LITWA, M. David, Desiring Divinity: Self-deification in Early Jewish and Christian Mythmaking, Oxford University Press, 2016

As New. 8vo. xi, 239pp. Black cloth housed in illustrated jacket. Condition is impeccable inside and out. The following is a quote from the front flap: “This book tells the stories of six self-deifiers in their historical, social, and ideological contexts. In the history of interpretation, the initial three figures have been demonized as cosmic rebels: the first human Adam, Lucifer (later identified with Satan), and Yaldabaoth in gnostic mythology. By contrast, the final three have served as positive models for deification and divine favor: Jesus in the gospel of John, Simon of Samaria, and Allogenes in the Nag Hammadi library. In the end, the line separating demonization from deification is dangerously thin, drawn as it is by the unsteady hand of human valuation.”