Divine Flesh: The Interplay Between Human and Divine in the Double Movement of Deification of Humanity and Humanization of Divinity

Reflecting on the Incarnation as the "hinge" of salvation, this synthesis paper explores the interplay of the human and the Divine across four theological loci: the hypostatic union and glorified humanity of the risen Christ, the joint human and divine authorship of Scripture and Tradition, the Church as at once hierarchical institution and Mystical Body, and the sacraments as the place where human sense experience mediates divine grace. Engaging Chalcedonian Christology, patristic notions of deification (theosis) and the "wonderful exchange," and conciliar texts such as Dei Verbum and Lumen Gentium, the author argues that the "double movement" of humanity's deification and divinity's humanization, inaugurated in the Incarnation and never revoked, reveals a God who loves and forever assumes human flesh.