Athanasius of Alexandria
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| Saint Athanasius | |
|---|---|
 Saint Athanasius |
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| Doctors of the Church | |
| Born | around 293, Alexandria, Egypt |
| Died | May 21, 373, Alexandria, Egypt |
| Venerated in | Roman Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Churches, Lutheran Church, Anglican Communion |
| Major shrine | Saint Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt Santa Croce, Venice, Italy |
| Feast | May 2 (Roman Catholic) January 18 (Eastern Orthodox) May 15 = 7 Pashons (Oriental Orthodox) |
| Attributes | bishop arguing with a pagan; bishop holding an open book; bishop standing over a defeated heretic |
 Saints Portal |
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Athanasius of Alexandria (Greek: Αθανάσιος) (also spelled "Athanasios") (c.293 – May 2, 373) was a Christian bishop, the Bishop of Alexandria, in the fourth century. He is revered as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, Anglican Communion and the Oriental Orthodox Church, and regarded as a great leader of the Church by Protestants. Roman Catholics have declared him, earliest living, one of 33 Doctors of the Church, and he is counted as one of the four Great Doctors of the Eastern Church. His feast day is (May 15) in the Oriental Orthodox Churches (7 Pashons in the Coptic Orthodox Church), January 18 in the Eastern Orthodox Churches and May 2 in the Roman Catholic and Episcopal Churches.
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[edit] Historical significance
[edit] Early Life
The Alexandria of his boyhood was an epitome, intellectually, morally, and politically, of the ethnically diverse Graeco-Roman world. It was the most important center of trade in the whole empire; and its primacy as an emporium of ideas was more commanding than that of Rome or Constantinople, Antioch or Marseilles. Its famous "Catechetical School", while sacrificing none of its famous passion for orthodoxy since the days of Pantaenus, Clement, and Origen, had begun to take on an almost secular character in the comprehensiveness of its interests, and had counted influentials pagans among its serious auditors (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl., VI, xix).
Athanasius seems to have been brought early in life under the immediate supervision of the ecclesiastical authorities of his native city. A story has been preserved by Rufinus (Hist. Eccl., I, xiv). The bishop Alexander, so the tale runs, had invited a number of fellow prelates to meet him at breakfast after a great religious function. While Alexander was waiting for his guests to arrive, he stood by a window, watching a group of boys at play on the seashore below the house. He had not observed them long before he discovered that they were imitating the elaborate ritual of Christian baptism. He sent for the children and, in the investigation that followed, it was discovered that one of the boys (none other than the Athanasius), had acted the part of the bishop, and in that character had actually baptized several of his companions in the course of their play. Alexander determined to recognize the make-believe baptisms as genuine, and decided that Athanasius and his playfellows should go into training in order to prepare themselves for a clerical career.
Sozomen speaks of his "fitness for the priesthood", and calls attention to the significant circumstance that he was "from his tenderest years practically self-taught". "Not long after this," adds the same authority, the Bishop Alexander "invited Athanasius to be his commensal and secretary. He had been well educated, and was versed in grammar and rhetoric, and had already, while still a young man, and before reaching the episcopate, given proof to those who dwelt with him of his wisdom and acumen" (Soz., II, xvii). That "wisdom and acumen" manifested themselves in a varied environment. While still a levite under Alexander's care, he seems to have been brought for a while into close relations with some of the solitaries of the Egyptian desert, and in particular with the great St. Anthony, whose life he is said to have written.
