22 - Athanasius of Alexandria, Christological Letters to Epictetus, Adelphius, and Maximus

Summary

Athanasius was bishop of Alexandria on and off for nearly fifty years, from his contested election in 328 until his death in 373. He is perhaps best known for the unflinching promotion of a theology which he claimed represented the traditional Christian viewpoints articulated at the Council of Nicaea, against Trinitarian heterodoxies he connected with Arius and those supposedly influenced by him. Various emperors irked by his ecclesio-political efforts deposed Athanasius from his see no less than five times, causing him to spend many years in exile. Though Athanasius is most famous for his defense of the Nicene doctrine of the Trinity, Christological concerns were never far from his mind and some works of his, or at least sections thereof, are even specifically Christological in focus. For example, On the Incarnation (composed ca. 328–335) is a meditation on the person of Christ and soteriology, arguing that the salvation of humanity could only be achieved through the fully divine Word becoming incarnate, whereas his Oration against the Arians 3.26–58 (early 340s) defends the reality of the incarnation of the Word against “Arian” scriptural arguments against it.