Divine glory in the image of God: Anthropology of divine embodiment in the Ascension of Isaiah

Abstract

The Ascension of Isaiah accords well with Sommer’s or Bunta’s fluidity models of divine embodiment. It envisions an alternate metaphysics, a universe full of divine glory “embodied” or “moving” not only in the Great Glory but also in seven glories suited to lower powers of sight, in angels and righteous humans, and finally visible from lowest to highest in the Beloved’s humanity. “Extrinsic” and “intrinsic” participation in divine glory explains the Ascension’s proto-trinitarian and incarnational thinking. Since a respiration of glory, participation in divinity, defines and nourishes every righteous intelligence, both angelic and human, the Beloved’s humanity embodies highest glory so naturally that it accords as perfectly with what it means to be human as with what it means to be God.