Athanasius pdf

Audio Software icon An illustration of a 3. Software Images icon An illustration of two photographs. Images Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape Donate Ellipses icon An illustration of text ellipses. EMBED for wordpress. Want more? See also De specialibus legibus, 3. Aristotle, Physica, b Plato, Timaeus, 38b. Having defined creation as a movement into being, and having identified this movement as a mutation, it follows that all creatures are mutable of metaphysical necessity.

Such is the basis for the Athanasian case that, granting Arianism, the Son of God is mutable. This becomes apparent when Arius modifies his position, claiming the Father creates the Son immutable. Athanasius of Alexandria 5 can make four-sided circles, free creatures that are not free, or creatures that are immutable.

Athanasius goes on to argue that mutability entails the possibility of corruption negative change. Recall that matter is pure potential, having no properties of its own. Though it can become any number of things, matter is none of the things it becomes. As in our fabric analogy, our shapeless fabric can take on sphericality but it is not innately spherical. So, in the same way, matter is an ontological receptacle.

Every property that enters it is alien to it, so any property it receives, it can also release. Therefore, anything that moves from non-being into being can return to non-being. Hence, Athanasius submits that every creature is not only mutable but corruptible. To grasp the point, we begin with the term treptos. Treptos, as used here, refers to a mode of corruption unique to rational crea- tures.

In organisms, corruption indicates divergence from proper formation and function, as determined by the telos of the thing. In the case of an eye, any change that moves toward biological health and sight is generation, while any retreat from health and sight is corruption. How then can these things be gods, seeing that they need one another's assistance? Or how is it proper to ask anything of them when they too ask help for themselves one from another? For if it is an admitted truth about God that He stands in need of nothing, but is self-sufficient and self-contained, and that in Him all things have their being, and that He ministers to all rather than they to Him, how is it right to proclaim as gods the sun and moon and other parts of creation, which are of no such kind, but which even stand in need of one another's help?

But, perhaps, if divided and taken by themselves, our opponents themselves will admit that they are dependent, the demonstration being an ocular one. But they will combine all together, as constituting a single body, and will say that the whole is God. For the whole once put together, they will no longer need external help, but the whole will be sufficient for itself and independent in all respects; so at least the would-be philosophers will tell us, only to be refuted here once more.

Now this argument, not one whit less than those previously dealt with, will demonstrate their impiety coupled with great ignorance. For if the combination of the parts makes up the whole, and the whole is combined out of the parts, then the whole consists of the parts, and each of them is a portion of the whole. But this is very far removed from the conception of God. For God is a whole and not a number of parts, and does not consist of diverse elements, but is Himself the Maker of the system of the universe.

For see what impiety they utter against the Deity when they say this. For if He consists of parts, certainly it will follow that He is unlike Himself, and made up of unlike parts. For if He is sun, He is not moon, and if He is moon, He is not earth, and if He is earth, He cannot be sea: and so on, taking the parts one by one, one may discover the absurdity of this theory of theirs. But the following point, drawn from the observation of our human body, is enough to refute them.

For just as the eye is not the sense of hearing, nor is the latter a hand: nor is the belly the breast, nor again is the neck a foot, but each of these has its own function, and a single body is composed of these distinct parts — having its parts combined for use, but destined to be divided in course of time when nature, that brought them together, shall divide them at the will of God , Who so ordered it — thus but may He that is above pardon the argument , if they combine the parts of creation into one body and proclaim it God , it follows, firstly, that He is unlike Himself, as shown above; secondly, that He is destined to be divided again, in accordance with the natural tendency of the parts to separation.

The balance of powers in Nature shows that it is not God , either collectively, or in parts. And in yet another way one may refute their godlessness by the light of truth.

For if God is incorporeal and invisible and intangible by nature, how do they imagine God to be a body, and worship with divine honour things which we both see with our eyes and touch with our hands?

