Editing Athanasius of Alexandria (section)

== Historical significance and controversies ==

=== New Testament canon ===
{{See also|Biblical canon}}

It was the custom of the bishops of Alexandria to circulate a letter after [[Epiphany (holiday)|Epiphany]] each year confirming the date of Easter and therefore other moveable feasts. They also took the occasion to discuss other matters. Athanasius wrote forty-five festal letters.<ref name="Thiede">{{Cite news|url=http://www.christianitytoday.com/ch/1990/issue28/2812.html|title=367 Athanasius Defines the New Testament|work=Christian History |access-date=14 March 2018|language=en}}</ref> Athanasius' ''39th Festal Letter'', written in 367, is widely regarded as a milestone in the evolution of the [[Biblical canon#Christian canons|canon of New Testament books]].<ref name=Gwynn>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VaLW95rdeQoC&dq=Athanasius+of+Alexandria+++the+new+testament+canon&pg=PA152|title=Athanasius of Alexandria: Bishop, Theologian, Ascetic, Father|first=David M.|last=Gwynn|date=16 February 2012|publisher=OUP Oxford|isbn=978-0-19-921095-4 |via=Google Books}}</ref> Some claim that Athanasius is the first person to identify the same 27 books of the [[New Testament]] that are in use today. Up until then, various similar lists of works to be read in churches were in use. Others argue that [[Origen]] of Alexandria was the first to list the twenty-seven books of the New Testament in his Homilies on Joshua (only there is a textual variant as to whether or not he included Revelation).<ref name="Gallagher, Edmon L 2016"/><ref name="Michael J. Kruger"/> Athanasius includes the [[Book of Baruch]] and the [[Letter of Jeremiah]] and places the [[Book of Esther]] among the "7 books not in the canon but to be read" along with the [[Book of Wisdom|Wisdom of Solomon]], [[Book of Sirach]], [[Book of Judith]], [[Book of Tobit]], the ''[[Didache]]'', and ''[[The Shepherd of Hermas]]''.<ref name="Robt">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cEloBgAAQBAJ&dq=Athanasius+of+Alexandria+++the+new+testament+canon&pg=PA280|title=Seeing New Facets of the Diamond: Christianity as a Universal Faith - Essays in Honor of Kwame Bediako|first1=Gillian Mary|last1=Bediako|first2=Bernhardt|last2=Quarshie|first3=J. Kwabena|last3=Asamoah-Gyadu|date=14 January 2015|publisher=Wipf & Stock Publishers|isbn=9781498217293 |via=Google Books}}</ref>

Athanasius' list is similar to the [[Codex Vaticanus]] in the Vatican Library. The establishment of the canon was not a unilateral decision by a bishop in Alexandria but the result of a process of careful investigation and deliberation, as documented in a codex of the Greek Bible and, twenty-seven years later, in his festal letter.<ref name="Thiede" /> [[Pope Damasus I]], the bishop of Rome in 382, promulgated a list of books which contained a New Testament canon identical to that of Athanasius. A [[Synod of Hippo|synod in Hippo]] in 393 repeated Athanasius' and Damasus' New Testament list, and the [[Council of Carthage (397)]] repeated Athanasius' and Damasus' complete New Testament list.<ref>Von Dehsen, Christian. [https://books.google.com/books?id=cU7cAAAAQBAJ&dq=Athanasius+of+Alexandria+%2B+the+new+testament+canon&pg=PA15 "St. Athanasius"], ''Philosophers and Religious Leaders'', Routledge, 2013 {{ISBN|9781135951023}}</ref>

Scholars debate whether Athanasius' list in 367 formed the basis for later lists. Because Athanasius' canon is the closest canon of any of the Church Fathers to the one used by Protestant churches today, many Protestants point to Athanasius as the Father of the Canon.<ref name="Robt" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf204.xxv.iii.iii.xxv.html|title=Excerpt from Letter 39 |publisher=Ccel.org |date=13 July 2005 |access-date=25 September 2012}}</ref>

=== Supporters ===
[[File:Athanasius_and_Cyril.jpg|left|thumb|Athanasius (left) and his supporter [[Cyril of Alexandria]]. 17th-century depiction.]]

Christian denominations worldwide revere Athanasius as a saint and teacher. They cite his defence of the Christology described in the first chapter of the Gospel of St. John<ref>{{bibleverse|John|1:1–4||1:1–4}}</ref> and his significant theological works ([[C. S. Lewis]] calls ''On the Incarnation of the Word of God'' a "masterpiece")<ref>Introduction to St. Athanasius on the Incarnation. Translated and edited by Sister Penelope Lawson, published by Mowbray 1944. p. 9</ref> as evidence of his righteousness. They also emphasize his close relationship with Anthony the Great, the ancient monk who was one of the founders of the Christian monastic movement.

