Athanasius Quotes on Knowledge
Athanasius of Alexandria (c. 296–373), the patriarch whose long defence of the Nicene homoousios formula against the Arians of his generation made him the principal architect of fourth-century trinitarian orthodoxy, gave patristic theology one of its founding epistemological frames in On the Incarnation (c. 318) and the Orations against the Arians. The framework treats the genuine knowledge of God as accessible only through the incarnate Logos who has assumed human nature in order that the human nature might in turn be drawn into the divine life — "He became human that we might be made divine" — and the long polemical works develop the corresponding metaphysical argument that any lesser Christology forfeits the soteriological work the tradition assigns to the incarnation.
Quotes
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Attributed to Athanasius:
“He who knows himself knows his Creator.”
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“For in other matters also which go to make up life, we shall find differences according to circumstances. For example, it is not right to kill , yet in war it is lawful and praiseworthy to destroy the enemy; accordingly not only are they who have distinguished themselves in the field held worthy of great honours, but monuments are put up proclaiming their achievements. So that the same act is at o”
Letter to Amun . Written before 354 A.D. -
“He was made man in order that we might be made gods.[Christ] manifested himself by a body that we might receive the idea of the unseen Father; and He endured the insolence of men that we might inherit immortality .”
De Incarnatione , 54.3. As quoted in Deification and Sonship According to St Athanasius of Alexandria: Part I (February 9, 2016) -
“Perhaps you marvel, because having determined to speak of the Incarnation of the Logos, we now treat of the beginning of mankind; but this is not foreign to our treatment. For it is necessary that we, speaking of the manifestation of the Savior among us, should also speak of the beginning of mankind so that you may know that our guilt was to Him the reason for His coming and that our transgression caused the philanthropy of the Logos .”
Forse ti meravigli, perché avendo noi stabilito di parlare dell'Incarnazione del Logos, ora trattiamo dell'inizio degli uomini; ma ciò non è estraneo alla nostra trattazione. Infatti è necessario che noi parlando della manifestazione del Salvatore tra noi, parliamo anche dell'inizio del'umanità affinché tu conosca che la nostra colpa fu a Lui motivo della Sua venuta e che la nostra trasgressione p -
“Jesus that I know as my Redeemer cannot be less than God.”
As quoted in Mona Siddiqui, Christians, Muslims, and Jesus , Yale University Press, 2013, p. 674