C 88:68, D&C 93:28) and is expressed by a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles: "Though stretched by our challenges, by living righteously and indelible well we tin can eventually become sufficiently more like Jesus in our traits and attributes, that one twenty-four hours nosotros tin dwell in the Father's presence forever and e'er" (Neal Maxwell, October 1997).

In early 2014, the LDS church building published an essay on the official church website specifically addressing the foundations, history, and official beliefs regarding apotheosis.^[24] The essay addresses the scriptural foundations of this belief, teachings of the early on Church Fathers on the subject of deification, and the teachings of LDS church building leaders, starting with Joseph Smith.

Wesleyan Protestantism [edit]

Distinctively, in Wesleyan Protestantism theosis sometimes implies the doctrine of unabridged sanctification which teaches, in summary, that it is the Christian's goal, in principle possible to achieve, to live without whatsoever (voluntary) sin (Christian perfection). Wesleyan theologians detect the influence on Wesley from the Eastern Fathers, who saw the drama of salvation leading to the deification (embodiment) of the man, in order that the perfection that originally part of human nature in creation but distorted by the fall might bring fellowship with the divine.^[25]

In art [edit]

In art the matter is practical: the elevation of a figure to divine level entails sure conventions. And so it is that the apotheosis genre exists in Christian art as in other art. The features of the apotheosis genre may be seen in subjects that emphasize Christ'due south divinity (Transfiguration, Ascension, Christ Pantocrator) and that depict holy persons "in celebrity"—that is, in their roles every bit "God revealed" (Assumption, Ascension, etc.).

Apotheosis of George Washington

Later artists have used the concept for motives ranging from genuine respect for the deceased (Constantino Brumidi's fresco The Apotheosis of Washington on the dome of the Us Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.), to artistic comment (Salvador Dalí's or Ingres'southward The Apotheosis of Homer), to mock-heroic and burlesque apotheoses for comedic effect.

Many modern leaders have exploited the artistic imagery if non the theology of embodiment. Examples include Rubens's depictions of James I of England at the Banqueting House (an expression of the Divine Right of Kings) or Henry IV of France, or Appiani's apotheosis of Napoleon. The C. H. Niehaus-designed Apotheosis of St. Louis (Louis IX of France) became a symbol for St. Louis MO. The term has come up to be used figuratively to refer to the elevation of a dead leader (often one who was assassinated and/or martyred) to a kind of superhuman charismatic figure and an effective erasing of all faults and controversies which were continued with his name in life—for example, Abraham Lincoln in the US, Lenin in the USSR, Yitzchak Rabin in Israel, or Kim Jong-il in Democratic people's republic of korea.

In music [edit]

Apotheosis in music refers to the appearance of a theme in grand or exalted grade. Information technology represents the musical equivalent of the apotheosis genre in visual art, especially where the theme is continued in some way with historical persons or dramatic characters. When crowning the stop of a large-scale work the embodiment functions as a peroration, post-obit an analogy with the art of rhetoric.

Apotheosis moments abound in music, and the word itself appears in some cases. François Couperin wrote two apotheoses, one for Arcangelo Corelli (Le Parnasse, ou L'Apothéose de Corelli), and one for Jean Baptiste Lully (L'Apothéose de Lully). Hector Berlioz used "Apotheose" as the championship of the last movement of his Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale, a piece of work composed in 1846 for the dedication of a monument to France's war dead. Ii of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky'due south ballets, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker, incorporate apotheoses as finales; the same is true of Ludwig Minkus'due south La Bayadère. Igor Stravinsky composed two ballets, Apollo and Orpheus, which both contain episodes entitled "Apotheose". The terminal tableau of Maurice Ravel's Ma mère l'Oye is too titled "Apotheose." Czech composer Karel Husa, concerned in 1970 about arms proliferation and environmental deterioration, named his musical response Apotheosis for This Earth. Aram Khachaturian entitled a segment of his ballet Spartacus "Sunrise and Apotheosis." Richard Wagner, referring to the lively rhythms which permeate Ludwig van Beethoven'south Symphony No. seven, chosen it the "embodiment of the dance".^[26] Alexander Glazunov'south ballet The Seasons, Op.67 has equally the terminal movement:- Fall: Scene and Embodiment.

Musical theater has a tendency to employ apotheosis oft, although that can become hands confused with motif (narrative)s. I meta case of this is The Guy Who Didn't Similar Musicals, where musical theater itself is deified by the characters within the play, excluding the titular character.

In verse [edit]

Samuel Menashe (1925–2011) wrote a poem entitled Apotheosis, as did Barbara Kingsolver. Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) wrote Love, Poem 18: Apotheosis. The poet Dejan Stojanović's Dancing of Sounds contains the line, "Art is embodiment." Paul Laurence Dunbar wrote a poem entitled Dearest's Apotheosis. Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote a poem entitled "The Apotheosis, or the Snow-Driblet" in 1787.

