Action and Faith

The Rev’d Stephen E. Stults
St. Paul’s Anglican Church

The Fourth Sunday after Easter (St. Athanasius)

 May 2, 2021

Today, we commemorate the feast day of St. Athanasius. Athanasius I of Alexandria^{[note 1]} (c. 296–298 – 2 May 373), also called Athanasius the Great, Athanasius the Confessor or, primarily in the Coptic Orthodox Church, Athanasius the Apostolic, was the 20th bishop of Alexandria (as Athanasius I). Recall that on the 3^rd Sunday of Easter, we also celebrated St. Mark, the first Bishop of Alexandria. Athanasius’ intermittent episcopacy spanned 45 years (c. 8 June 328 – 2 May 373), of which over 17 encompassed five exiles, when he was replaced on the order of four different Roman emperors. Athanasius was a Christian theologian, a Church Father, the chief defender of Trinitarianism against Arianism, and a noted Egyptian leader of the fourth century. (Recall that Arianism is a Christological heresy first attributed to Arius (c. AD 256–336),^[1][2] a Christian presbyter in Alexandria, Egypt. Arian theology holds that the Son of God is not co-eternal with God the Father^[1][a] and is distinct from the Father (therefore subordinate to him). However, as in mainstream Trinitarianism, Arianism holds that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,^[4][b][5][c] who was begotten by God the Father.[1])

Conflict with Arius and Arianism as well as successive Roman emperors shaped Athanasius' career. In 325, at the age of 27, Athanasius began his leading role against the Arians as a deacon and assistant to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria during the First Council of Nicaea. Roman emperor Constantine the Great had convened the council in May–August 325 to address the Arian position that the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, is of a distinct substance from the Father.^[4] Three years after that council, Athanasius succeeded his mentor as archbishop of Alexandria. In addition to the conflict with the Arians (including powerful and influential Arian churchmen led by Eusebius of Nicomedia), he struggled against the Emperors Constantine, Constantius II, Julian the Apostate and Valens. He was known as Athanasius Contra Mundum (Latin for Athanasius Against the World).

Nonetheless, within a few years of his death, Gregory of Nazianzus called him the "Pillar of the Church". His writings were well regarded by subsequent Church fathers in the West and the East, who noted their devotion to the Word-become-man, pastoral concern and interest in monasticism. Athanasius is considered one of the four great Eastern Doctors of the Church in the Catholic Church.^[5] In the Eastern Orthodox Church Athanasius is the first person to identify the same 27 books of the New Testament that are in use today.

He is venerated as a Christian saint, whose feast day is 2 May in Western Christianity, 15 May in the Coptic Orthodox Church, and 18 January in the other Eastern Orthodox Churches. He is venerated by the Oriental and Eastern Orthodox Churches, the Catholic Church, the Lutheran churches, and the Anglican Communion.[2]

At one point, Athanasias was the lone bishop who was not Arian. Thus, his moniker, “Athanasius against the World.” Thanks to his steadfastness and courage for orthodoxy, the Christian Church did not veer off into heresy forever. If Arianism had prevailed as the dominant theological strain of the Church, our religion would be quite different. The doctrine of the Trinity would not be the bedrock doctrine of our understanding of God.  Instead, we would have a distorted view of God. Rather than believing that each Person of the Trinity is co-eternal and co-equal, we would believe that God the Father is paramount, followed in power by the Son, with the Holy Ghost almost as an afterthought. This view perverts the unity and order of the Trinity. It also perpetuates the error that there are three Divine Beings.  This is a chief accusation that Islam levels against Christians, that we are multi-theists.

Luckily for us, Athanasius held for the traditional, orthodox view that God is One Being, in which there are three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There is no inequality in the Trinity: each Person is co-eternal, co-equal, and consubstantial.  This last term, the idea of being consubstantial, is the reason St. Athanasius ran afoul of the Arians. 

This term begs the question:  is Jesus, in his divinity, of the same substance as God the Father? If He is not, that means the Son is something different from the Father. If this is true, could Jesus save us, being God Himself?  Or, was He just sent to Earth by an authoritative Father-figure to act as His agent of salvation?

We think you might begin to see the difficulty here.  If Jesus is something different from the Father, that is, if he is not of the same substance, it raises great questions as to whom He is.  We are led into another whole field of quasi-theology, resulting in our confusion.

Instead, like Athanasius, we will stand on what the ancient Church has taught, and what the Word of God has revealed to us.  The second Person of the Trinity, the blessed Son, came to earth of His own free will, became incarnate in the womb of the Blessed Mother, and became man.  Man did not take on Divinity, but Divinity took on humanity.  As such, Jesus is inferior to the Father regarding His humanity, but equal to the Father regarding his divinity. As recorded in the Gospel of John (10:30), Jesus said, “I and my Father are one.”

At this point, one may wonder, “Why bother with all this theology?” Does it really matter? Unequivocally, yes… What you believe affects how you think.  How you think affects how you behave.  How you behave affects the world and the overall fabric of society.  People of faith tend to act with more purpose and conviction in a positive way, because at least they have a basic “roadmap” for life. Granted, others not of the household of faith also act with purpose and conviction, sometimes tirelessly, but their orientation is not as positive, if at all. Absent the Spirit of God, they appeal to the centrality of Man in all things.  In the end, this always fails due to the finality and fragility of Man.  We are a fallen race and can only reach perfection in Jesus Christ.

As always, all heresies begin and end with Jesus. To the faithless and unchurched, He is an enigma at best, as they ponder the God-Man thing, or at least, merely reduced to a great human teacher who was unjustly killed.  Either way, without the great teaching of the Church, there is a profound chasm of spiritual peril on both sides of the narrow path to salvation. 

 

Praise God, we of the household of faith are led up this pathway to righteousness by no other than the Great Shepherd, our Savior, our God, our Brother, and our eternal Friend, Jesus Christ the Righteous.

Following His lead, we can never stray.

[Heb 13:20-21] “Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, 21 Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom [be] glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

 

 

 

 

 

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[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianism

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasius_of_Alexandria