The Doctrine Of Redemption.
The theology of Athanasius is based on the historical figure of
Christ, the God-man and Savior. The trinitarian question of the generation and
consubstantiality of the Son of God is for him primarily a Christological and
soteriological problem. He is concerned not with speculation, but with living
religious experience. The reality of salvation is Athanasius' proof of the
divinity and consubstantiality of the Incarnate Word, for only the Incarnation
of the Only-Begotten brings salvation. He sees the significance of salvation in
the fact that a created human nature is united (or, more exactly, reunited) with
God. This is possible only if it is truly God who takes on flesh and becomes a
man. Salvation is "deification," θεοσις. In this
respect St. Athanasius follows the teaching of St. Irenaeus and the tradition of
the Church of Asia Minor.
Creation and Created Existence.
In the theology of Athanasius there is an absolute opposition
between God and creation. "Everything which is created is not at all like in
essence to its Creator," for created things originate from that which
does not exist and can have no similarity with that which has independent being.
Created from nothing, creation exists above the abyss of nothingness and is
ready to fall back into it. The created world is generated and has an origin,
and therefore its nature is "fluctuating and subject to dissolution," since it
has no support or foundation for existence within itself. True being belongs
only to God, and God is first of all Being and Existence because He was not
generated but is eternal. However, creation exists and at its origin it receives
not only being but also stability and harmony. This is possible through
participation in the Word, Who is present in the world. Creation, ruminated by
the dominion, works, and order of the Word, can attain stable being by
"participating in the Word, Who truly exists from the Father."
The Word of God as the Strength and Wisdom of the Divinity is
the source, builder, and guardian of the world. God in His goodness does not let
creation "be enthralled or enslaved by its own nature," but the one and only
Word of the Father descends into the universe and spreads His power. He
enlightens all things visible and invisible. He supports and strengthens
everything in Himself, and He gives life to and preserves every individual thing
amid all things as a whole. The Word is the source of the order and unity of the
world. Everywhere in the world there is symmetry and proportion, the harmonious
combination of opposite things. God is revealed in this unity and harmony: "No
one dares to say that God's invisibility is harmful to us or that it is
completely impossible for us to know God. On the contrary, He has brought such
order to His creation that, although He is invisible by essence, He is knowable
by his works."
The God of revelation is the Word. "For the Word has spread
everywhere, both above and below, into the depths and in all directions: above
in creation, below in Incarnation, into the depths of hell and everywhere in the
world. Everything is filled with the knowledge of God." "The stamp and likeness"
of the Divine Word and Wisdom have been placed on all creation and On every
individual creature in the world, and this preserves the from decay and
disintegration. Here Athanasius' ideas seem similar to the teaching of Plotinus
about the ordering of matter by Intellect, but there is a sharp distinction
between them. According to Plotinus, Intellect imprints itself on unqualified
Matter and remains in it. For Athanasius, the
origination and existence of creation is based on the presence of the Word in
it. He rejects the Stoic concept of “seminal” words, λογοι σπερματικοι. The
source of the order of the world is the Word of the Father.
For Athanasius the origination of the world and its impression
by the Word are not separated in time. He wants to stress the duality of
creation, which has its own fluctuating and created nature, and also bears the
preserving stamp of the Word, through Whom it exists. Thus, creation has both
"nature" and "grace." Athanasius' system is built on the distinction and
opposition of these two elements. He developed his teaching about the Word as
sovereign and creative Wisdom before the Arian controversy. His work is a
continuation of the pre-Nicene tradition but his cosmology remains completely
free of subordinationism. "Coexisting with the Father as Wisdom, and gazing at
Him as the Word," the Son of God "creates, brings into being, and gives order to
the universe, and, as the Strength of the Father, maintains all creation in its
being . . . As the true Son, begotten of the Most Good, He is the Father's
Strength and Wisdom and Word, not just by participation, as though everything
were given to Him from outside, as it is to those who participate in Him . . .
but in such a way that He is the very Wisdom, the very Word, the very Strength
of the Father, the very Light, Truth, Justice, Virtue, Imprint, Radiance, Image.
In short, He is the most perfect fruit of the Father, the Only Son, the
unchanging Image of the Father." This means that the Father is completely
knowable in the Son.
Athanasius developed his teaching about the Word at the height
of the Arian controversy. He stressed the close connection between the creative
action of the Word and the Incarnation, the work of salvation. He united these
in the concept of the entry of the Word into the universe. In Scripture the Word
is called the First-born in relation to creation "because the Word, Who created
the world at the beginning, came down to the things that were created so they
could come into being, and also because all creation was adopted by the Word at
His descent." The Son was placed as the foundation before the beginning of time,
"at the beginning of His works."
In keeping with his general teaching on the dual nature of
every created being, Athanasius distinguishes two logical (not chronological)
stages in the creation of man: the creation of human nature from nothing, and
the imprinting or anointing of creation with the image of God. This "genesis" or
adoption is made possible by the Son in the Spirit. God through His grace became
the Father of those whom He created. Creation, maintaining its createdness, was
adopted by the Father through its participation in the Son. At the moment of
creation man, who had been led out of nonexistence, was anointed by the Spirit.
The "breath of life" which God blew into Adam was not a soul but the holy and
life-giving Spirit, and the first man was a "spiritual man" pause he had the
Spirit within him. By making him like Himself, God enabled man to contemplate
and observe the true Divinity, end introduced him to the bliss of true life.
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