Even in these times with the extraordinary proliferation of ‘Handbooks’, produced by various publishers, the mere appearance of this book still marks a significant change of culture. Previously, the term deification or the alternative effective synonym, theosis, has been a concept largely associated with the Chalcedonian Orthodox theological tradition. In this past generation, however, it has gained many followers in Western theology. Having said that, it has also had its exponents amongst Anglican writers. Perhaps the best twentieth-century example was Charles Williams with his use of the term coinherence describing a mutual indwelling of God and humanity. His two key volumes were The Descent of the Dove and The Image of the City and Other Essays.

This handbook, however, includes a far wider range of theologians, from the Orthodox, Roman Catholic (perhaps the largest proportion of these essays), Anglican, Lutheran and Reformed traditions. The book is divided into three main parts headed – Cultural and Scriptural Roots, Soundings in the History of Christian Theology and finally Systematic Connections. These sections are themselves subdivided. The first section analyses Greek and Hebrew roots of the concept, including non-Biblical writings from Judaism alongside scriptural material. The second section offers a chronological coverage of both individual theologians and groups of writers within three main headings – Early Mediaeval and Modern, and a third section analysing the concept using a series of conceptual focuses largely titled ‘Deification and…….’.

The book comprises 44 short chapters contributed by some 47 theologians along with specific bibliographies at the conclusion of each section within its 738 pages.

There is a useful brief introduction written by the three editors. Contributors are spread well across all continents with perhaps the largest single number from the USA where the three editors are based. In the introduction, the authors offer a definition of deification:

Rather oddly, in that list of semi-synonyms, no mention is made of theosis, which has increasingly been the most popular term used and appears later in this book. This is strange in a volume which is eclectic almost by its very nature. Predictably, the first and ‘Early’ section of Part One is heavily weighted towards the Eastern Church, concluding with Maximus the Confessor. Alongside St Simeon the New Theologian and St Gregory Palamas, the balance shifts firmly to the West, including the Cistercians, Victorines and Aquinas. The Modern section effectively begins with the Reformation with a much broader proliferation of individuals and movements.

Remembering the focus of this journal, it is here that we encounter Anglican voices.

Three chapters include material from this source. Mark McInroy contributes a chapter on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Anglicans. He refers to Donald Allchin’s Participation in God: A Forgotten Strand in the Anglican Tradition and shows how from Jewell, through the Caroline Divines and then to the Cambridge Platonists and indeed within Hooker, this strand is clearly there. McInroy argues that Anglican patterns of deification are drawn from both Eastern and Western Church Fathers. This is a rich chapter with a very useful bibliography. Frederick D. Aquino contributes a chapter on ‘Nineteenth Century Anglicans and Catholic Thinkers’. This is a thinner essay focusing mainly on the Oxford Movement. Finally, Myk Habets writes on ‘Recent Anglican and Protestant Theology’. This is a disappointing piece with only two pages on Anglican writing, sandwiched between Reformed and Wesleyan/Methodist Theology, and focusing almost entirely on C.S. Lewis and Paul Collins.

Rather remarkably, throughout the book, there is no mention of Charles Williams or Austin Farrer, both part of that same circle as C.S. Lewis and offering far more sustained theological thinking. Also, in the earlier chapters, there is no mention of the Lux Mundi writers or of Charles Gore and his circle. Nonetheless, overall, this is a very useful book which also, through its bibliographies, points scholars to other sources for more detailed study.