Defence of the Nicene Definition

One of the most consequential texts in Christian intellectual history. In the mid-fourth century, the church was fracturing over a question that would define Western religion for two millennia: Is Christ truly God? Athanasius of Alexandria, having spent decades in exile defending the Nicene Faith against Arianism, writes here to a friend who faced a clever objection from opponents, why use words the Bible never uses? Athanasius turns this seemingly narrow question into a sweeping defense of what the council actually did and why. He chronicles the Arian evasion tactics, shows how the controversial terms were forced upon the bishops by those very evasions, and demonstrates that the language, while not found verbatim in Scripture, expresses truths inseparable from it. This is the work that helped cement the doctrine of Christ's divinity and shape the Trinity as central to Christian orthodoxy.