St. Athanasius On The Incarnation

Outside the walls of Grove City College, the rest of the world does not hold to the high moral standards that this college does. America and the rest of the world have abandoned religion and the teachings of God, leading to immoral practices and ridicule of proper behavior by those who do not practice it. In the face of this opposition, it would seem unwise to attack the norms of popular culture head-on and bring about major change in society. However, St. Athanasius’s work On the Incarnation addresses this very issue as it applied to the Greeks and other Gentiles in the areas of early Christian communities. In his book, he clearly explains the means of every Christian’s salvation and lays the theological foundation that all of Jesus’s teachings …show more content…
The major feature of his reassurance of faith is a reminder of the absolute conquering of death wrought by the death of Jesus and the bravery believers feel in their salvation after death, as seen by their fearlessness when they face death (Chapter 28). Because death and disease were a more pressing threat to the people of this time, they would have lived in fear of death and dying, so Athanasius reassures them of God’s salvation. To do so, he reminds them that there is no reason to fear death because Jesus has defeated death in sin by dying for the sins of all the world. While this point is made in the Gospels, he emphasizes this victory to his readers by reminding them of the way Jesus’s death and resurrection are made to completely show His dominion over death, beginning with the ignoble death He suffered and the details of how He revealed His resurrection. Athanasius ends his discourse on the death and resurrection of Jesus by claiming that “when one sees human beings…leaping toward death, neither shrinking from its corruption nor fearing the descent to hell…for the sake of Christ” (Chapter 29) it is impossible for anyone to doubt the reality of Jesus’s life and defeat of death. In Chapters 31 and 32 he challenges those who worship false gods and demons, and claims that if their gods were real, they should be able to drive out Jesus, who had died. However, since Jesus and those who act in his name can drive out demons, Jesus must have been resurrected after his victory over death because someone who is dead should not have power over demons because the demons themselves are dead. Finally, before leaving this world, Jesus called His people to a task of converting the world and to not remain at ease