ABSTRACT
Even before practice of asceticism became widespread, arguably in conjunction with or following the spate of early martyrdoms, the Christian vocabulary for human and religious anthropology was imbued with Greek terms. Words such as sarx, psyche, soma, pneuma and nous and their interplay were reworked through a new need to define humanity as not only containing a divine spark but reflecting a divine image which, in Christ, was uniquely fully human and fully divine. Hellenistic and Christian ideas about the need to discipline the human body show some points of convergence as well as fundamental differences. Both see the aim of human existence as living a good life, reflecting in choices and actions the divine spark nurtured within. Classical theurgy insisted that the use of 'sacramental actions' combined with 'the ineffable words by which a mortal charms the heart of the immortals' were means by which the initiate might purify his soul and be raised to union with the gods.
