Author Description

"Athanasius of Alexandria was the fourth-century bishop famous for his role in the establishment of Nicene orthodoxy. For centuries he was regarded with reverence as the man "who almost single-handedly turned back the Arian threat of the fourth century," but at the end of the nineteenth century and into the twentieth, this reverence gave way to demonization as critics began to doubt the authenticity and originality of his writings and painted him personally as ruthless, lying, and domineering. Interest in his theological writings waned as they were increasingly perceived as propaganda supporting a quest for political power." "Modern scholars of Athanasius of Alexandria have considered the dissonance of these disparate views and tread the balance in between. They acknowledge both the positive contributions and flaws of the bishop's writings and take into account the social and political framework of Athanasius's time and its influences on his work. Building upon the foundations laid by modern scholars such as Charles Kannengiesser and David Brakke, James D. Ernest's study of the famous bishop examines rhetorical and exegetical appropriations of Scripture especially in the Greek corpus of Athanasius's writings. An introductory chapter surveys earlier scholarship on Athanasian exegesis and on intertextual usage in related literatures. Subsequent chapters examine Athanasius's practice in his apologetic, dogmatic-polemical, dogmatic-historical, and pastoral writings. Ernest shows how Athanasius's writings interpret the Bible as a unified account that explains salvation in terms of the incarnation of the uncreated Word of God and models it through the positive and negative examples of various biblical characters."--BOOK JACKET.