Theological Term of the Week: Athanasius

Athanasius 
The bishop of Alexandria who became “the outstanding champion of Nicene theology in the East” and who was “one of the greatest and most influential thinkers in the history of the Christian Church.”1 He lived from 296-373.

• From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. H. Needham:

Athanasius’s whole theology was centred on the docrine of salvation. In common with Eastern Christians generally, Athanasius understood salvation to mean deification — Christ the Savior makes human beings divine. This did not mean that Christ actually changed the believer’s human nature into God’s nature, but that human nature was lifted up by grace, through Christ, to share in the glory and immortality of God. 2 Peter 1:4 was a favourite text, where Peter describes Christians as “partakers of the divine nature”. How, Athanasius asked, could Christ make human nature divine if He Himself was less than God? Salvation means union with God’s life — human nature sharing in the glory of God’s nature. Therefore if Christ is humankind’s Saviour,  He must be God and man in one person; in Christ the God-man, humanity has been lifted up into the very life of God. Athanasius also argued from the fact that Christians worship Christ. How can we worship Him, Athanasius asked, unless He is God? If we are worshipping a created being, we are committing idolatry.

Learn more:

1. Got Questions: Who was Athanasius?
2. Christian History: Athanasius
3. Michael A. G. Haykin: 10 Things You Should Know About Athanasius
4. John Piper: Contending for Our All
5. Ryan Reeves: Who Was Athanasius and Why Is He Important?
6. Nick Needham:  Athanasius and the Deity of Christ: Part 1 and Part 2 (videos)
7. Athanasius: On the Incarnation (pdf)

Related terms:

• Ambrose of Milan
• Apollinarius
• Augustine of Hippo
• Basil of Caesarea
• Cappadocian fathers
• Columba
• Cyril of Alexandria
• Gregory of Nanzianzus
• Gregory of Nyssa
• Gregory the Great
• Hilary of Poitiers
• Irenaeus of Lyons
• Jerome
• John Chrysostom
• Justin Martyr
• Maximus the Confessor
• Monica
• Nestorius
• Origen
• Patrick
• Pelagius
• Sabellius
• Tertullian
• Venerable Bede, The

Filed under Christian History

1From 2000 Years of Christ’s Power by N. R. Needham.

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