By and large, the Western Christian tradition has gravitated towards Paul’s cultic and legal metaphors, as refracted through Augustine. In the Eastern tradition, under the influence of John Chrysostom and the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory of Nazianzus, from the fourth century), metaphors of ‘transformation’ and ‘renewal’ have been dominant, with the believer drawn upwards towards participation in God through the Spirit.
