Nicene Era • Nicene Christianity
c. 296 – 373 • Bishop and theologian
Athanasius became the most famous defender of the Nicene confession that the Son is truly divine and of one divine reality with the Father. He spent multiple periods in exile during fourth-century imperial and ecclesiastical conflict.
His writings, including On the Incarnation and anti-Arian works, became foundational in later Nicene Christianity. His 367 Festal Letter also gives the earliest surviving list matching the 27-book New Testament canon used today.
The fourth-century conflict was politically and theologically complex; reducing it to one hero against one villain obscures shifting alliances and vocabulary.
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