SOURCE: Thomson, Robert W. “Introduction.” InAthanasius: “Contra Gentes” and “De Incarnatione,” edited and translated by Robert W. Thomson pp. xi-xx. Oxford: Oxford at the Clerendon Press, 1971.

In the following excerpt, Thomson examines the personality of Athanasius, focusing on how it contributed to his turbulent career.

Few Fathers of the Church have more captured the popular imagination than Athanasius of Alexandria. Exiled repeatedly, he came to enjoy an almost mythical reputation as the champion of Nicaea and the sole obstacle to an Arian empire. The significance of Athanasius' career was, however, much wider than the triumph of the Nicene expression homoousios. In the field of theology Athanasius brought controversy away from philosophic speculation to the problem of elucidating a faith already imparted to the church, where principles rather than specific words were all-important. He did not insist on the term homoousios until the 350s.¹ No less significant was...