In science [edit]

In an essay entitled The Limitless Power of Scientific discipline, Peter Atkins described science as an apotheosis, writing:

Science, above all, respects the power of the man intellect. Science is the embodiment of the intellect and the consummation of the Renaissance. Science respects more securely the potential of humanity than religion ever can.^[27]

See also [edit]

• Amaterasu
• Charismatic authority
• Cult of personality
• Divinization (Christian)
• Euhemerus
• Exaltation (Mormonism)
• Incarnation
• James Frazer, The Golden Bough
• Robert Graves, The White Goddess
• Hirohito
• Idolatry
• Royal cult
• List of people who accept been considered deities
• Roman emperor
• Religion in ancient Rome
• Sacred rex
• Theosis (Eastern Orthodox theology)
• Edward Burnett Tylor

References [edit]

1. ^ Robin Lane Pull a fast one on, Alexander the Great (1973:twenty)
2. ^ Garnett & Mackintosh 1911.
3. ^ Liu, James T. C. "Yueh Fei (1103–41) and People's republic of china'southward Heritage of Loyalty." The Periodical of Asian Studies. Vol. 31, No. 2 (Feb. 1972), pp. 291–297 [296]
4. ^ Wong, Eva. The Shambhala Guide to Taoism. Shambhala, 1996 ISBN 1570621691, p. 162
5. ^ [one], Photo of North Korean newlywed couples in their best attire bowing earlier the statues of Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il in Pyongyang, from Reddit.
6. ^ 2 Peter ane:4
7. ^ Irenaeus of Lyon, Adversus haereses, iii.19.1
8. ^ ^{a b} St. Athanasius, On the Incarnation of the Word 54.iii Archived 2007-07-22 at WebCite
9. ^ Thomas Aquinas, Opusc. 57, 1–four
10. ^ "Alan Richardson".
11. ^ The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church building (Oxford University Printing 2005 ISBN 978-0-19-280290-3), article "deification"
12. ^ Canon of the Catholic Church, 460 Archived Feb 16, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
13. ^ Heinrich Fries, Bultmann-Barth and Catholic theology (Duquesne University Press 1967), p. 160
14. ^ Stephen M. O'Brien, God and the Devil Are Fighting (City University of New York 2008 ISBN 978-0-549-61137-0), pp. 116–117
15. ^ Joseph Smith declared, "The central principles of our organized religion are the testimony of the Apostles and Prophets, concerning Jesus Christ, that He died, was cached, and rose once more the third solar day, and ascended into heaven; and all other things which pertain to our religion are only appendages to it" (Run into Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, sel. Joseph Fielding Smith [1976], 121).
16. ^ "Gospel Topics: Becoming Similar God", churchofjesuschrist.org, LDS Church
17. ^ Lund, Gerald Northward. (February 1982), "I Have a Question: Is President Lorenzo Snow's oft-repeated statement—"As human now is, God once was; as God now is, man may be"—accepted as official doctrine by the Church?", Ensign
18. ^ ^{a b c} Millet, Robert L.; Reynolds, Noel B. (1998), "Do Latter-day Saints believe that men and women can go gods?", Latter-day Christianity: 10 Basic Issues , Provo, Utah: Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, ISBN0934893322, OCLC 39732987
19. ^ Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, pp. 345–346.
20. ^ Thomas Mozley The creed or a philosophy, 1893 p. 303
21. ^ "Homoian Creed of Constantinople (360)". Archived from the original on 2014-09-25. Retrieved 2014-09-09 . (the wording of the Council of Constantinople (360) prohibited use of the terms "substance," "essence," and "ousia" since they were not included in the scriptures)
22. ^ "Trinity > History of Trinitarian Doctrines (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy)". plato.stanford.edu.
23. ^ "Doctrine and Covenants 93". ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
24. ^ Saints, The Church building of Jesus Christ of Latter Solar day. "Becoming Like God". ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
25. ^ https://oimts.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/oxfordnotes1-5.pdf^{[ bare URL PDF ]}
26. ^ Grove, Sir George (1962). Beethoven and his nine symphonies (tertiary ed.). New York: Dover Publications. pp. 228–271. OCLC 705665.
27. ^ Atkins, Peter (1995). The Limitless Ability of Science in: Nature's Imagination edited by John Cornwell. Oxford: Oxford Academy Printing. p. 125. ISBN0198517750.

Farther reading [edit]

• Boak, Arthur E.R. "The Theoretical Basis of the Deification of Rulers in Antiquity", in: Classical Journal vol. 11, 1916, pp. 293–297.
• Bömer, Franz. "Ahnenkult und Ahnenglaube im alten Rom", Leipzig 1943.
• Burkert, Walter. "Caesar und Romulus-Quirinus", in: Historia vol. 11, 1962, pp. 356–376.
• Engels, David. "Postea dictus est inter deos receptus. Wetterzauber und Königsmord: Zu den Hintergründen der Vergöttlichung frührömischer Könige", in: Gymnasium vol 114, 2007, pp. 103–130.
• Garnett, Richard; Mackintosh, Robert (1911). "Apotheosis". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 2 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 206–207.
• Kalakaua, David. "The Embodiment of Pele: The Adventures of the Goddess with Kamapuaa" in The Legends and Myths of Hawaii
• Rex, Stephen. "The Nighttime Tower: The Gunslinger
• Liou-Gille,Bernadette. "Divinisation des morts dans la Rome ancienne", in: Revue Belge de Philologie vol. 71, 1993, pp. 107–115.
• Richard, Jean-Claude. "Énée, Romulus, César et les funérailles impériales", in:Mélanges de 50'École française de Rome vol. 78, 1966, pp. 67–78.
• Subin, Anna Della. Adventitious Gods: On Men Unwittingly Turned Divine, Granta (expected January 2022)

External links [edit]

Look up embodiment in Wiktionary, the complimentary dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Apotheosis.

• 'Living with Gods': BBC Four Thought talk with Anna Della Subin, author of Accidental Gods, xvi January 2020
• Seneca'due south Apocolocyntosis at Project Gutenberg
• François Couperin. "Fifty'Apothéose de Corelli" and "Fifty'Apothéose de Lully" at IMSLP

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Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apotheosis