One feature the philosophies we have examined so far have in common is that for them the energeia of God has no specifically religious importance. It is philosophically important, of course, because the existence and character of the world are to be understood in light of it. Yet it plays no role in the religious quest to know God. The nearest to an exception is Aristotle, for whom we must strive to “make ourselves immortal so far as we can” by sharing in the divine activity of contemplation (Nic. Eth.x.7–8). Aristotle does not conceive of this as a way of coming into communion with God, however, but only as a way of achieving well-being by living in accordance with the best element in ourselves. He also does not make much use in this connection of the concept of energeia. Contemplation is also important for the Neoplatonists, but they too do not associate it with the divine energeia, and indeed for them the divine energeia in the highest sense is non-intellective.

We must look elsewhere for the role of energeia in religious thought. When we do, we find that it begins to play a minor but intriguing part in the first century a.d., one that grows as the centuries progress. By about the fourth century both pagans and Christians can be found understanding their religious life as a way of participating in the divine energeia.