Category: On the Incarnation
Let’s discuss Athanasius of Alexandria!
St. Athanasius of Alexandria.
Athanasius of Alexandria is one of the most influential figures in Christianity. He was the Bishop of Alexandria, a city that was second to Rome alone in authority. As a young man he was present as the Council of Nicaea as an advisor to Alexander of Alexandria. It seems he became a Bishop at quite a young age since some accused him of not being thirty years old when he took the post as that was the minimum age one could become a Bishop. By that time he had already written the works known as On the Incarnation and Against the Heathen (which may have been a single work at first). These books remain standard reading for those interested in the development of Christian theology, especially Trinitarianism.
Athanasius was one of the earliest Bishops to hold such an office in the post-Constantine era. This is a time when Emperors and statesmen influenced the church unlike in years past. Athanasius remained consistent in his affirmations no matter who was in authority and no matter what their current position. This led to five different exiles from Alexandria! During some of those exiles he spent time in the desert with the monastics where he met the famous St. Anthony about whom he would write a popular hagiography.
“Athanasius Contra Mundum” is popular phrase that explains the dogmatic theologians quite well. It didn’t matter who was for him or against him, if needed he would stand “against the world” if he thought something was heretical. Although the Council of Nicaea seemed to have settled the question of the deity of Christ the influence of the Arian views continued to influence and push against the Council’s ruling. At one point it seemed (as St. Jerome would put it), “The whole world groaned and was amazed to find itself Arian.”
Athanasius may be one of the most important figures between the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople which many see as affirming and solidifying the decisions of the first council. He stood strong for Nicene Christology against Arianism affirming the full deity of the Son. Also, while Basil the Great is given most of the credit for the church coming around to calling the Spirit “God” one could argue that Athanasius’ Letters to Serapion on the Holy Spirit contain as much force as Basil’s work. I wrote a paper on this subject which you can find here.
These are my brief thoughts on Athanasius of Alexandria, let me know what else you find worth discussing about Athanasius.
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If you’d like to discuss Origen of Alexandria and Irenaeus of Lyons go here.
Athanasius of Alexandria: “Death is No Longer Terrible”
Athanasius the Great
As I mentioned earlier this morning (see here) this is the day of the year when the eastern church remembers Athanasius of Alexandria. In his honor let me share a wonderful paragraph that he wrote on the aftermath of the resurrection:
“A very strong proof of this destruction of death and its conquest by the cross is supplied by a present fact, namely this. All the disciples of Christ despise death; they take the offense against it and, instead of fearing it, by the sign of the cross and by faith in Christ trample on it as on something dead. Before the divine sojourn of the Saviour, even the holiest of men were afraid of death, and mourned the dead as those who perish. But now that the Saviour has raised His body, death is no longer terrible, but all those who believe in Christ tread it underfoot as nothing, and prefer to die rather than to deny their faith in Christ, knowing full well that when they die they do not perish, but live indeed, and become incorruptible through the resurrection.”
(On the Incarnation. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Press, 57)
Those are powerful words. Christians can look death in the eye, and even treat death as “something dead”, because Christ has risen. I anticipate the day when we all meet our Lord and we experience the victory of which Athanasius speaks!
Celebrating the Incarnation: Entering the Advent Conspiracy [4]
The Advent is a celebration of the first coming of Jesus Christ. We celebrate the first coming while anticipating the second coming. Yet there are many who have rightly complained that the Advent season has been abducted by other gods. We all recognize mammon has been given as much attention during this time of the year as Christ (if not more). This has led many to declare the season a lost cause. Jim West has complained that the Advent season has been too anthropocentric (humanism?), therefore he will not be celebrating this year (see here).
I have never been part of a church community that gave much attention to Advent. This year my wife and I are part of the Imago Dei Community here in Portland, OR. The Advent season begins for us this Sunday. Those who are familiar with the ‘Advent Conspiracy‘ know that Imago Dei was part of the inception of this project. We won’t give up on Advent; we have decided to rethink it.
So how do we combat the materialism surrounding the Advent season? How do we challenge the humanism that has disturbed Jim West? I think we must rethink gift giving and we must rethink humanism in light of the incarnation. In the incarnation God gave his only begotten Son to us (John 3:16). This giving was relational, not materialistic.
Rather than giving our loved ones gift cards or junk that will sit in a closet for the next few years we need to become more creative and meaningful with our gifts. We need to think of ways to make our giving less about money and more about relationships.
This does not mean that we cannot spend money; it means we might spend money on making a trip to be with our loved ones (even if this doesn’t include gifts) or we might spend less money while making our gifts instead. This form of gift giving takes more time and thought that the traditional “Oh, let us just give them gift cards from Target”.
How to we combat humanism? We do so by emphasizing the incarnation, which is what the Advent season is all about. We must proclaim the fact that “the Word became flesh and dwelt amongst us” (John 1:14). If it were not for the incarnation of the Son of God there would be no salvation for “God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself” (2 Corinthians 5:19). It is only by the incarnation that this was possible, “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Timothy 2:5).
As Athanasius wrote, “God became man so that man might become god” (On the Incarnation 54:3). We can only participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 2:4) because the Son participated in our nature (Romans 8:3). This is what Advent is really about God giving of Himself to the world.
As Christians we must celebrate Advent. We must not become discouraged because there are other things being worshiped during this season other than our Savior. Instead, we must give even more attention to the “reason for the season”, Jesus Christ our Lord!
