Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296-373) · CatalogAthanasius of AlexandriaAthanasius of Alexandria (c. 296-373) · CatalogBishop of Alexandria and leading opponent of Arianism in the fourth-century church.
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Athanasius of Alexandria
c. 296-373 · Bishop of Alexandria and leading opponent of Arianism in the fourth-century church
Athanasius (c. 296–373) was bishop of Alexandria in Egypt for forty-five years. As a young deacon he attended the Council of Nicaea in 325 with his bishop Alexander, and in 328 he succeeded him. His defence of the Nicene teaching that the Son is of one being with the Father against Arius and his supporters brought him into conflict with emperors and church councils, and he was sent into exile five times, spending some of those years among the monks of the Egyptian desert. He wrote treatises against the Arians, letters on the Holy Spirit, a festal letter of 367 listing the twenty-seven books of the New Testament, and the Life of Antony, which spread the monastic ideal. He died in Alexandria in 373.
On the Incarnation of the Word is a short treatise in which Athanasius of Alexandria explains why the eternal Word of God became a human being, died and rose again. It forms the second half of a two-part work addressed to a Christian friend named Macarius; the first part, Against the Heathen, argues against idolatry and for the existence of one God known through creation and the Word.