Athanasius of Alexandria

The Apostle’s Creed The Apostles Creed is the creed most widely used in Christian worship in the western world. Throughout the Middle Ages it was generally believed that this creed was composed by the Apostles on the day of Pentecost and that each of them contributed one of the twelve sections. This appears to be a legend dating back to somewhere between the 4th and 6th Centuries. However it still has good reason to be called the Apostles Creed because its content is in agreement with apostolic…

One of the scribes, Athanasius, who later became the Bishop of Alexandria following the death of Bishop Alexander, was one of the major contributors to the Creed of Nicaea. Athanasius consistently believed that Christ and God were of equal and had great disdain for those who supported the Arian belief that saw Christ as a lesser figure to God. As Margaret…

Athanasius was the chief deacon assistant to Bishop Alexander of Alexandria. A man called Arius denied that Christ was fully God. He claimed that Christ was father’s creation and thus Christ wasn’t supposed to be considered as God, arguing on a fact that Christ could not offer salvation (Dennison, Jr.). Athanasius challenged this view by giving examples of his own. The incarnation of the Word is his most famous writing (Galli). He also describes how Christ can give salvation. According to him,…

These viewpoints were encompassed under two schools of thought, Alexandrian and Antiochene. In the first school, Apollinaris of Laodicea and Cyril of Alexandria set to the task of presenting the logos as being of one united nature, i.e. Jesus’ human nature was assumed by the divine nature through incarnation. Apollinaris’ stance was that Jesus’ human mind and soul was fully replaced by the divine logos…

Cyril of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, Augustine, and others. And most western and eastern scholars agree that the most influential Father in defining the canon was St. Athanasius in 367 AD, who was the first bishop who used his position as head of an extensive and important diocese (Alexandria) to deal with the question of the biblical…

time, the “symmetry between the presence of classical motifs in Renaissance art and the influence of antique sources” (Stowell). In the case of The Torment of St. Anthony, the story of the main figure originates from the early writings of Athanasius of Alexandria (“The Life”). The Egyptian is highly regarded among Roman Catholics as a Doctor of the Church (Chapman). His writings on St. Anthony include a section on St. Anthony’s time spent fighting off demons and beasts while remaining faithful…

The move into the Christian-Roman period, or the early Medieval/Dark Ages marked an important point in Catholic Christianity’s history, and allowed controversies over the teaching and practice of religious doctrines throughout Christianity to present themselves. Leaders within the churches convened in order to form unanimous and unwavering principles as answers to the essential questions of teaching orthodox faith. These debates would be called Ecumenical Councils, settling disputes regarding…

Jones states that two Gospels in the Bible were based to accounts of eyewitnesses. The testimony of Luke claims to be of “those who were eyewitnesses from the beginning” and John’s Gospel is based on the claims of the apostle John, “ the one who saw this has testified, his testimony is true”. These Gospels use the support of eyewitnesses to push the truth. This is pointed out by Jones as he discusses Mark’s Gospel was around 70 A.D., which means that there had to be people still alive who were…

really God, is the Holy Spirit a part of God, and is Jesus really full man and God.The first controversy was in 324 A.D. when Arius gives his position of God being the only eternal being and that Jesus the son is only a creature.Alexander (Bishop of Alexandria) response in disagreement was that Jesus is indeed a eternal being equal to God.This ultimately leads to Constantine calling the First Ecumenical Council in Nicea.Next, the controversy in 381 A.D. was meant to clear the question of the…

In the beginning of early church history, different perspectives were addressed based on the Christological view and deity of Christ. The early western church fathers played a significant role in this era. The bishops of the church would meet together to discuss and debate their views and attempt to resolve the issues involving church doctrine. The texts of “Reading in Christian Thought” by Hugh Kerr, “Pocket History of the Church” by D. Jeffrey Bingham and “A Concise History of Christian…