And again, if what is said of God hold true , namely, that He is almighty, and that while nothing has power over Him, He has power and rule over all, how can they who deify creation fail to see that it does not satisfy this definition of God? For when the sun is under the earth, the earth's shadow makes his light invisible, while by day the sun hides the moon by the brilliancy of his light. And hail ofttimes injures the fruits of the earth, while fire is put out if an overflow of water take place.

And spring makes winter give place, while summer will not suffer spring to outstay its proper limits, and it in its turn is forbidden by autumn to outstep its own season. If then they were gods, they ought not to be defeated and obscured by one another, but always to co-exist, and to discharge their respective functions simultaneously.

Both by night and by day the sun and the moon and the rest of the band of stars ought to shine equally together, and give their light to all, so that all things might be illumined by them. Spring and summer and autumn and winter ought to go on without alteration, and together.

The sea ought to mingle with the springs, and furnish their drink to man in common. Calms and windy blasts ought to take place at the same time. Fire and water together ought to furnish the same service to man. For no one would take any hurt from them, if they are gods, as our opponents say, and do nothing for hurt, but rather all things for good.

But if none of these things are possible, because of their mutual incompatibility, how does it remain possible to give to these things, mutually incompatible and at strife, and unable to combine, the name of gods, or to worship them with the honours due to God?

How could things naturally discordant give peace to others for their prayers , and become to them authors of concord? It is not then likely that the sun or the moon, or any other part of creation, still less statues in stone, gold, or other material, or the Zeus, Apollo, and the rest, who are the subject of the poet's fables, are true gods: this our argument has shown.

But some of these are parts of creation, others have no life, others have been mere mortal men. Therefore their worship and deification is no part of religion, but the bringing in of godlessness and of all impiety, and a sign of a wide departure from the knowledge of the one true God , namely the Father of Christ.

Since then this is thus proved , and the idolatry of the Greeks is shown to be full of all ungodliness, and that its introduction has been not for the good , but for the ruin, of human life — come now, as our argument promised at the outset, let us, after having confuted error , travel the way of truth , and behold the Leader and Artificer of the Universe, the Word of the Father , in order that through Him we may apprehend the Father , and that the Greeks may know how far they have separated themselves from the truth.

The soul of man , being intellectual, can know God of itself, if it be true to its own nature. The tenets we have been speaking of have been proved to be nothing more than a false guide for life; but the way of truth will aim at reaching the real and true God. But for its knowledge and accurate comprehension, there is need of none other save of ourselves.

Neither as God Himself is above all, is the road to Him afar off or outside ourselves, but it is in us and it is possible to find it from ourselves, in the first instance, as Moses also taught, when he said Deuteronomy : The word of faith is within your heart. Which very thing the Saviour declared and confirmed, when He said: The kingdom of God is within you. For having in ourselves faith , and the kingdom of God , we shall be able quickly to see and perceive the King of the Universe, the saving Word of the Father.

And let not the Greeks, who worship idols , make excuses, nor let any one else simply deceive himself, professing to have no such road and therefore finding a pretext for his godlessness.

For we all have set foot upon it, and have it, even if not all are willing to travel by it, but rather to swerve from it and go wrong, because of the pleasures of life which attract them from without. And if one were to ask, what road is this?

I say that it is the soul of each one of us, and the intelligence which resides there. For by it alone can God be contemplated and perceived. Unless, as they have denied God , the impious men will repudiate having a soul ; which indeed is more plausible than the rest of what they say, for it is unlike men possessed of an intellect to deny God , its Maker and Artificer. It is necessary then, for the sake of the simple, to show briefly that each one of mankind has a soul , and that soul rational; especially as certain of the sectaries deny this also, thinking that man is nothing more than the visible form of the body.

This point once proved , they will be furnished in their own persons with a clearer proof against the idols. Proof of the existence of the rational soul. Thought is to sense as the musician to his instrument. The phenomena of dreams bear this out.

