The Athanasian Creed, so called, is not the work them in order to get the correct idea. But the same of Athanasius. See Creed, Athaxasian. For the is the case with the idea of creation, which the Arians doctrinal views of Athanasius, end for bis great ser-
vices to the church in settling the scientific doctrine of the Trinity, see Shedd, History of Christian Doctrine^ bk. iii, ch.iii; bk. v, ch. vi; Smith's Hagenbacb, His- tory of Doctrines, § 87-105 ; Neander, History of Dog- mas; ii, 290 sq. Bishop Kaye's Account of the Council of unity of essence and derivation of nature. Athana- of Niceea (Lond. 1853, 8vo) gives a history of the Ari- sius objects to the Semi-Arians that the ideas of like- an heresv from its rise to the death of Athanasius, and ness and unlikencss suit only creaturely relations ; in
willing to maintain; we should fall into error if
we tried to develop this according to human represent- ations. In like manner we must abstract from the ideas Son of God and begotten of God what belongs to sensuous relations, and then there is left to us the idea
ATIIANASIUS 508
reference to God we can speak only of unity cr diver- sity. It belongs to the idea of creation that some- thing is created out of nothing, ab extra, by the will of God; to the idea of the Son of God belongs deriva- tion from the essence of God. It was a difficulty to the Semi- Aiians in general, as well as to the Arians, that the Son of God was asserted to maintain his exist- ence not by a direct act of the Father's will, and both parties urged against the Nicseans the dilemma that either ( lod brought the Son into being by his own will, or that he was begotten against his will by necessity. Athanasius emphatically maintained the doctrine they impugned. If the will of God be supposed to be the origin of the Son's existence, then the Son of God be- longs to the class of creatures. The existence of the divine Logos precedes all particular acts of the divine will, which are all effectuated only by the Logos, who himself is the living divine will. Our opponents think only of the contrast between will and compulsion ; they ignore what is higher, namely, the idea of that which is founded in the divine essence. We cannot say God is good and merciful first of all, by a special act of his will, but all the acts of the divine will presuppose the being of God. The same holds good of the Logos and the acts of God's will." — Neander, Hist, of Dogmas, i,
ATHEISM
Athanasius must be classed among the greatest of Christian theologians^ Yet in some points he was " weak like other men ;" and the ascetic and monastic spirit received a strong impulse from his writings, and especially from his Life of St. Anthony (q. v.). This and some other of his writings were doubtless interpo- lated by later writers in the interest of Romish corrup- tions, yet enough remains to show that he shared in some of the Gnostic errors, especially with regard to religious virginity and celibacy. Thus, in his oration Against the Greeks, the following passage occurs : "The Son of God," says Athanasius (i, 698), "made man for us, and having abolished death, and having liberated our race from the servitude of corruption, hath, besides his other gifts, granted to us to have upon earth an image of the sanctity of angels, namely, virginity. The maids possessing this (sanctity), and whom the church catholic is wont to call the brides of Christ, are admired, even by the gentiles, as being the temple of the Logos. Nowhere, truly, except among us ( Ihristians, is this holy and heavenly profession fully borne out or perfected ; so that we ma}' appeal to this very fact as a convincing proof that it is among us that true religion is to be found." And thus, in the un- doubted tract of the same father on the Incarnation, we meet the very same prominent doctrine spoken of as a characteristic of the Christian system, and even including the Gnostic phrase applied to virginity, that it was an excellence obeying a rule "above law." " Who is there but our Lord and Saviour Christ that has not deemed this virtue (of virginity) to be utterly impracticable (or unattainable) among men, and yet be has so shown his divine power as to impel youths, as yet under age, lo profess it, a virtue beyond law ?" (i. II 5). (Taylor, Ancient Christianity, i, 222; see also Taylor's remarks on Athanasius's Life ef Anthony, p. 280.)
The most complete edition of the works of Athana- sius is thai of the Benedictines (Athanasii Opera om- tda '/in' extant, vel qua ejus nomine i-irciimf runtur, etc. Padua, 1777, 4 vols.fol.). Very convenient for ordi- nary students is Ath nasii opera dogmatica selecta, ed. Thilo ( Lips. 1853, 1000 pp. 8vo), which contains all the really important writings of Athanasius. The Four Orations against the Arians were translated by S. Par- ker (Oxf. 171:;, -J toIs. 8vo). We have also in English, Select Treatises in Controversy with the Arians, in the " Library of the Fathers,'' vols, viii, xix (Oxf. 1*42- II); HUtorical Tracts ( Lib. of Fathers, xiii, Oxf. 1843). The '-Festal Letters" of Athanasius were long lost, but were edited in 1848 bj Mr. Cureton, from a newly-