Gamechangers

Key Figures of the Christian Church

Robert Letham

• Publisher: Christian Focus Publication
• Year: 2015
• eBook ISBN: 9781781916247

1

ATHANASIUS (c. 295–373)

LIFE

Alexandria has been called the crossroads of the ancient world. A cosmopolitan city, it was at the centre of ideas and commerce, the main centre for trade between the Roman Empire and Africa and Asia, with access to the Mediterranean and the Nile. By routing goods via the Nile to Thebes and then overland by road to the lower Red Sea, Arab middlemen could be avoided and direct access to India gained. If the Nile missed its annual overflow, there would be problems for crops. In this respect, Rome depended on Alexandria. In 355 Athanasius was accused of delaying shipment of corn to Constantinople, a serious charge in the terms of the time.

Intellectually, Alexandria was an important centre. The Jewish scholar Philo (c. 20 BC–c. 50 AD), and the Christian theologian Origen (c. 185–c. 254), were based there. Platonism was prevalent. Alexandria was the religious capital of Egypt. The bishop appointed all other Egyptian bishops and had absolute authority over them. Christianity was an urban religion at the time. By 300 approximately half of the Egyptian population was Christian. Inland, the threat to Christianity came from native Egyptian religion not from Hellenism. There was a lingering dispute over those who lapsed during the Diocletian persecution. Miletus, a rigourist, had not wanted them to be received back into the church. Monks in Upper Egypt had withdrawn from church life. The Coptic church was Coptic speaking, in contrast to the Greek speaking church in the coastal area. It was more simple and rigourist but at this point not a threat to the unity of the Egyptian church.

Athanasius was born in around 295 and had a restricted formal education. His life was packed full of action and intrigue. If it was made the subject of a movie it would be dismissed as too far-fetched. He came to the attention of the bishop, was made a deacon and accompanied bishop Alexander to Nicaea in 325, where the views of the presbyter Arius were condemned as heretical. On the death of Alexander, he was elected bishop in 328 in an election contested by the Arians. His episcopal authority was soon challenged by the large numbers of Melitian clergy. Melitus, on his own authority, ordained new clergy to replace those who had lapsed. Arius was still a presence lurking in the background. A senior clergyman in Alexandria, he had taught that Christ was not co-eternal with the Father, but was created, and had a beginning. He was deposed by an Egyptian synod in 323 and by the Council of Nicaea in 325. Melitian groups were adamant against receiving Arius back and showing any sign of weakness in that direction. The problem for Athanasius was the language used at Nicaea and currently available was ambiguous, incapable of expressing adequately how God is one and how he is three.¹

By 332 Arian bishops were being appointed elsewhere. Arius, in turn, signed a document that persuaded Constantine that he was orthodox, although it avoided the term homoousios, introduced at Nicaea to assert the Son’s identity of being with the Father, to which Arius objected. Constantine requested Athanasius to receive Arius back into communion, but he refused to do so. Additionally, Nicaea required there to be a gradual reconciliation with the Melitians but Athanasius had not progressed towards that. Problems were knocking at the door.

In 334 charges were made against Athanasius. First, it was alleged that he had raised a tax on linen garments—a right belonging to the pagan priesthood. Second, his presbyter Macarius was charged with desecrating a Melitian church and breaking a chalice. Third, Athanasius was charged with organizing the kidnap and murder of a Melitian bishop and using his severed hand for magical purposes. On the last allegation, in a dramatic scene, Athanasius’ supporters produced the bishop alive and well, his hand still connected to the rest of his body. However, the other charges proved more difficult to refute. Constantine summoned a council but Athanasius refused to attend it as he considered an impartial hearing unlikely. However, he did attend the Council of Tyre in 335 but left for Constantinople, as the council’s membership was stacked heavily against him. He was deposed on disciplinary grounds. He tried to persuade the emperor to take his side but meanwhile new charges were brought against him of delaying corn shipments to Constantinople. So Athanasius was out of office and went into exile from 335–7. However, he was not replaced as bishop and the see remained vacant.

