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Apotheosis is formally linked to three religions in this atlas: Ancient Egyptian Religion, Chinese Folk Religion and Roman Religion. All three links are bare. Its own description names "the passage of a human being into divine status" and gives each of the three religions a distinct mechanism for making it happen.

A Vote, a Cult, and Sheer Duration

In Rome, "the senate voted the consecratio of a dead emperor, after which he was a divus with his own temple, priests and festival, and refusal of the vote was itself a political verdict." Apotheosis there is a legislative act, decided and recorded. In Chinese Folk Religion the process is devotional rather than legislative: "Guan Yu, a third-century general, and Mazu, a Fujianese woman remembered as a protector of sailors, both became widely worshipped gods," elevated by accumulated popular practice with no vote behind either. In Ancient Egyptian Religion the mechanism is neither a vote nor a cult so much as time itself: "Imhotep, an official of the Third Dynasty, was worshipped as a healing god in Egypt more than two thousand years after his death." A senate's decision, a following's devotion, and a memory that simply never stopped growing, three religions, three different roads to the same destination.

Not to Be Confused With Theosis

Its own text draws its own boundary against a plausible confusion: "Apotheosis should not be confused with theosis, the Eastern Christian doctrine of the believer's participation in the divine life, which the atlas holds as a separate row and which concerns ordinary believers rather than rulers." Every mechanism above turns a specific, named, exceptional person into a god. Theosis is a different claim about every believer, and the atlas keeps the two apart on its own authority rather than this page's.

Where To Read More

• ApotheosisGod and Divine NatureThe passage itself; three religions counted, each with its own mechanism
• Roman ReligionPolytheistic (Historical)A legislative act: the senate's vote of consecratio, refusal itself a political verdict
• Chinese Folk ReligionPolytheistic (Folk)A devotional elevation with no vote behind it: Guan Yu and Mazu worshipped into godhood by accumulated practice
• Ancient Egyptian ReligionPolytheistic (Historical)A matter of duration: Imhotep venerated as a healing god more than two thousand years after his death