Athanasius was born around AD 297 in Alexandria, Egypt. From a young age, he was trained by Alexander, the bishop of Alexandria and one of the chief opponents of the heretic Arius. For Arius, only the Father was eternally and fully God. The Son was the first and most glorious of the Father’s creations but did not share the same essence as the Father. Alexander, in contrast, strongly emphasized the eternal generation of the Son and thus that the Father and the Son share the same divine essence. In 325, Emperor Constantine called a council at Nicaea to settle this debate. Athanasius served as secretary to Alexander at the council. In a forceful rebuke to Arius, the council declared the Son to be of one substance (homoousios) with the Father.
In 328, after Alexander’s death, Athanasius became bishop of Alexandria. The following decades of Athanasius’s life were marked especially by two things: an unwavering defense of the Nicene homoousios doctrine against various anti-Nicene factions within the church and, as a result, nearly constant persecution. Between 335 and 366, Athanasius went into exile no fewer than five times under four different emperors—exiles totaling more than fifteen years. Athanasius took full advantage of this extended time in exile. The Life of Antony and Letters to Serapion were written during his third exile, while Against the Heathen and On the Incarnation of the Word may belong to his first and Against the Arians to his second or third. Throughout all his writings, Athanasius defends the full divinity of the Son, grounding his arguments in Scripture. His works are eminently pastoral, consistently seeking to defend the church from heresy and error on the one hand and to explain the importance of the doctrines he championed for the lives of God’s people on the other. It is no wonder, then, that although Athanasius was not himself the author of the Athanasian Creed, this detailed and precise statement of Trinitarian and Christological orthodoxy came to bear his name. Athanasius died in 373, having spent the last seven years of his life undisturbed in his see. Although he did not live to witness the Council of Constantinople in 381, his theology played a decisive role in that council’s reaffirmation of Nicene orthodoxy and rejection of Arianism in its various forms.
Like the biblical hero Daniel, Athanasius is a powerful example of standing firm in the truth, even in the face of opposition from some of the world’s most powerful people. Furthermore, although Arianism was thoroughly condemned by the two fourth-century ecumenical councils (Nicaea and Constantinople), echoes of its teachings continue to trouble the church to this day. Like Athanasius, we ought to reject soundly all such teachings even in the face of hardship and, with him, marvel at the mystery of one God in Trinity and the Trinity in unity
From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, vol. 4
“He is the very Wisdom, very Word, and very own Power of the Father, very Light, very Truth, very Righteousness, very Virtue, and in truth His express Image, and Brightness, and Resemblance. And to sum all up, He is the wholly perfect Fruit of the Father, and is alone the Son, and unchanging Image of the Father.”
—Against the Heathen 46.8
“The renewal of creation has been the work of the selfsame Word that made it at the beginning.”
—On the Incarnation 1.4
“He was not man, and then became God, but He was God, and then became man, and that to deify us.”
—Against the Arians 1.39
“The creation, as if in written characters, declares in a loud voice, by its order and harmony, its own Lord and Creator.”
—Against the Heathen 34
“Death has become like a tyrant who has been completely conquered by the legitimate monarch.”
—On the Incarnation of the Word 27
“In these alone is proclaimed the doctrine of godliness. Let no man add to these, neither let him take aught from these.”
— Festal Letter 39.7
Against the Heathen (c. 318–337) On the Incarnation of the Word (c. 318–337) Against the Arians (c. 339–357) Life of Antony (c. 357) Letters to Serapion (c. 359) Thirty-Ninth Festal Letter (367)
At Westminster Seminary California, study Athanasius and other scholars who have shaped the church by laying a rich theological foundation that continues to equip pastors and church leaders for faithful ministry.