[edit] Controversy in Athanasius’ Life
Athanasius’ life was mired in controversy, and recent scholarly works at time paint a less than flattering picture of the saint. His ascension to the station of Bishop in Alexandria occurred under questionable circumstances. Upon the death of his predecessor Alexander, in 328 C.E., more than fifty bishops gathered to confer a new leader to the Alexandrian see. While Alexander had been priming Athanasius to assume the bishopric after his death, he was not unanimously supported, and questions of his age (the minimum age to become a bishop was thirty, and questions remain to this day if he was yet that old), as well as less than overwhelming support, did not help his candidacy. Growing impatient, Athanasius took a small number of bishops who supported his claim, and held a private consecration making him bishop. His ascension would later be declared the will of the people.[1] Throughout most of his career, Athanasius would be haunted by allegations of defiling an altar, selling Church grain that had been meant to feed the poor for his own personal gain, and for suppressing descent through violence and murder.[2] It cannot be claimed, beyond all doubt, if any or all of these specific allegations were true, but Athanasius almost certainly employed violence when it suited his cause or personal interests,[3] and his administration of the Alexandrian see has even been likened to an “ecclesiastical mafia”.[4] Serious questions also surround the reliability of his historical accounts. Athanasius seems to have severely misrepresented his own life and events, in order to warp the truth behind his own actions, and those of his enemies; especially when discussing his theological opponents, the Arians.
[edit] Opposition to Arianism
In about 319, when Athanasius was a deacon, a presbyter named Arius came into a direct conflict with Bishop Alexander. It appears that Arius approached Alexander for what he felt were misguided or heretical teachings being taught by the bishop.[5] Arius’ theological views appear to have been firmly rooted in Alexandrian Christianity, and not radical at all.[6] He embraced a subordinationist Christology (that God did not have a beginning, but the Logos did), heavily influenced by Alexandrian thinkers like Origen,[7] which was a common Christological view at the time. Arius was subsequently excommunicated by Alexander, and he would begin to elicit the support of many bishops who agreed with his position. Athanasius then accompanied Alexander to the First Council of Nicaea in 325, the council produced the Nicene Creed and anathematized Arius and his followers. On May 9, 328, he succeeded Alexander as bishop of Alexandria. As a result of rises and falls in Arianism's influence after the First Council of Nicaea, he was banished from Alexandria to Tyre by Emperor Constantine I only to be later restored after the death of Constantine I by his son Constantine II. Athanasius was restored on at least five separate occasions, perhaps as many as seven. This gave rise to the expression "Athanasius contra mundum" or "Athanasius against the world". During some of his exiles, he spent time with the Desert Fathers, monks and hermits who lived in remote areas of Egypt. Despite his doctrinal firmness, he showed diplomatic flair in rallying the Orthodox at the Council of Alexandria in 362.
[edit] Athanasius' misrepresentation of Arianism
Athanasius’ opponents the Arians, as presented by the saint, were a cohesive group that completely backed Arius’ views, and followed him as a leader. This was not so. It is now accepted by most scholars that the Arian Party were not a monolithic group.[8] It is now believed that Arius’ supporters held drastically different theological views that spanned the early Christian theological spectrum.[9][10][11] They supported the tenants of Origenist thought and theology,[12] but had little else in common. The term Arian was fabricated by Athanasius. Athanasius used the term Arian to describe all of his opponents,except for Melitians.[13] He used the term in a derogatory fashion to chide Arius’ supporters[14] who did not see themselves as followers of Arius.[15] As stated by Timothy Barnes; Athanasius used “invented dialogue to ridicule his adversaries”, and used “suppression and distortion” to serve his own means.[16] He often blamed charges and accusations leveled at him on “Arian Madmen” who he claimed conspired to destroy him and Christianity. The Arian party, as described by Athanasius, simply did not exist in the form he portrayed them in his writings, and the view of Arianism that existed for over a thousand years, would not have existed were it not for Athanasius.
[edit] Writings
Athanasius spent a good deal of his energy on polemical writings against his theological opponents. Examples include: Orations Against the Arians, his defence of the divinity of the Holy Spirit (Letters to Serapion) in the 360s, and On the Holy Spirit) against the Macedonian heresy.