In 337 Constantine died and the empire split three ways. Constantine II recalled Athanasius and he returned to Alexandria in November 337. It was not a happy return. Opposition was at fever pitch. He was accused of embezzling corn, and the Council of Antioch reiterated his deposition early in 339. He withdrew in March to Rome, which was more sympathetic towards him. This second period of exile was longer, lasting seven years, till 346.

At Rome, Athanasius gained the support of Pope Julius (337–52). In 341 a Council at Rome cleared him of all charges and admitted him into communion as a lawful bishop. Rival theories of church authority were competing with one another and rival councils sprang up in both east and west. Eventually after his replacement in Alexandria died, the Emperor Constans (who supported Athanasius) persuaded his brother and joint Emperor Constantius to be reconciled to Athanasius and so he returned to Alexandria to a hero’s welcome in October 346. What a difference this was to the previous return!

Nevertheless, from 350 the situation took another lurch downward. Constans was assassinated in that year and by 359 Constantius was the sole emperor with semi-Arians and Arians in the ascendancy supporting him. By then he had turned against Athanasius. On the night of 7–8 February, 356 troops surrounded Athanasius’ church during a service and entered the building. Athanasius managed to escape out of a side door and fled to the monks of Upper Egypt. He was replaced by a pork salesman, George of Cappadocia. This third exile lasted six years, from 356–62.

George provoked opposition by favoring the Arians and was forced to withdraw in 358. However, Julian (known as the apostate as he favored paganism) became emperor in 361, and George returned to Alexandria, only to be murdered by the mob. Julian recalled Athanasius in February 362, only for him to flee to the desert again in October for a fourth period of exile.

Julian died in 363 and was replaced by Jovian, who recalled Athanasius. But Jovian died early the following year, to be replaced by Valentinian, a supporter of Nicaea but who appointed his brother Valens—an Arian—in control of the east. Valens tried to force Arian creeds on the eastern bishops. A brief fifth exile ensued for Athanasius from October 365 until February 366.

In February 366 Valens rescinded his pro-Arian edict and Athanasius returned. The last seven years of his life were uneventful. Of 46 years as a bishop 17 were in exile, with enough twists and turns for a James Bond movie.

WRITINGS

The best known of Athanasius’ works are his dogmatic and apologetic treatises, his Oratio contra Gentes and De incarnatione, possibly originally a two-volume work, and the Orationes contra Arianos, three extended discourses, a fourth being from another hand. Another work, De incaranatione et contra Arianos, is not to be confused with the two earlier mentioned works of similar name.

With someone of his stature, and given the practices of the time, it is no wonder that there are several documents that purport to be from Athanasius but are instead authored by some other unknown writer. Into this category are two volumes written against the Apollinarians, and the famous Athanasian creed.

Athanasius wrote some polemical books—the Apologia contra Arianos and a history of the Arians. There are a range of sermons, although most purporting to be by Athanasius are recognized as spurious. We have a few fragments of commentaries—on the Psalms, on Ecclesiastes and the Song of Solomon, and a few isolated fragments on Genesis. He wrote some ascetic treatises—a life of St. Anthony, one on virginity and so on. Then there are his Letters—(i) Festal letters, especially number 39 (367 AD) on the biblical canon providing a list that is identical with the Codex Vaticanus, stating that the deutero-canonical literature (the apocrypha) is useful for the edification of new converts but is not part of the biblical canon; (ii) synodical letters including Ad Antiochenos; (iii) encyclical letters; and (iv) dogmatic and pastoral letters, including Ad Serapion on the Holy Spirit—probably the first extended discussion of the Spirit, and Ad Epictetus concerning the relation between the historical Christ and the eternal Son.

THOUGHT

Incarnation

The treatise, De incarnatione, is a masterpiece. Some have thought Athanasius wrote it in his early twenties, around 318, when the Arian crisis erupted. However, the consensus suggests it came later, possibly in the 330s. It is a fourth century counterpart of Anselm’s Cur Deus homo? (1098). In it Athanasius unfolds the purpose, necessity and truth of the incarnation. There are several English translations in print, including one in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers set and another by Sister Penelope Lawson, a nun who was a friend of C.S. Lewis.

