📎 Presentation: On the Incarnation – Chapters 1–3
Source: View original Google Doc Converted: 2026-04-22
About the Author: St. Athanasius the Apostolic
Born: c. 296–298 AD, Alexandria, Egypt Died: 373 AD
St. Athanasius served as Bishop of Alexandria from 328 AD until his death — enduring five exiles for his defense of the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) and the full divinity of Christ. His famous motto: Athanasius contra mundum — “Athanasius against the world.”
Key works:
- On the Incarnation (c. 318–320 AD) — written before he became bishop, likely in his mid-twenties
- Life of Antony — the first great hagiography, which spread monasticism to the West
- The Festal Letters, including the 39th Festal Letter (367 AD) — the first list of the 27 New Testament books
C.S. Lewis wrote in his preface to the 1944 English translation: “When I first opened On the Incarnation I soon discovered by a very simple test that it was a masterpiece… It is a fresh, living, vigorous stream.”
Historical Context: Written c. 318–320 AD
On the Incarnation was written before the Arian controversy erupted publicly (c. 318–325 AD), though Arianism was already stirring. Athanasius was writing to a friend named Macarius, who had asked for a systematic account of the Christian faith. The work builds on an earlier treatise, Against the Gentiles.
Chapter 1: Creation (The Good Beginning)
God Created Freely and Lovingly
Athanasius begins by rejecting two false theories of creation:
- The Epicurean view: the universe arose by chance from atoms
- The Platonic/dualist view: God worked on pre-existing, eternal matter
Against these, Athanasius argues that God created ex nihilo (out of nothing), freely, by His own Word:
“For God is good — or rather, of all goodness He is Fountainhead, and it is impossible for one who is good to be mean or grudging about anything. Grudging existence to none therefore, He made all things out of nothing by His own Word, Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Humanity’s Special Dignity
Humanity was not made like other creatures. We were made in the image of God — given a share in the divine rationality (logos) through the Word (Logos):
“Upon all things in general He bestowed a being and creation. But for the race of men He made a still greater provision over and above this: He created them after His own image, giving them a share in the power of His own Word.”
This special gift — the participation in the Word — is the source of human dignity and also the explanation for why the fall was so catastrophic.
Chapter 2: The Fall (The Problem Stated)
The Warning and the Transgression
God said to Adam: “Of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17).
Athanasius understands this not as an arbitrary command, but as a description of ontological reality: to turn away from the Source of Life is to move toward non-existence.
“For transgression of the commandment was turning them back to their natural state, so that just as they had not existed before they came into being, so also they might expect non-existence in the future.”
The Double Problem
The Fall created a double dilemma:
- Corruption: Humanity began moving toward dissolution and death — returning to the nothing from which it came
- Dishonor: God’s image in humanity was being defaced — the very purpose of creation was being frustrated
Athanasius articulates the seriousness of the problem before offering the solution. This is his rhetorical and theological strategy: show how great the wound is, so that the greatness of the physician can be appreciated.
Chapter 3: The Divine Dilemma
What Could God Do?
Athanasius poses the problem with stunning clarity. God faced a dilemma:
“What then was God, being good, to do? Was He to let corruption and death have their way with them? In that case, what was the use of having made them in the beginning?”
If God simply allowed humanity to perish:
- His creation would be in vain
- His word (“you shall surely die”) would be fulfilled, but His love would be unfulfilled
- Death and the devil would appear to have triumphed over the Creator
But if God simply forgave without addressing the corruption:
- His truthfulness would be compromised — He had said there would be death
- The corruption would remain — mere forgiveness does not heal the wound
- The divine image would still be defaced
Repentance Is Not Enough
Athanasius makes a counterintuitive point: repentance alone could not solve the problem:
“But repentance would not guard the divine consistency. What it did was to show that sin deserved death, but it did not release man from corruption. Had it been a mere trespass and not a corruption, repentance would have been well enough. But when once transgression had begun, men came under the power of corruption.”
The problem is not just guilt — it is corruption. Humanity is not merely guilty; it is sick unto death, dissolving back into non-existence. What is needed is not just forgiveness but recreation, not just pardon but healing.
The Only Solution: The Word Himself
The answer to the dilemma is the Incarnation:
“Thus, taking a body like our own, because all our bodies were liable to the corruption of death, He surrendered His body to death instead of all, and offered it to the Father. This He did out of sheer love for us, so that in His death all might die, and the law of death thereby be abolished.”
The Word — who is the source of life, the one by whom all things were made — assumed a human body. By joining incorruptibility to corruption, He defeated death from within.
“For it was not fitting that the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God should, of His own nature, die, yet also it was not appropriate to avoid death on behalf of others… so He took to Himself a body capable of death.”
Key Themes
1. The Logic of the Incarnation
The Incarnation is not arbitrary. It follows necessarily from who God is (good, truthful, consistent) and what humanity needed (healing of corruption, not mere forgiveness of guilt).
2. Death Died in Christ’s Death
Athanasius’s most striking image: death was destroyed by Christ’s death because the immortal Word entered death. Death could not hold the Author of Life. When Christ died, He destroyed death from the inside.
“Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” — 1 Corinthians 15:54–55
3. The Restoration of the Image
The purpose of the Incarnation is the restoration of the divine image in humanity:
“For this purpose, then, the incorporeal and incorruptible and immaterial Word of God entered our world. In one sense, indeed, He was not far from it before, for no part of creation had ever been without Him Who, while ever abiding in union with the Father, yet fills all things that are. But now He entered the world in a new way, stooping to our level in His love and Self-revealing to us.”
Scripture References
| Theme | Scripture |
|---|---|
| Creation through the Word | John 1:1–3; Hebrews 1:2 |
| Humanity’s special dignity | Genesis 1:26–27 |
| The Fall and corruption | Genesis 3; Romans 5:12 |
| Christ as the new creation | 2 Corinthians 5:17 |
| Restoration of the image | Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10 |
| Death swallowed up | 1 Corinthians 15:54–55 |
Discussion Questions
- Athanasius says repentance alone is not enough because the problem is corruption, not just guilt. How does this change your understanding of what salvation means?
- What does it mean practically that we were made in the image of God through the Word? How does sin “deface” that image?
- C.S. Lewis called this book “a masterpiece.” What makes the argument of these three chapters compelling — or challenging — to you?