Arguably his most read work is his biography of Anthony the Great entitled Vita Antonii, or Life of Antony. This biography later served as an inspiration to Christian monastics in both the East and the West. The Athanasian Creed is traditionally ascribed to him.
[edit] New Testament canon
Athanasius is also the first person to identify the same 27 books of the New Testament that are in use today. Up until then, various similar lists of works to be read in churches were in use. A milestone in the evolution of the canon of New Testament books is his Easter letter from Alexandria, written in 367, usually referred to as his 39th Festal Letter. Pope Damasus, the Bishop of Rome in 382, promulgated a list of books which contained a New Testament canon identical to that of Athanasius. A synod in Hippone in 393 repeated Athansius' and Damasus' New Testament list (without the Epistle to the Hebrews), and a synod in Carthage in 397 repeated Athanasius' and Damasus' complete New Testament list.
Scholars have debated whether Athanasius' list in 367 was the basis for the later lists. Because Athanasius' canon is the closest canon of any of the Church Fathers to the canon used by Protestant churches today many Protestants point to Athanasius as the father of the canon. They are identical except that Athanasius includes the Book of Baruch and the Letter of Jeremiah and places the Book of Esther among the apocrypha along with the Wisdom of Solomon, Sirach (Ecclesiasticus), Judith, Tobit, the Didache, and the Shepherd of Hermas.[17] See the article, Biblical canon, for more details.
[edit] Later Life and Veneration
In the spring of 365, after the accession of Emperor Valens to the throne, troubles again arose. Athanasius was once more compelled to seek safety from his persecutors in concealment (October 365), which lasted, however, only for four months. In February 366 he resumed his episcopal labours, in which he henceforth remained undisturbed. On the 2nd of May 373, having consecrated Peter II, one of his presbyters, as his successor, he died quietly in his own house.
The saint was originally buried in Alexandria, but his body was later transferred to Italy. Pope Shenouda III restored the relics of St. Athanasius back to Egypt on 15 May 1973 [1], after his historic visit to the Vatican and meeting with Pope Paul VI. The relics of St. Athanasius the Great of Alexandria are currently preserved under the new St. Mark Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Deir El-Anba Rowais, Abbassiya, Cairo, Egypt.
The following is a troparion (hymn) to St. Athanasius sung in some Orthodox churches.
- O holy father Athanasius,
- like a pillar of orthodoxy
- you refuted the heretical nonsense of Arius
- by insisting that the Father and the Son are equal in essence.
- O venerable father, beg Christ our God to save our souls.
[edit] Criticism of Athanasius
Some modern historians suggest that the tactics of Athanasius were a significant factor in his success. He did not hesitate to back up his theological views with the use of force. In Alexandria, he assembled a group that could instigate a riot in the city if needed. It was an arrangement "built up and perpetuated by violence."[18] Along with the standard method of excommunication he used beatings, intimidation, kidnapping and imprisonment to silence his theological opponents. Unsurprisingly, these tactics caused widespread distrust and led him to being tried many times for "bribery, theft, extortion, sacrilege, treason and murder.[19] While the charges rarely stuck, his reputation was a major factor in his multiple exiles from Alexandria. He justified these tactics with the argument that he was saving all future Christians from hell. Athanasius stubbornly refused to compromise his theological views by stating, "What is at stake is not just a theological theory but people's salvation."[20] He played a clear role in making the Constantinian shift a part of the theology of the church.
However, there are also many modern historians who object to this view and point out that such hostile attitude towards Athanasius is based on an unfair judgement of historical sources.[21] There are at present two completely opposite views about the personality of Athanasius. While some scholars praise him as an orthodox saint with great character, some see him as a power-hungry politician, or even a violent gangster. Both parties claim to have strong evidence supporting their views.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- Arnold, Duane W.-H., 1991 The Early Episcopal Career of Athanasius of Alexandria
- Barnes, Timothy D., Athanasius and Constantius : Theology and Politics in the Constantinian Empire (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1993).
