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c. A.D. 296 – 373
Athanasius
of Alexandria
Worth knowing
- Deacon and secretary to the bishop of Alexandria at the Council of Nicaea in 325, then bishop himself two years later — the chief defender of the Nicene formula for the rest of his life.
- Exiled five times by four different emperors over some forty-five years for refusing to soften the Council's wording. "Athanasius against the world" became a proverb for exactly this.
- On the Incarnation, written while still young, argues that God became man specifically so that man could be remade in God's image — the line every later theologian quotes is its own: "He was made man that we might be made God."
- Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione were originally two halves of one argument: first why the pagan gods fail, then why the Incarnation is the answer.
The book
Who else was alive
Athanasius against everyone else in the game.