becoming more human by becoming more godlike 343ascribe to the divine while eschewing any eff ort to possess, or to mimic,
other such attributes. We can make ourselves more godlike in the sense
of the fi rst set of attributes. However, we cannot become God: the sec-
ond set of attributes is not only forever beyond our reach but also in-
compatible with our humanity.
Th e qualities to which we cannot and should not aspire are those of
eternity, omniscience, and completeness. We cannot aspire to eternity
because we are mortal. We cannot aspire to omniscience because we are
groundless. We cannot aspire to completeness because we are insatia-
ble. All of our activities take place in a fi nite world, in which we enjoy
limited capabilities. Th e strengthening of our powers can never ap-
proach the limit of omnipotence.
It is because we do not and cannot have these resources that we
may hate God, or rather hate in ourselves the lack of the divine powers
that are denied to us. Th is hatred and self- loathing can become obsta-
cles to the possession and the enhancement of life. Th ey leave their
mark on our refusal to acknowledge the irreparable fl aws in human
existence. It is a refusal that expresses itself, by subterfuge, in the
cruelty, born of self- hatred and despair, that remains an undercur-
rent impulse in all the world- historical religions but especially in the
religions of salvation. For it is these religions, with their conception
of a transcendent, all- powerful, and all- knowing God who inter-
venes in history, that show us, by contrast, what we can never hope
to become.
Th e essence of Prometheanism, as a sequel to the struggle with the
world, is the attempt to become more godlike in precisely this sense:
the sense of the attributes that are prohibited to us. Th e triumphalism,
the resentment, and the cruelty accompanying Prometheanism rank
among the psychological consequences of this misunderstanding of
our condition.
Our share of the divine lies in another direction: the direction of
embodied spirit. We transcend fi nite circumstance. We are also incom-
plete: it is only by connection with others that we enhance the senti-
ment of being and developing a self. Th at all such connections also
threaten us with loss of individual distinction and freedom is the con-
tradiction inscribed in our being. Th is contradiction is most completely
resolved, to the extent that it can be resolved at all, in love, freely given