- Barnes, Timothy D., Constantine and Eusebius (Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 1981)
- Brakke, David, 1995. Athanasius and the Politics of Asceticism
- Chadwick, Henry, “Faith and Order at the Council of Nicaea”, Harvard Theological Review LIII (Cambridge Mass: 1960), 171-195.
- Ernest, James D., 2004. The Bible in Athanasius of Alexandria
- Haas, Christopher “The Arians of Alexandria”, Vigiliae Christianae Vol. 47, no. 3 (1993), 234-245.
- Kannengiesser, Charles, “Alexander and Arius of Alexandria: The last Ante-Nicene theologians”, Miscelanea En Homenaje Al P. Antonio Orbe Compostellanum Vol. XXXV, no. 1-2. (Santiago de Compostela, 1990), 391-403.
- Kannengiesser, Charles “Athanasius of Alexandria vs. Arius: The Alexandrian Crisis”, in The Roots of Egyptian Christianity (Studies in Antiquity and Christianity), ed. Birger A. Pearson and James E. Goehring (1986), 204-215.
- Ng, Nathan K. K., 2001 The Spirituality of Athanasius
- Olson, Roger E., 1999 The Story of Christian Theology
- Rubenstein, Richard E., When Jesus Became God: The Epic Fight over Christ’s Divinity in the Last Days of Rome (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1999).
- Williams, Rowan Arius: Heresy and Tradition (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1987).
[edit] Notes
- ^ Rubenstein, Richard E., When Jesus Became God: The Epic Fight over Christ’s Divinity in the Last Days of Rome (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1999), 105-106
- ^ Barnes, Timothy D., Athanasius and Constantius : Theology and Politics in the Constantinian Empire (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1993),37
- ^ Rubenstein,106
- ^ Barnes, Timothy D., Constantine and Eusebius (Cambridge Mass: Harvard University Press, 1981), 230-231.
- ^ Kannengiesser, Charles, “Alexander and Arius of Alexandria: The last Ante-Nicene theologians”, Miscelanea En Homenaje Al P. Antonio Orbe Compostellanum Vol. XXXV, no. 1-2. (Santiago de Compostela, 1990),398
- ^ Williams, Rowan, Arius: Heresy and Tradition (London: Darton, Longman and Todd, 1987),175
- ^ Williams, 175
- ^ Haas, Christopher, “The Arians of Alexandria”, Vigiliae Christianae Vol. 47, no. 3 (1993), 239
- ^ Chadwick, Henry, “Faith and Order at the Council of Nicaea”, Harvard Theological Review LIII (Cambridge Mass: 1960),173
- ^ Williams, 63
- ^ Kannengiesser "Alexander and Arius", 403
- ^ Kannengiesser, “Athanasius of Alexandria vs. Arius: The Alexandrian Crisis”, in The Roots of Egyptian Christianity (Studies in Antiquity and Christianity), ed. Birger A. Pearson and James E. Goehring (1986),208
- ^ Barnes "Athanasius and Constantius",135
- ^ Barnes "Athanasius and Constantius",14
- ^ Williams, 82
- ^ Barnes "Athanasius and Constantius",128
- ^ Excerpt from Letter 39
- ^ Barnes, 230.
- ^ Rubenstein, 6.
- ^ Olson, 172.
- ^ Arnold, 24-99; Ng, 273-292.
[edit] External links
- Background information, plus his actual writings
- The Athanasian Creed
- Athanasius Select Resources, Bilingual Anthology (in Greek original and English)
- The Life and Ministry of Athanasius, John Piper
- {http://www.wicketgate.co.uk/p10.html / Two audio lectures about Athanasius on the deity of Christ, Dr N Needham]
| Preceded by Alexander |
Patriarch of Alexandria 328–373 or 328-339 346-373 |
Succeeded by Peter II Gregory of Cappadocia (arian antipatriarch, not acknowledged) Peter II |
