Athanasius of Alexandria: His Life and Impact, by Peter Barnes (Christian Focus Press, 2019).
Christians owe an immense debt of gratitude to those heroes of the faith who contended for the truth of the gospel in previous generations. As Reformed and Evangelical Christians we are, perhaps, more familiar with evangelists like George Whitefield and reformers like John Calvin. We realise that they were nourished by the teaching of the fathers of the early Church, but those fathers tend to get lost in the mists of antiquity.
For these reasons I would like to commend the series of short biographies of early Church fathers edited by Michael Haykin and Shawn Wilihite. In this review I will focus on just one title from this series, Athanasius of Alexandria: His Life and Impact, by Peter Barnes. Peter Barnes is known to many of us as an Australian Presbyterian minister who has served the Church as a missionary, pastor and Church historian. Athanasius has been one of his passions over many years.
Athanasius (who lived from 299-373) is, perhaps, best known for being a loner. It was “Athanasius against the world.” The reality behind the myth is, however, more complicated and Peter Barnes does a good job of locating Athanasius within a complex web of relationships in the early Church and the late Roman Empire. He broke bread with Emperors in Constantinople, the common people of Alexandria, and lonely hermits in the deserts of Egypt. Some of his enemies had a point, and some of his friends held views of questionable orthodoxy.
The great cause championed by Athanasius was the deity of Jesus Christ. Barnes unravels the long story of how Athanasius contended for the Christology of the Nicene Council of 325. The declaration of this great Church council was not readily accepted in many quarters of the early Church, and it was many decades before orthodoxy prevailed. The story of Athanasius helps us to appreciate how seductive the teaching of his great rival, Arius, was and is even to this day.
A particularly helpful chapter surveys two of Athanasius’ most famous works – On the Incarnation of the Word and Against the Gentiles. Readers coming to these works for the first time may find some of the debates hard to follow and some of the conclusions hard to accept. It is important to learn how to chew on the meat (which is really nourishing) and spit out some of the bones (which would otherwise stick in the throat). For example, Athanasius’ emphasis on the full divinity of Christ leads him subtly to downplay the reality of his sufferings and the limitations of his humanity. Thus, he struggled to explain how the man Christ Jesus grew in knowledge, and he even speaks of “the impassibility of the Word.” Athanasius seems to view the atoning work of Christ as a means of addressing the problem death more than the guilt of sin. This reminds is that Christian orthodoxy is such a delicate balance to maintain.
Barnes’ final chapter focuses on the spirituality of Athanasius. It is heartening to read about Athanasius’ high view of Scripture and how he nourished his soul with its truths. Athanasius took a special interest in the Psalms which he described as a mirror of our emotions as well as a pointer to Christ. Such language will be familiar to many as that is how John Calvin speaks of the Psalms. But where did John Calvin get his ideas from? Calvin would have been the first to acknowledge his debt to Christians like Athanasius. Peter Barnes’ short biography helps us to see how much we owe him.