The Gospel of St. John, and particularly the first chapter, demonstrates the Divinity of Jesus. This Gospel is the greatest support of Athanasius' stand. The Gospel of St. John's first chapter began to be said at the end of Mass, we believe as a result of Athanasius and his life's stand.<ref>{{bibleverse|John|1:1–14||1:1–14}}</ref> The beginning of John's Gospel was much used as an object of special devotion throughout the [[Middle Ages]]; the practice of saying it at the altar grew, and eventually [[Pope Pius V]] made this practice universal for the [[Roman Rite]] in his 1570 edition of the [[Missal]].<ref name="Fortescue1907">Fortescue, Adrian, Catholic Encyclopedia 1907, Volume 6, pp. 662–663 "Gospel"</ref> It became a firm custom with exceptions in using another Gospel in use from 1920.<ref name="Pope Benedict XV">Pope Benedict XV, Missale Romanum, IX Additions & Variations of the Rubrics of The Missal</ref><ref name="Jungmann">See also: Jungmann, El Sacrificio de la Misa, No. 659, 660</ref> [[Cyril of Alexandria]] (370–444) in the first letter says: "Athanasius is one who can be trusted: he would not say anything that is not in accord with sacred scripture." (Ep 1).

=== Critics ===
Throughout most of his career, Athanasius had many detractors. Classics scholar [[Timothy Barnes (classicist)|Timothy Barnes]] recounts ancient allegations against Athanasius: from defiling an altar, to selling Church grain that had been meant to feed the poor for his own personal gain, and even violence and murder to suppress dissent.<ref name = "wxdxek">Barnes, Timothy D., ''Athanasius and Constantius: Theology and Politics in the Constantinian Empire'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993), 37</ref> According to [[Sir Isaac Newton]], Athanasius lied about the death of [[Arius]], feigned other men's letters and denied his own, murdered the bishop Arsenius, broke a communion cup, overthrew an altar, was made bishop by violence and sedition against the canons of his own church, and was seditious and immoral.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Sir Isaac Newton |title=Paradoxical Questions Concerning the Morals and Actions of Athanasius and His Followers |url=https://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/THEM00010 |website=The [[Newton Project]]}}</ref> Athanasius used "Arian" to describe both followers of Arius and as a derogatory polemical term for Christians who disagreed with his formulation of the Trinity.<ref>Barnes, Timothy D., ''Athanasius and Constantius: Theology and Politics in the Constantinian Empire'' (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1993), 14, 128</ref> Athanasius called many of his opponents "Arian", except for [[Meletius of Antioch|Meletius]].<ref>Barnes "Athanasius and Constantius", 135</ref>

Scholars now believe that the Arian party was not monolithic<ref>Haas, Christopher, "The Arians of Alexandria", Vigiliae Christianae Vol. 47, no. 3 (1993), 239</ref> but held drastically different theological views that spanned the early Christian theological spectrum.<ref>Chadwick, Henry, "Faith and Order at the Council of Nicaea", ''Harvard Theological Review'' LIII (Cambridge Mass: 1960), 173</ref><ref>Williams, 63</ref><ref>Kannengiesser "Alexander and Arius", 403</ref> They supported the tenets of [[Origenism|Origenist]] thought and [[subordinationism|subordinationist]] theology<ref>Kannengiesser, "Athanasius of Alexandria vs. Arius: The Alexandrian Crisis", in The Roots of Egyptian Christianity (Studies in Antiquity and Christianity), ed. Birger A. Pearson and James E. Goehring (1986), 208</ref> but had little else in common. Moreover, many labelled "Arian" did not consider themselves followers of Arius.<ref>Williams, 82</ref> In addition, non-homoousian bishops disagreed with being labeled as followers of Arius, since Arius was merely a presbyter, while they were fully ordained bishops.<ref>Rubinstein, Richard, ''When Jesus Became God, The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome'', 1999{{page needed|date=May 2022}}</ref>{{page needed|date=May 2022}}

The old allegations continue to be made against Athanasius, however, many centuries later. For example, [[Richard E. Rubenstein]] suggests that Athanasius ascended to the rank of bishop in Alexandria under questionable circumstances because some questioned whether he had reached the minimum age of 30 years, and further that Athanasius employed force when it suited his cause or personal interests. Thus, he argues that a small number of bishops who supported Athanasius held a private consecration to make him bishop.<ref>Rubenstein, Richard E., ''When Jesus Became God: The Epic Fight over Christ's Divinity in the Last Days of Rome'' (New York: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1999), 105–106</ref>