‘You Shall Be Actualized, for I Am Pure Actuality’: Holiness and the Perfecting Relation of Grace

This article presents holiness as actuality, a concept that analogically connects God as pure infinite act to our own finite actualization as human agents. Grace constitutes the means by which we become holy. That is, grace will be construed as an actualizing relation. This relation regenerates and purifies fallen human nature, but it also perfects our nature according to humanity's original, creational telos. The communicable contours of holiness provided by Leviticus 19 will ground the discussion, and these contours will be canonically coordinated with the Gospel of Matthew. Throughout, the article will draw deeply from the theology of Thomas Aquinas in bridging divine holiness with God’s unique mode of agency.