Abstract
Treatments of deification among “Anglicans” in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries stand out as noteworthy for contemporary discussions of the doctrine for four interconnected reasons. First, in these figures one witnesses a sustained articulation of deification in the West, countering the prevalent perception of deification as an exclusively Eastern Christian doctrine. Second, these figures draw their views of deification from patristic figures of both East and West, and more fundamentally from scripture, demonstrating that, for early Anglicans, the doctrine is not of a particularly Eastern provenance. Third, for Richard Hooker and some Cambridge Platonists, deification does not supplant justification (as some contemporary advocates of deification are eager to do), but rather coordinates with justification and sanctification in a coherent soteriological vision. Fourth, for Anglicans, deification has an uncommon ecclesiological importance, as the doctrine plays a central role in distinguishing the English Church from Roman Catholic and “Puritan” alternatives.