A number of features stand out in Athanasius’ presentation.

The first matter to note is the close link he makes between creation and redemption.

It is, then, proper for us to begin the treatment of this subject by speaking of the creation of the universe, and of God its artificer, that so it may be duly perceived that the renewal of creation has been the work of the self-same Word that made it at the beginning. For it will appear not inconsonant for the Father to have wrought its salvation in Him by whose means he made it.²

Note that Athanasius considers salvation in Christ to be the equivalent of the renewal of creation. This is a striking difference from conservative Protestantism, where the focus has been the deliverance of the individual from sin and where corporate elements have been present they have usually been restricted to the church.

He follows this up in a number of ways. He has a trinitarian view of creation, one in which the Word, Jesus Christ our Lord, was the agent in making all things out of nothing.³ This extends to providence as well for the Father through the Word orders all things, and all things are moved by him, and in him are quickened.⁴ In turn, man was created in Christ. Since Christ is the image of God, and man was created in the image of God, man was made in Christ.

He did not barely create man...but made them after his own image, giving them a portion even of the power of his own Word; so that having as it were a kind of reflection of the Word, and being made rational, they might be able to abide ever in blessedness, living the true life which belongs to the saints in paradise.⁵

Athanasius goes on to say ‘he did not leave them destitute of the knowledge of himself’, for ‘he gives them a share in his own image’ so that they might be able to get an idea of the Father, by such grace perceiving the image—the Word of the Father—and knowing their maker, so living a happy and truly blessed life. God made us out of nothing but also ‘gave us freely, by the grace of the Word, a life in correspondence with God.’⁶ If the first humans had remained good they would ‘by the grace following from partaking of the Word...have escaped their natural state.’⁷ Note how Athanasius has brought together creation, providence, the trinity, man, Christ and salvation into an integrated whole.

That, of course, was not the whole story for sin entered and death gained a legal hold over us that is impossible to evade.⁸ We could not regain the former position by repentance alone, for that could not be sufficient to guard the just claim of God.⁹ The problem was that corruption had gained a hold and man was deprived of the grace he had being in the image of God. What was required for such grace to be recalled was the Word of God who had also at the beginning made all out of nothing.

For him it was once more both to bring the corruptible to incorruption, and to maintain intact the just claim of the Father upon all. For being the Word of the Father, and above all, he alone of natural fitness was both able to recreate everything, and worthy to suffer on behalf of all and to be ambassador for all with the Father.¹⁰

Again, salvation is the recreation of everything.

Athanasius moves on to explain the purpose of the incarnation.¹¹ The Word was not far from us before ‘for no part of creation is left void of him: he has filled all things everywhere, remaining present with his own Father.’ In becoming incarnate ‘he takes unto himself a body, and that of no different sort from ours.’

And thus taking from our bodies one of like nature, because all were under penalty of the corruption of death he gave it over to death in the stead of all, and offered it to the Father...to the end that, firstly, all being held to have died in him, the law involving the ruin of men might be undone (inasmuch as its power was fully spent in the Lord’s body, and had no longer holding-ground against men, his peers) and that, secondly, whereas men had turned toward corruption, he might turn them again toward incorruption, and quicken them from death by the appropriation of his body and by the grace of the resurrection, banishing death from them like straw from the fire.¹²

Calvin was to echo this is his Institute 2:12:3.

Since it was impossible for the Word as Word to suffer death ‘to this end he takes to himself a body capable of death.’ So, by offering to death the body he had taken, he put away death from all his peers b...

Table of contents

• Testimonial
• Title
• In Memoriam
• Indicia
• Contents
• Introduction
• ATHANASIUS (C. 295–373)
• GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS (C. 330–391)
• AUGUSTINE (354–430)
• CHARLES THE GREAT (741–814)
• ANSELM (1033–1109)
• THOMAS AQUINAS (1225–74)
• MARTIN LUTHER (1483–1546)
• HEINRICH BULLINGER (1504–75)
• JOHN CALVIN (1509–64)
• JOHN WESLEY (1703–1791)
• J.W. NEVIN (1803–86)
• KARL BARTH (1886–1968)
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