Firstly, then, the rational nature of the soul is strongly confirmed by its difference from irrational creatures. For this is why common use gives them that name, because, namely, the race of mankind is rational. Secondly, it is no ordinary proof , that man alone thinks of things external to himself, and reasons about things not actually present, and exercises reflection, and chooses by judgment the better of alternative reasonings.

For the irrational animals see only what is present, and are impelled solely by what meets their eye, even if the consequences to them are injurious, while man is not impelled toward what he sees merely, but judges by thought what he sees with his eyes.

Often for example his impulses are mastered by reasoning; and his reasoning is subject to after-reflection. And every one, if he be a friend of truth , perceives that the intelligence of mankind is distinct from the bodily senses. Hence, because it is distinct, it acts as judge of the senses, and while they apprehend their objects, the intelligence distinguishes, recollects, and shows them what is best. For the sole function of the eye is to see, of the ears to hear, of the mouth to taste, of the nostrils to apprehend smells, and of the hands to touch.

But what one ought to see and hear, what one ought to touch, taste and smell, is a question beyond the senses, and belonging to the soul and to the intelligence which resides in it.

Why, the hand is able to take hold of a sword-blade, and the mouth to taste poison, but neither knows that these are injurious, unless the intellect decide. And the case, to look at it by aid of a simile, is like that of a well-fashioned lyre in the hands of a skilled musician. For as the strings of the lyre have each its proper note, high, low, or intermediate, sharp or otherwise, yet their scale is indistinguishable and their time not to be recognized, without the artist.

For then only is the scale manifest and the time right, when he that is holding the lyre strikes the strings and touches each in tune. In like manner, the senses being disposed in the body like a lyre, when the skilled intelligence presides over them, then too the soul distinguishes and knows what it is doing and how it is acting.

But this alone is peculiar to mankind , and this is what is rational in the soul of mankind , by means of which it differs from the brutes, and shows that it is truly distinct from what is to be seen in the body. Often, for example, when the body is lying on the earth, man imagines and contemplates what is in the heavens.

Often when the body is quiet , and at rest and asleep, man moves inwardly, and beholds what is outside himself, travelling to other countries, walking about, meeting his acquaintances, and often by these means divining and forecasting the actions of the day.

But to what can this be due save to the rational soul , in which man thinks of and perceives things beyond himself? We add a further point to complete our demonstration for the benefit of those who shamelessly take refuge in denial of reason.

How is it, that whereas the body is mortal by nature, man reasons on the things of immortality , and often, where virtue demands it, courts death? Or how, since the body lasts but for a time, does man imagine of things eternal , so as to despise what lies before him, and desire what is beyond? The body could not have spontaneously such thoughts about itself, nor could it think upon what is external to itself. For it is mortal and lasts but for a time. And it follows that that which thinks what is opposed to the body and against its nature must be distinct in kind.

What then can this be, save a rational and immortal soul? For it introduces the echo of higher things, not outside, but within the body, as the musician does in his lyre. Or how again, the eye being naturally constituted to see and the ear to hear, do they turn from some objects and choose others?

For who is it that turns away the eye from seeing? Or who shuts off the ear from hearing, its natural function? Or who often hinders the palate, to which it is natural to taste things, from its natural impulse?

Or who withholds the hand from its natural activity of touching something, or turns aside the sense of smell from its normal exercise?

Who is it that thus acts against the natural instincts of the body? Or how does the body, turned from its natural course, turn to the counsels of another and suffer itself to be guided at the beck of that other? Why, these things prove simply this, that the rational soul presides over the body. For the body is not even constituted to drive itself, but it is carried at the will of another, just as a horse does not yoke himself, but is driven by his master.

Hence laws for human beings to practise what is good and to abstain from evil-doing, while to the brutes evil remains unthought of and undiscerned, because they lie outside rationality and the process of understanding.

I think then that the existence of a rational soul in man is proved by what we have said. The soul immortal. Proved by 1 its being distinct from the body, 2 its being the source of motion, 3 its power to go beyond the body in imagination and thought.

But that the soul is made immortal is a further point in the Church's teaching which you must know , to show how the idols are to be overthrown.

