Athanasius- a brief biography
Athanasius came on the scene fighting Arius over the deity of Christ. Arius had gotten a hold in the Christian scene by saying that Jesus wasn’t completely God. Arius, at the time a secretary to the Bishop of Alexandria, became the chief spokesman against Arius at the Council of Nicea in 325. This is where the term homo-ouisis comes from, that Christ was of the same nature of God.
A few years later, Athanasius becomes the Bishop of Alexandria. The argument was not solved and he was urged to negotiate with the people and come to some line that they could agree on. He refused to do so, knowing that it would lead to surrendering the doctrine of Christology in some way. This reluctance to negotiate theology made him very unpopular with Constantine and other rulers and he ends up getting removed from his position a total of 5 times.
Each time he was asked to leave because he wouldn’t budge. From this comes the phrase “Athanasius against the world”. The first banishment, under Constantine, lasted two and half years, ending with Constantine’s death. He was again deposed in 340 by Constantine’s son. After pleading his case again, he is given his position back in 346. Ten years later, he again falls into bad graces for his stand for the deity of Christ, and is run out of his church by soldiers. This exile lasted for 6 years. The next emperor, Jovian, praised his ‘Christian fidelity’ and returned him to his position again. This nice emperor didn’t last too long, and the next guy kicked people out that Constantius had kicked out. This lasted a short time, and was asked to come back for the last time.
posted by Tim Costine @ 3:59 PM
7 comments
7 Comments:
Do you mean Athanasius became the chief spokesman against Arius?
Athanasius was the head representative of a group from Alexandria at the Council of Nicea in 325 AD. Constantine had called the council to settle the question of the nature of Christ as brought up through the Arian Controversy. Arian was a logician who surmised that if the Father "begot" the Son (Acts 13:33; Heb 1:5, 5:5; all quoting Psalm 2), then Christ was finite; There was a point in which Christ did not exist. This lead to the view of homoiousious, meaning that Christ was of a similar substance as the Father, not homoousious, as the same substance, as Tim said. Arius' view was widely accepted as it seemed to be a defense against another heresy, Modalism, which stated that there was only one God who took on different roles, or wore different 'masks' (one being the Father, another the Son, and another the Holy Spirit) at different times; never functioning in any capacity at the same time as another. Athanasius was the chief spokesman against the Arian view at the Nicea Council, and actually convinced Constantine to pronounce the Arian view, and any who held to it, as anathema. However, the Arian Controversy, as it came to be called, did not end until almost 56 years later around 381.
and as is evident, there was a guy that believed Arius and he influenced the emperors after Constantine to hold to their view. They wanted to do that because they didn't really like Christianity, and they knew this would help them to persecute guys like Athanasius. but Athanasius kept making his case and being put back into office.
This, like many heresies, certainly continues today! There are many calling themselves "Christian" who hold to the same thing as Arius. Thanks for the info guys. I'll never forget Athanasius now. So one term is "homoi (a plural, right?) ousious" [similar substance] and the other is "homo (the same kind) ousious" [same substance]? Just in case I hear someone arguing the case (when I'm at Shaw's or the Mall ;), I want to make sure I have it straight in my mind...
Yup, two terms:
Homoiousious = SIMILAR substance
Homoousious = SAME substance
I haven't had any Greek yet (emphasis on the yet, so don't ask me to parse the words =)
You're gonna love the pain, Ian. The trick is to never look ahead in the textbook (one week at a time!), to never fall behind (you'll never catch up) and to keep repeating to yourself "this is worth it", "this is worth it". Even though I'm only a month into the second year I am already able to notice how much easier it is for me to read from John. (I'm a looong way from Luke and the writer of Hebrews!) I even downloaded LXX free from e-sword [www.e-sword.net] (a GREAT free Bible program!!), and can even pick out a few things in it. I figure this could save me from having to learn Hebrew. ;)
"I figure this could save me from having to learn Hebrew."
Don't count on it....
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