More boldly, Athanasius of Alexandria, two centuries later, wrote of God’s Son, “he became man that we might become God” (Avtos gar enenthropesen hina hemeis theopoethomen).7 The tradition represented by Athanasius regarded the divinizing of man as the purpose of the Incarnation. Variations of this idea, whether as a noun or a verb, appear repeatedly, especially among the Alexandrians.8 Slightly later in the fourth century, St. Gregory the Theologian (Nazianzen) coined a shorter expression, theosis,