Athanasius of Alexandria

Athanasius was born around the year 296 in Alexandria, Egypt, at a time when the church was passing through a period of fierce persecution. He grew up in the city that was the center of Christian learning in the eastern empire. As a young man he was taken under the wing of the bishop, Alexander, and served as his secretary and deacon. He was a small man, and his enemies sometimes mocked him for it, but he had a sharp mind and an unshakable will.

Around the year 318, he wrote a book called On the Incarnation of the Word, which has remained one of the great works of Christian theology. In it he explained why the Son of God became a man. He taught that humanity had fallen into corruption and death, and that only God Himself could restore it. The Word took a body like ours so that He could die in our place and conquer death, and so that we might share in His life. The book is clear and beautifully written, and it is still read as a plain statement of the gospel.

At that time a priest in Alexandria named Arius began to teach that the Son was a created being, that there was a time when He was not, and that He was not truly of the same nature as the Father. The teaching spread quickly and divided the church. In 325 the emperor Constantine called a council of bishops to Nicaea to settle the matter. Athanasius attended as a young deacon with Bishop Alexander. The council declared that the Son is of the same substance as the Father, and it wrote the Nicene Creed to say so.

When Alexander died in 328, Athanasius was chosen as bishop of Alexandria. He was about thirty years old. From that day until his death, he was a champion of the Nicene faith. The struggle was long and bitter. Arianism had strong support among the bishops and in the imperial court, and many emperors favored it. Athanasius refused to compromise. He taught that if Christ were not truly God, He could not save us, and if the Son were only a creature, then worship of Him would be idolatry.

For this stand, he paid dearly. He was exiled five times by different emperors, and he spent about seventeen years of his episcopate away from his see. He lived in Trier in Germany, in Rome and in the deserts of Egypt, where he was sheltered by monks. He was falsely accused of crimes, including murder and sorcery. He was hunted by soldiers and had to hide for months. He was known by a Latin phrase that means Athanasius against the world, since at times it seemed that almost everyone had turned against him.

He also wrote about the life of the monk Antony, a work that did much to spread the monastic movement in the church. In 367, in one of his yearly letters to the churches, he gave a list of the books of the New Testament that matches the twenty-seven books we have today. He was one of the first to name them.

He was not a perfect man. In the heat of the controversy, he could be harsh with his opponents, and some of the methods used by his party were rough. He had enemies who thought him stubborn and violent. Yet his central conviction was right, and the church later recognized it.

He died on May 2, 373, in Alexandria, in his own bed. Within a few years, the Nicene faith was confirmed at the Council of Constantinople. His life shows that the truth about Christ is worth defending, even at the cost of comfort and reputation, and that one man who holds firm can turn the course of the church.