This guy's story is amazing! It's more like an action thriller than a typical fourth-century bishop's biography.Athanasius almost single-handedly took on the dominant heresy of his day (Arianism, which rejected the true divinity of Jesus Christ and his co-eternity with God the Father), was exiled five times by four different Roman emperors, and spent much of his life as a political fugitive. He survived by hiding out with ascetic monks in the Egyptian desert, sleeping in family tombs, and once even dodging an imperial hunt by hiding in a dry cistern.Against all odds, Athanasius actually won out. When Valens considered banishing Athanasius again, the public outrage and threat of riots was such that Valens instead allowed him to live in peace in Alexandria. Just eight years after his death, the First Council of Constantinople officially enshrined the Nicene Creed once and for all, permanently vindicating the theological battle he'd spent his entire life fighting.
There is even a famous Latin epithet: Athanasius contra mundum (Athanasius against the world)
>>18651996I believe that was coined by St. Jerome
>>18651976The only thing this story highlights is how pathetic Chrisrians are, persecuting each other over theological disagreements. Naturally Athanasius's team did the same when they were in power.
>>18651976Jeremiah 11:13You, Judah, have as many gods as you have towns; and the altars you have set up to burn incense to that shameful god Baal are as many as the streets of Jerusalem.’
How certain are we that it isn't Trinitarianism that is the heresy and Arianism that is the truth?
>>18651976nobody ever explains why it matters one way or the other>>18652601Aryanism isn't incompatible with trinitarianism
>>18652601John 1:1, for one thing.
>>18652601the gospels and the nature of salvation/Jesus' sacrifice don't make sense if he isn't actually God i.e. Jesus obviously is GodJesus literally tells his disciples to go and baptize in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; how can this make sense if not for the Holy Trinity
>>18652787>Jesus obviously is GodDisciples were kinda slow on picking this up
