One particular day, in the year 335 A.D., a powerful Roman emperor named Constantine was riding his horse into the city of Constantinople. Suddenly, a man of very small stature jumped in front of him on the road, grabbed the bridle of his horse, and refused to let him pass until he was granted a hearing. The great emperor did not recognize the man by appearance, but upon seeing his strong, dignified, and sturdy determination a momentary impression was made on the emperor, and he agreed to give a hearing to this man who stood in the way. This man, whom his enemies called ‘the Black Dwarf’ because of his short height and darkly colored skin, would in some sense live his life standing in the way with the same determination with which he stood before Constantine. He more than any other stood in the way of subtle nuances and heretical ideas in pivotal times that threatened to forever distort the Truth that the Church was built upon. He stood in the way of emperors and powerful civic figures when no one else would, enduring persecution. He stood in the way of needless division within the Church and provided the necessary effort for reconciliation when it could be realized. All of this grounded in his important writings that the Church’s doctrines echo to this day. Because of the particular time he lived in, the important theology he defined, and his tireless effort to stand in the way of one of the greatest heresies the Church has ever known, Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, has had the greatest influence on the Church of any Christian leader of any century outside of the bible.
The first point of influence was the Christ-centered theology and Christology of Athanasius. Athanasius was born at the tail end of the third century, a time when defining who precisely Christ was and his relationship with the Father were the issues of the day. Being taught by Alexander of Alexandria from an early age, Athanasius immersed himself in study. He soon came to believe that there was no question that Christ was at the center of the Christian faith and the center of human history. In his epic works, Against the Gentiles and On the Incarnation of the Word Athanasius argues that the Father originally created everything through the eternal Word and likewise re-creates humanity through the Word made flesh. Christ is the framework in which creation is understood, originated, and saved. While Iranaeus made a similar argument about the centrality of the incarnation in history nearly two centuries previous, Athanasius’ theology emerged in an important time in which it was most needed. On the subject of Christology, he argued that Jesus was both God and man in one being, because the man Jesus revealed himself as the eternal Son of God in the scriptures. There was no separation between Jesus being eternal as God and Jesus’ eating, sleeping, or suffering as a man. This point by Athanasius has forever helped the Church make sense of all that Jesus said and did in the New Testament. It also is the basis for the Church’s Christology to this day. Athanasius’ Christ-centered theology is the definitive foundation for the worship and doctrine of the Church today regarding the 2nd person of the Trinity.
The second point of influence was Athanasius’ theological defense against Arianism. Athanasius lived in that time when the Church was in a very vulnerable and tender state. The Church was wrestling with the philosophical tensions and paradoxes of the faith and was trying to figure out what precisely it believed. This gave rise to many heresies, one of the greatest of which was Arianism, to which Athanasius came to spend his whole life refuting. No heresy found itself so close to taking over the Church. Arianism proposed that Jesus Christ was a creature, an intermediary so much higher than earthly creatures yet infinitely lower than God. This was based on the very Greek belief that God was inaccessible and could not connect in any way with creatures. And to say that Jesus was eternal would damage God’s oneness and completeness according to Arianism. What was at stake here for Athanasius and the entire Church was not only the divinity of Christ, but it was an understanding of the very character of God. Christ was not an intermediary creature of an unknowable God for Athanasius. Christ was God incarnate sent by a Father who involved himself in history. This was a God who wanted to be in communion with his creation. In his Orations Against the Arians, Athanasius argues that believing in the incarnation was the hope and power of the Church. To believe anything less than this was not Christianity. In this important moment in the Church’s history, Athanasius’ uncompromising adherence to the Truth kept the Church from veering off in dangerous directions. Furthermore, he founded his arguments mainly on the scriptures at a time when Church leaders were more heavily dependent on Greek philosophy. The mere fact, for example, that God is referred to as Father in scripture denotes, for Athanasius, that God is eternally Father who eternally has a Son. Athanasius’ defense against Arianism not only solidified the doctrine of Christ’s divinity, but it also rescued the Church from drowning in Hellenistic abstraction over against being grounded in the scriptures.
A third point of influence was Athanasius’ defense against Arianism with his life and character. In 325 A.D., Athanasius went into the Council of Nicea as the secretary of the famous bishop of Alexandria, but he came out as the great and famous defender of orthodoxy. How exactly the young theologian contributed to the important council is uncertain, but it was the defining moment of his life making him both the 4th Century shepherd of the Church and the marked enemy of Arianism. A couple of years after the council Athanasius became Bishop of Alexandria one of the epicenters of the East. Although Nicea condemned Arianism, it raised its head again as the Arians began to find favor with Constantine. Athanasius saw a number of emperors throughout his life who were loyal to Arianism and began to persecute those bishops who upheld Nicene orthodoxy. Athanasius was particularly singled out and attacked. He was put into exile a total of five times throughout his life. Exile was a painful form of persecution for Athanasius and bishops like him. It separated him from the flock he so dearly loved in Alexandria. During the third exile of Athanasius, two stalwarts of orthodoxy, Bishop Hosius and Liberius, were persecuted into signing an Arian creed. Yet in these times of exile Athanasius did not give in and continued to alone stand in the way of Arianism and the Roman emperors. As much as his keen theological mind, Athanasius defended the Truth with the integrity and sanctity of his life. He was loved by those who held to the truth of the Gospel, celebrated greatly by his people as he returned from his exiles. Bishops and other Church leaders confided in him. He was constantly writing and corresponding as he experienced exile. Athanasius also had a strong inclination towards asceticism. More than one of his exiles found him escaping to the deserts to live simply. Some have called him the Father of the Monastic Movement. Athanasius possessed a unique combination of staunch stance and gentle pastoral love. Athanasius’ cause against Arianism was not based simply on curiosity and contemplation of his mind, but on his unstoppable love for Christ, the Church to which he was bishop of, and the hope that Christ was for it.
The great theologian Basil called Athanasius “the summit” of the Church, the foremost of the Church. He led the Church in its most pivotal time regarding what it believed. Not only did he stand in the way of heresies, but he also stood in a way leading us to confidently acknowledge the incarnate Son in our doctrine, unabashedly praise the risen savior in our worship, and imitate the Word made Flesh in our lives.
