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The Conception of Deification in the Alexandrian Tradition: Origen and Clement. Clement of Alexandria was first to use the technical vocabulary of deification, but he did not think it necessary to explain it. For Clement, we pass from paganism to Christianity through faith. From faith we rise to God through gnosis. From gnosis we see God face to face, and we are deified.Human deification is possible, according to Origen, because of Incarnation of Christ. As the human soul partakes of Divinity, the soul ascends to God in stages, purified in wisdom and perfected in love.No formal definition of deification occurs until the sixth century, when Dionysius the Areopagite declares that deification is the attaining of likeness to God and union with him so far as is possible (PG 3, col. 376a). Only in the seventh century does Maximus the Confessor discuss deification as a theological topic in its own right. But the early Fathers use deification language in one of three ways, nominally, analogically, or metaphorically. The first two uses are straightforward.According to the Patristic Tradition in general, becoming one with God is the ultimate goal of any Christian. Having acquired his new capacity of son of God through grace, he establishes and maintains a close communion with the Holy Trinity, by means of the Holy Sacraments and his new way of life and through Christ, that is through “life into Christ”.

Keywords: deification, Alexandrian Tradition, Origen, Clement, spiritual, God, perfection, sacramental and moral rebirth.