Athanasius of Alexandria

Who Was Athanasius of Alexandria?

Athanasius of Alexandria was the great champion of Nicene orthodoxy in the fourth century — the man who, almost alone at several points in his career, maintained the full divinity of Christ against the Arian heresy that dominated the imperial court and much of the church. He was bishop of Alexandria for forty-five years, but spent seventeen of those years in exile — five separate exiles under four different emperors. The Latin phrase Athanasius contra mundum — “Athanasius against the world” — captures the historical situation precisely.

The issue at stake was not a minor theological technicality. Arianism held that the Son of God was the highest created being — exalted above all other creatures, but not co-equal with the Father, not fully divine. Athanasius saw, with perfect clarity, that if this were true the entire gospel collapsed: a creature cannot redeem other creatures; only God can save. The logic of the Incarnation requires that the Word be fully divine. To deny Christ’s divinity is to deny the possibility of salvation.

His treatise On the Incarnation, written when he was in his twenties, is one of the most readable and profound works of early Christian theology. C.S. Lewis wrote the preface to a modern edition, describing it as a book that “breathes of a different climate.” Its central argument — that God became human so that humanity might participate in the divine life — is the foundation of Eastern Orthodox theosis theology and a touchstone for all subsequent reflection on the Incarnation.

In Their Own Words

Selected Bibliography

• On the Incarnation — c. 318–328
• Against the Arians — 339–346, four orations
• Life of Antony — c. 360 — foundational text of Christian monasticism
• Letters to Serapion — on the divinity of the Holy Spirit