Some years ago, Richard Hays saw that the study of Paul’s soteriology needed to move in the direction of theosis, though he did not use that word. He wrote, “My own guess is that [E. P.] Sanders’s insights [about participation in Paul] would be supported and clarified by careful study of participation motifs in patristic theology, particularly the thought of the Eastern Fathers.”7 Hays saw that his own approach to Paul, with its emphasis on narrative and on the confluence of God’s faithfulness and