Also in these books, Athanasius put forward the belief that the Son of God, the eternal Word through whom God created the world, entered that world in human form to lead men back into the harmony from which they had earlier fallen away.

The Creed, which is now recited throughout the Christian world, was based largely on the teaching put forth by a man who eventually would become Pope Saint Athanasius of Alexandria, the chief opponent of Arius.

It has been noted that the Greek term " homoousian " or " con-substantial ", which Athanasius of Alexandria favoured, was actually a term reported to be put forth by Sabellius, and was a term that many followers of Athanasius were uneasy about.

It has been noted also that the Greek term " homoousian ", which Athanasius of Alexandria favored, was actually a term reported to be put forth and favored also by Sabellius, and was a term that many followers of Athanasius were uneasy about.

Mar Athanasius put an end to all these.

Athanasius works include his two-part Against the Heathen and The Incarnation of the Word of God.

The Council confirmed the teachings of Saint Athanasius and confirmed the title of Mary as " Mother of God ".

It also clearly stated that anyone who separated Christ into two hypostases was anathema, as Athanasius had said that there is " One Nature and One Hypostasis for God the Word Incarnate " ( Mia Physis tou Theou Loghou Sesarkomeni ).

This was no small feat since Athanasius was regarded as a " man of God " by Constantine.

He argues that the Greek Fathers, primarily Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria were clear that we never share ontological union with God, but only this intimate fellowship.

Trinitarian Christians, including Athanasius, used Arius and Arianism as epithets to describe those who disagreed with their doctrine of co-equal Trinitarianism, a Christology representing God the Father and Son ( Jesus of Nazareth ) as " of one essence " ( consubstantial ) and coeternal.

Of the handful of fragments of his defence treatise that have survived, he refers to the doctrine and “ heresies of the Nicolaitan ;... most of all hated and abhorred of God himself ... the common received faith contained in those three inventions of man, commonly called the Three Creeds ... the, Nicene and Athanasius Creed, which faith within these 1600 years past hath prevailed in the world .”

A diagram of the names of God in Athanasius Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus ( 1652 – 54 ).

In the 4th century, Athanasius taught that God became Man that Man might become God.

The Eastern Christian tradition speaks of this transformation in terms of theosis or divinization, perhaps best summed up by an ancient aphorism usually attributed to Athanasius of Alexandria: " God became human so that man might become god.

The church of St. Athanasius was built in 1924 next to the church of the Holy Mother of God.

Caesarius, unlike other monks like St. Antony of Athanasius, did not believe in solitude in order to blessed with the Grace of God, instead he emphasized brothers living among each other and providing edification and a good example to one another.

They cite Athanasius of Alexandria from his Incarnation of the Word: " Christ assumed humanity that we might become God.

His main writings are Moriundum esse pro Dei filio ( It is Necessary to Die for the Son of God ), De non conveniendo cum haereticis ( On not meeting with heretics ), De regibus apostaticis ( On apostate kings ), De non parcendo in Deum delinquentibus ( On not forgiving those who transgress against God ) and the two books of Quia absentem nemo debet iudicare nec damnare, sive De Athanasio ( That no one ought to be judged or damned while absent, or On Athanasius ).

The orthodox St. Athanasius proposed a theory of the atonement which similarly states that sin leads to death and God warned Adam about this, and so, to remain consistent with Himself must have Jesus die for sins, or have humankind die.

Shortly thereafter, Athanasius became occupied with the disputes with the Byzantine Empire and Arians which would occupy much of his life.

However, Athanasius of Alexandria became a more powerful opponent and in 334, he was summoned before a synod in Caesarea ( which he refused to attend ).

At least eight bishops are known ( Le Quien, Oriens christianus, I, 1181 ): Athanasius ( 431 ), Peter ( 680 ), Euthymius ( 787 ) and Ignatius ( 869 ); Theodosius ( 1357 ), Joannicius, who became Patriarch of Constantinople ( 1524 ), Philotheus ( 1564 ) and Joasaph ( 1721 ).

His last brother Louis Gigante became an ordained Roman Catholic priest at St. Athanasius Church in the South Bronx and city councilman.

" Athanasius also observed :" He became man that men might be made gods.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer echoed the convictions of Athanasius when he wrote " He became like human beings, so that we would be like him "

The most significant of these early decisions was that between the Homoousian doctrine of Athanasius and Eustathius ( which became Trinitarianism ) and the Heteroousian doctrine of Arius and Eusebius ( called Arianism ).

In 1741, Coptic Bishop Anba Athanasius of Jerusalem became a Catholic.

" Athanasius also observed :" He became man that men might be made gods.

Alexandria became the centre of the first great split in the Christian world, between the Arians, named for the Alexandrian priest Arius, and their opponents, represented by Athanasius, who became Archbishop of Alexandria in 326 after the First Council of Nicaea rejected Arius's views.

Anthony's temptation is first discussed by Athanasius of Alexandria, Anthony's contemporary, and from then became a popular theme in Western culture.

It was presided over by Athanasius and Eusebius of Vercelli, and was directed against those who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit, the human soul of Christ, and Christ's divinity.

Unfortunately, the emperor Constantius II seems to have been committed to having Athanasius deposed, and went so far as to send soldiers to arrest him.

The lack of a patriarch, though, created economic problems for the church, so the secretary of state, or mutawallī al-diwān in Alexandria, a Copt named Athanasius, asked the governor to allow the bishop of al-Qays, Anbā Gregorius, to assume authority over the church's finances until a new patriarch would be elected.

It was presumably on these points that he so vehemently rejected the formulae of the Nicene Creed of 325 and the subsequent ‘ Athanasius ' Creed of 381.

Eusebius attended part of the council, but refused to condemn Athanasius and so was exiled, first to Scythopolis in Syria, under the watchful eye of the Arian bishop Patrophilus, whom Eusebius calls his jailer, then to Cappadocia, and lastly to the Thebaid, in Upper Egypt.

After a period of quiet life in his own diocese, Hosius presided in 343 at the fruitless synod of Sardica, which showed itself so hostile to Arianism ; there and afterwards he spoke and wrote in favour of Athanasius.

In the fourth century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word, and in the fifth century St Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons ' by participation ' ( Greek methexis ).

* Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria ( about 296 — 373 ), also stated his belief in deification by saying as follows :" The Word was made flesh in order that we might be made gods.

* Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria ( about 296 — 373 ), also stated his belief in literal deification by saying as follows :" The Word was made flesh in order that we might be made gods.

In the fourth century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word, and in the fifth century St Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons ' by participation ' ( Greek methexis ).

In the fourth century, St. Athanasius repeats Irenaeus almost word for word, and in the fifth century St Cyril of Alexandria says that we shall become sons ' by participation ' ( Greek methexis ).

Besides Athanasius, Menander, and others, whose works are lost, we must mention especially Sopater of Apamea, who is probably the author of the Greek Prolegomena to the orations of Aristides, and also of some among the Scholia on Aristides, which contain a great many things of importance for mythology, history, and antiquities.