found Syrian MS., and translated into German under the title Die Fest-Briefe des Heiligen Athanasius, uus dem Syrischen iibersetzt und durch Anmerkungai erlau- tert von F. Larzow (Leipzig, 1852, pp. 156) ; also into English by Burgess (Oxf. 1854, 8vo, pp. 190). Sec Journal of Sac. Lit. Jan. 1855, p. 255. A complete list of the works of Athanasius, including the doubtful and supposititious as well as the genuine, is given in Fabri- cius. Willi. Grrvc. ed. Harles, vii, 184-215. The sources of information as to the life of Athanasius, besides his own writings, are the church histories of Socrates (lib. i, iii), Sozomen (ii, iii), Theodoret (i, ii), and the ma- terial is well arranged by Montfaucon, Vita Athanasii, prefixed to the Benedictine ed. of his works. There is also a modern biography by Mohler, Athanasius d. Crosse und die Kirche seiner Zeit, which gives a careful analysis of his doctrine and writings. See also Boh- ninger, Kirchengeschichte in Eiographien (vol. i, pt. ii, Zurich, 1842) ; Hitter, Gesch. der Christlkh. Philosophic^ vol. ii ; Baur, Christ!. Lehre v. der Dreieinigkeit, vol. i ; Dorner, History of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ, vol. i, div. ii (Edinb. ed.) ; Neander, Ch. Hist, ii, 380 ; Murdoch's Mosheim, Ch. Hist, i, 239 ; Eng. Cyclopad'a ; Gibbon, Decline and Foil, ch. xxi-xxiv; Dupin, Fee/. Script, i ; Tillemont, Jlemoires, vol. viii ; Cave, Hist, Lit. anno 326; Clarke, Sticcession of Sacred Literature, i, 260 ; Voigt, die Lehre des Athanasius von Alexandrit n (partly trans), in Libliotheca Sacra, Jan. 1864) ; Shedd, History of Christian Doctrine, bk. iii, ch. iii; Kaye, Council of Nwea (Lond. 1853, 8vo) ; Christian Remem- brancer, Jan. 1854. art. iv; Herzog, Eeal-Fncyklopddie, i, 571 sq. ; Villemain, Eloepitnce Chret. au ime siecle, 92 sq.
Athanasius, a priest of Alexandria, was the son of Isidora, sister of Cyril of Alexandria. He was rob- bed of his property . nd degraded by Dioscorus, and, being driven out of Egypt, wandered about in poverty and distress until 451, in which year he carried his complaint before the Council of Chalcedon. This complaint is given in Labbe, iv, 405. — Cave, Hist. Lit. anno 451.
Athanasius (Junior), cr Celetes, surnamed Herniosus, was bishop of Alexandria from about A. D. 490 to 497, and was esteemed a good Biblical scholar, an active bishop, and a devout man. He is supposed to be the author of several works ascribed to Athana- sius the Great, particularly the Sacras Scriptune Sy- nopsis ; Quvstiones et Eesponsiones ad Antiochum ; two tracts, De Incarnatione Yerbi Dei ; Syntagma Doctrinal ad Clericos et Laicos; de Yirginitate sire Ascesi. — Penny Cyclopaedia, s. v.
Athari'as ('Ar3-api'ac), a name given (1 Esdr. v, 40) in connection with that of Nehemias (Nehc miah), evidently by the translator misunderstanding the title Tirshatha (q. v.) of the original text (Ezra ii, 63 ; comp. Neh. viii, 9).
Ath'arim (Ileb. Atharim , bl'iriX, regions; Sept. 'A&crpti'/t), a place in the south of Palestine near which the Israelites passed on their way thither (Num. xxi, 1, where the English version improperlj' renders ~~1? E^TNn, uthc tray of the spies;" see Gesenius, Thee. Heb. p. 171). It was, perhaps, a general designation of the region north of Mount Seir through which the Canaanites presumed that the Israelites were about to pass, as indeed they would have done but for the lidom- ites' refusal of a passage to them. See Exode.
Athbash. See Atbacii.
Atheism (from aQtoe, without God), in popular language, means the negation of the existence of God.
1. Use of the Word. — In all ages the term has been applied according to the popular conception of <>nV (God). Thus the word uBtoc, atheist, in old Greek usage, meant one who denied "the gods," especially the gods recognised 1 y the law of the state. In this way
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several of the Greek philosophers (even Socrates) were called atheists (Cicero, Nat. Deorum, i, 23). Cicero himself defines an atheist as one who in theory denies the existence of any God, or practically refuses to worship any {Athens, qui sine Beo est, impius, qui Deum esse non credit, (tut si credat, non colit, Deorum contemp- tor). This distinction of atheism into theoretical and practical has remained, in popular language, to this d.iy. At a later period the Pagans applied the term atheists to the Christians as a generic name of re- proach, because they denied the heathen gods and derided their worship (Eusebius, Ch. Hist, iv, 15 ; Bing- ham, Orig. Eccles. bk. i, ch. ii, § 1). In the theologi- cal strifes of the early church it was not uncommon for the contending parties to call each other atheists, and, later still, the burning of heretics was justified by calling them atheists. The term was applied, in sci- entific theology, to such forms of unbelief as that of Pomponatius (Pomponazzi, f 1524) and Vanini (f 1619). Bacon (Essay xvi) uses the term to designate infidelity in general, and the denial of God in particular (" I had rather believe," he says, "all the fabulous tales in the Talmud and the Alcoran, than that the univer- sal frame is without a mind''). So also in the Be A ug- mentis (i, 11) he speaks of "a little knowledge inclin- ing the mind of man to atheism." Toward the end of the 17th century the term is not unfrequently found, e. g. in Kortholt's Be Tribus Impostoribus, 1080, to in- clude Deism such as that of Hobbes, as well as blank Pantheism like Spinoza's, which more justly deserves the name. The same use is seen in Colerus's work against Spinoza, Arcana Atheismi Revelata. Tillotson (Serm. i on Atheism) and Bentley (Boyle Lectures) use the word more exactly, and the invention of the term deism induced in the writers of the 18th century a more limited and exact use of the word atheism. But in Germany, Keimannus (Historia Urdu. Atheismi, 1725, p. 437 sq.) and Buddaeus (De Athelsmo et Super- set ione, 1723, ch. iii, § 2) use it most widely, and es- pecially make it include disbelief of immortality (Far- rar, Critical History of Free Th right, 414). Waleh (lli'ili itheca Theol. Selecta, 1757, i, G7C, etc.) uses it to include Spinoza, Hobbes, and Collins as writers who, if not avowed atheists, are yet substantially such. It is a great mistake, in the interest of truth as well as in view of charity, to extend too far the application of the word atheist. Bayle does it (Bib. Crit.), also Brucker (Hist. Phil. t. i), both probably of design ; and Har- duin (Athei Betect. i. Amsterd. 17S3) puts Jansenius, Malebranche, Quesnel, and others in his black list. On the other hand, it is both unwise and uncritical to except the extreme Pantheists (e. g. Spinoza) and Ma- terialists from the number of Atheists. Lewes, in his Biographical History of Philosophy, and also in Fort- nightly Review, 18GG, p. 398, vindicates Spinoza from the charge of spiritual atheism, and states that Spino- za himself emphatically repudiated Atheism ; but yet Lewes admits that logically there is little difference between Spinoza's Acosmism, which makes God the one universal being, and Atheism, which makes the cosmos the one universal existence. This point is fully discussed in Brenna, Be gen. human, consensu in agnoscenda Bivinitate (Florence, 1773, 2 vols. 4to). See also Perrone, Prcelect. Theological (Paris, 1S5G, i, 238).