Does anyone here believe that it's possible or even likely for an individual living on this earth now to be divine?
Yes, my church has consistently taught since Patristic times that it is possible for human beings to be
deified / divinized / become God by grace in this life, just as the majority of redeemed people will experience the same after their deaths, through the perception of and assimilation to the Beatific Vision of the Essence of God.
This is known as the doctrine of
theosis. We already are "
mirrors", by nature, of the divine essence through our having been created in the image and likeness of God (which refers to our soul) but owing to sin, our ability to "
see" God within ourselves has been obscured and therefore needs cleansing through the salvific grace of God, so that we can become what we were born and created to be.
The reason why we paint icons of canonised saints with "
halos" circling their heads, is that they are believed to have been "
divinized" in life and thus become sanctified mirrors of the uncreated energies / attributes of God, the grace of which can be received by us if we imitate and venerate their holy way of life, just as they imitate and worship the Lord Jesus, the Son of God made man that man might become God.
Consider how the
Catechism of the Catholic Church defines the doctrine:
Catechism of the Catholic Church - "He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary"
The Word became flesh to make us "partakers of the divine nature":78 "For this is why the Word became man, and the Son of God became the Son of man: so that man, by entering into communion with the Word and thus receiving divine sonship, might become a son of God."79 "For the Son of God became man so that we might become God."80
This is the salvation theology of the Church Fathers. The citation (no.80) given above is referencing St. Athanasius of Alexandria (died 373 CE), namely his
De inc. 54, 3: PG 25, 192B. The two other authorities cited for the doctrine are the early second century church father St. Irenaeus (c. 120- c. 200 ) and St. Thomas Aquinas.
The idea is fundamental to the Catholic and Orthodox traditions. In Catholicism, our liturgy evokes it during the Communion or Eucharistic part of the Mass, when the priest says over the cup: "
By the mystery of this water and wine may we come to share in the divinity of Christ who humbled himself to share in our humanity." It was taught equally in the West as it was in the East. The doctrine is essential to the teaching of the Church Fathers, who held that "
God became man, so that man might become God" [
St. Augustine, Sermo 13 de Tempore].
All the Fathers taught this doctrine as the most fundamental of the deposit of faith for salvation:
Patristic Text - Quotations on Theosis - The Taboric Light
St. Gregory Nazianzen (329-374) [Oration XXX, section 14: The 4th Theological Oration]
Even now, as man, Christ makes intercession for my salvation, for He still possesses the body which He assumed in order to make me God by virtue of His Incarnation.
St. Basil the Great (c. 330 - c. 379 CE) [On the Holy Spirit, Chapter 9]
From the Spirit comes foreknowledge of the future, understanding of the mysteries of faith, insight into the hidden meaning of Scripture, and other special gifts. Through the Spirit we become citizens of heaven, we are admitted to the company of the angels, we enter into eternal happiness, and abide in God. Through the Spirit we acquire a likeness to God; indeed, we attain what is beyond our most sublime aspirations -- we become God.
St. Hilary of Poitiers (c. 315 - c. 367) [De Trinitate: Book IX, Paragraph 38]
The Incarnation is summed up in this, that the whole Son, that is, His manhood as well as His divinity, was permitted by the Father's gracious favor to continue in the unity of the Father's nature, and retained not only the powers of the divine nature, but also that nature's self. For the object to be gained was that man might become God.
The dogma, I should note, is first set forth in the New Testament (quite apart from its articulation in the unwritten tradition):
"....by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, now that you have escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires" (2 Peter 1:4)