But we shall more directly arrive at a knowledge of this from what we know of the body, and from the difference between the body and the soul.

For if our argument has proved it to be distinct from the body, while the body is by nature mortal, it follows that the soul is immortal , because it is not like the body. And again, if as we have shown, the soul moves the body and is not moved by other things, it follows that the movement of the soul is spontaneous, and that this spontaneous movement goes on after the body is laid aside in the earth. If then the soul were moved by the body, it would follow that the severance of its motor would involve its death.

But if the soul moves the body also, it follows all the more that it moves itself. But if moved by itself , it follows that it outlives the body. For the movement of the soul is the same thing as its life, just as, of course, we call the body alive when it moves, and say that its death takes place when it ceases moving.

But this can be made clearer once for all from the action of the soul in the body. For if even when united and coupled with the body it is not shut in or commensurate with the small dimensions of the body, but often , when the body lies in bed, not moving, but in death-like sleep, the soul keeps awake by virtue of its own power, and transcends the natural power of the body, and as though travelling away from the body while remaining in it, imagines and beholds things above the earth, and often even holds converse with the saints and angels who are above earthly and bodily existence , and approaches them in the confidence of the purity of its intelligence; shall it not all the more, when separated from the body at the time appointed by God Who coupled them together, have its knowledge of immortality more clear?

For if even when coupled with the body it lived a life outside the body, much more shall its life continue after the death of the body, and live without ceasing by reason of God Who made it thus by His own Word, our Lord Jesus Christ.

For this is the reason why the soul thinks of and bears in mind things immortal and eternal , namely, because it is itself immortal. And just as, the body being mortal, its senses also have mortal things as their objects, so, since the soul contemplates and beholds immortal things, it follows that it is immortal and lives forever.

For ideas and thoughts about immortality never desert the soul , but abide in it, and are as it were the fuel in it which ensures its immortality. This then is why the soul has the capacity for beholding God , and is its own way thereto, receiving not from without but from herself the knowledge and apprehension of the Word of God. The soul , then, if only it get rid of the stains of sin is able to know God directly, its own rational nature imaging back the Word of God , after whose image it was created.

But even if it cannot pierce the cloud which sin draws over its vision, it is confronted by the witness of creation to God. We repeat then what we said before, that just as men denied God , and worship things without soul , so also in thinking they have not a rational soul , they receive at once the punishment of their folly, namely, to be reckoned among irrational creatures: and so, since as though from lack of a soul of their own they superstitiously worship soulless gods, they are worthy of pity and guidance.

But if they claim to have a soul , and pride themselves on the rational principle, and that rightly, why do they, as though they had no soul , venture to go against reason, and think not as they ought, but make themselves out higher even than the Deity?

For having a soul that is immortal and invisible to them, they make a likeness of God in things visible and mortal. Or why, in like manner as they have departed from God , do they not betake themselves to Him again? For they are able, as they turned away their understanding from God , and feigned as gods things that were not, in like manner to ascend with the intelligence of their soul , and turn back to God again.

But turn back they can, if they lay aside the filth of all lust which they have put on, and wash it away persistently, until they have got rid of all the foreign matter that has affected their soul , and can show it in its simplicity as it was made, that so they may be able by it to behold the Word of the Father after Whose likeness they were originally made. For the soul is made after the image and likeness of God , as divine Scripture also shows, when it says in the person of God Genesis : Let us make man after our Image and likeness.

Whence also when it gets rid of all the filth of sin which covers it and retains only the likeness of the Image in its purity, then surely this latter being thoroughly brightened, the soul beholds as in a mirror the Image of the Father , even the Word, and by His means reaches the idea of the Father , Whose Image the Saviour is.

Or, if the soul's own teaching is insufficient, by reason of the external things which cloud its intelligence, and prevent its seeing what is higher, yet it is further possible to attain to the knowledge of God from the things which are seen, since Creation, as though in written characters, declares in a loud voice, by its order and harmony, its own Lord and Creator.

