Athanasius

Bishop of Alexandria · Defender of Nicaea · c. 298–373

Athanasius was a deacon under Bishop Alexander of Alexandria when a presbyter named Arius began to teach that Christ was a created being, not eternal and not equal to the Father. The controversy led to the Council of Nicaea in 325, where nearly 320 bishops confessed that the Son is homoousios, “of the same substance,” with the Father. Athanasius was only a deacon, but his views were represented by Alexander, whom he succeeded as bishop in 328.1

Those who maintain ‘There was a time when the Son was not’ rob God of his Word, like plunderers.2 Athanasiusagainst the Arians

Arianism remained popular, and over forty-five years Athanasius was exiled five times, for a total of seventeen years, by Constantine, Constantius II, Julian, and Valens. Some have called him “the Saint of Stubbornness.” His argument was simple: only one who is truly God could pay for the sins of the world, and if the Son were a creature, those who worship him would be idolaters.3

His Legacy

Athanasius’s Christology, vindicated when Theodosius made Nicene Christianity the religion of the empire, is the common confession of Rome, the East, and the Reformers. His Festal Letter of 367 was the first to list exactly the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, and Rome counts him as one of its eight great Doctors of the Church.4 For the Reformers he was proof that one man with the Scriptures may be right when councils and emperors are wrong.

Church Fathers

Notes

  1. Nathan Busenitz, Forerunners of the Faith Teacher’s Guide: 13 Lessons to Understand and Appreciate the Basics of Church History (Chicago: Moody, 2020), 54. Summarized. ↩
  2. Mark Galli and Ted Olsen, eds., 131 Christians Everyone Should Know (Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2000), “Athanasius.” ↩
  3. Busenitz, Forerunners of the Faith Teacher’s Guide, 54, 59; Michael J. Vlach, “Historical Theology I: A.D. 100–1600” (course notes, TH 507, The Master’s Seminary, Fall 2007), “Athanasius.” Summarized. ↩
  4. Busenitz, Forerunners of the Faith Teacher’s Guide, 60; “The 100 Most Important Events in Church History,” Christian History 28 (1990), “Athanasius Defines the New Testament (367).” James G. McCarthy, The Gospel According to Rome (Eugene, OR: Harvest House, 1995), on the Doctors of the Church. ↩