Athanasius the Great

Before Pascha, I had started sharing information about the argument between Arius, the heretic, and St. Athanasius. It is, actually, quite a fascinating bit of our Christian history. Athanasius argued that the fundamental error of Arius and his followers was in their limited thinking and speaking about God. They only seemed to think about God in human terms and from a human perspective. St. Athanasius, concedes that if the Scripture were describing a human man or relationship, the Arians would be correct. “Now if they are discussing a man, then they may argue about his word and his son on the human level. But if they are talking about God, man’s creator, they must not think of him on a human level.”

This, Athanasius contends, is the Arian’s fundamental mistake. Human procreation does take place in time and space. Human fathers are both older and separate from their children. Begetting does involve division and separation. Not so, however, with God. The Arians have forgotten who the subject of the discussion actually is: “The character of the parent determines the character of the offspring. Man is begotten in time and begets in time; he comes into being from non-existence. The same is true of human speech: “his word ceases and does not remain…A human word is a combination of syllables, and has no independent life or activity; it merely signifies the speaker’s meaning, and just issues and passes away and disappears, since it had no existence at all before it was uttered; therefore a man’s word has no independent life and activity; in short it is not a man.” (This quote from Athanasius has to do with the fact that we say that Christ is the WORD of God).

The Arians are guilty of a serious category error. They have applied human categories to God in an inappropriate and illogical fashion. “God,” Athanasius insists, “is not like man.” Rather, “he is ‘he who exists’ and exists forever.” Furthermore, “his Word is ‘that which exists eternally with the Father, as radiance from a light.” But God’s word is not merely ‘emitted,’ as one might say, nor is it just an articulate noise; nor is ‘the Son of God’ just a synonym for ‘the command of God,’ but he is the perfect offspring of the perfect.”

God’s divine Word is, indeed, utterly unique. A human word is spoken, communicates and disappears into the air. In itself it has no capability “to affect anything.” Not so with God and his Word. God, as Athanasius puts it, does not speak his Word so that a subordinate might hear God’s command and then carry it out. No, “this is what happens in human affairs. But the Word of God is creator and maker, and he is the Father’s will.

Sorting out who Jesus is was a long, hard-fought struggle for the Church. It is inappropriate to think of God in human terms. More to follow!