Creation a revelation of God ; especially in the order and harmony pervading the whole. For God , being good and loving to mankind , and caring for the souls made by Him — since He is by nature invisible and incomprehensible, having His being beyond all created existence , for which reason the race of mankind was likely to miss the way to the knowledge of Him, since they are made out of nothing while He is unmade — for this cause God by His own Word gave the Universe the Order it has, in order that since He is by nature invisible, men might be enabled to know Him at any rate by His works.

For often the artist even when not seen is known by his works. And as they tell of Phidias the Sculptor that his works of art by their symmetry and by the proportion of their parts betray Phidias to those who see them although he is not there, so by the order of the Universe one ought to perceive God its maker and artificer, even though He be not seen with the bodily eyes. For God did not take His stand upon His invisible nature let none plead that as an excuse and leave Himself utterly unknown to men; but as I said above, He so ordered Creation that although He is by nature invisible He may yet be known by His works.

And I say this not on my own authority, but on the strength of what I learned from men who have spoken of God , among them Paul , who thus writes to the Romans Romans : for the invisible things of Him since the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made; while to the Lycaonians he speaks out and says Acts : We also are men of like passions with you, and bring you good tidings, to turn from these vain things unto a Living God , Who made the heaven and the earth and the sea, and all that in them is, Who in the generations gone by suffered all nations to walk in their own ways.

And yet He left not Himself without witness , in that He did good, and gave you from heaven rains and fruitful seasons, filling your hearts with food and gladness. For who that sees the circle of heaven and the course of the sun and the moon, and the positions and movements of the other stars, as they take place in opposite and different directions, while yet in their difference all with one accord observe a consistent order, can resist the conclusion that these are not ordered by themselves, but have a maker distinct from themselves who orders them?

Or who that sees the sun rising by day and the moon shining by night, and waning and waxing without variation exactly according to the same number of days, and some of the stars running their courses and with orbits various and manifold, while others move without wandering, can fail to perceive that they certainly have a creator to guide them?

This the more striking, if we consider the opposing forces out of which this order is produced. Who that sees things of opposite nature combined, and in concordant harmony, as for example fire mingled with cold, and dry with wet, and that not in mutual conflict, but making up a single body, as it were homogeneous, can resist the inference that there is One external to these things that has united them?

Who that sees winter giving place to spring and spring to summer and summer to autumn, and that these things contrary by nature for the one chills, the other burns, the one nourishes, the other destroys , yet all make up a balanced result beneficial to mankind — can fail to perceive that there is One higher than they, Who balances and guides them all, even if he see Him not?

Who that sees the clouds supported in air, and the weight of the waters bound up in the clouds, can but perceive Him that binds them up and has ordered these things so? Or who that sees the earth, heaviest of all things by nature, fixed upon the waters, and remaining unmoved upon what is by nature mobile, will fail to understand that there is One that has made and ordered it, even God? Who that sees the earth bringing forth fruits in due season, and the rains from heaven, and the flow of rivers, and springing up of wells, and the birth of animals from unlike parents , and that these things take place not at all times but at determinate seasons — and in general, among things mutually unlike and contrary, the balanced and uniform order to which they conform — can resist the inference that there is one Power which orders and administers them, ordaining things well as it thinks fit?

For left to themselves they could not subsist or ever be able to appear, on account of their mutual contrariety of nature. For water is by nature heavy, and tends to flow downwards, while the clouds are light and belong to the class of things which tend to soar and mount upwards.

Score: 3. Christopher Smith, coauthor of the critically acclaimed and influential Slow Church, addresses why conversation has become such a challenge in the 21st century and argues that it is perhaps the most-needed spiritual practice of our individualistic age. Smith likens practicing conversation to the working of the human body. Bodies are wondrous symphonies of diverse, intricate parts striving for our health, and our health suffers when these parts fail to converse effectively.

Likewise, we must learn to converse effectively with those who differ from us in the body of Christ so we can embody Christ together in the world.