deification

We went through the main hall, four-armed Amaat looming, the air still smelling of incense and the heap of flowers at the god's feet and knees, back to a tiny chapel tucked into a corner, dedicated to an old and now-obscure provincial god, one of those personifications of abstract concepts so many pantheons hold, in this case a deification of legitimate political authority.

There is an experiential component to Maximos’ writings: he draws upon the reality of the contemplative life and in doing so secures deification as the goal of the monastic spiritual life in Orthodoxy.