“Only a master mind could, in the fourth century, have written so deeply on such a subject with such classical simplicity. Every page I read confirmed this impression.” -C.S. Lewis, “Introduction to Athanasius’s On the Incarnation”

We often think about our Lord Jesus becoming incarnate in order to save us from our sins, and that’s pretty much the whole of our thinking on the subject.  Sadly, that is where most Christians’ thinking on the Incarnation ends.  It is a very simplistic thinking, and this type of thinking does not allow us to fully understand what humanity means to our Lord Jesus Christ.

Please note that for this review, I am reviewing the original popular patristics version published by St. Vladimir’s Seminary press.  The translation originally appeared in the 1950s through a different publisher.  You can click here to purchase a copy.

Background to On the Incarnation

On the Incarnation by Athanasius is actually the second in a series of two apologetic works Athanasius wrote in his early life.  The first book is called Contra Gentes, which is often titled in English as Against the Heathen.  That book set about to demonstrate the incoherence of the Hellenistic worldviews that were widespread and influential in the world of Late Antiquity.  It is much like how today we have the worldviews of relativism, secularism, and atheism, and in order for one to understand and be open to the possibility of faith, Christians must first show how those systems are incoherent and presuppose false ideas.

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But showing how those systems are incoherent is not enough because this leads to agnosticism and doubt over whether anything is true.  The next thing is to make observations about the world and show how the Christian worldview is the coherent system which explains the world as a whole.

Let me illustrate.  I was teaching one time and there was a student misbehaving.  Since his misbehavior was apparent to the whole class, I corrected him in front of the whole class.  Then another student, one of his friends, raised her hand and said, “What if that’s just how he is?”  And I answered her, “You don’t believe he can change?”  She replied saying, “That’s not what I said.”  So, I helped her think things through saying something along the lines, “If you are saying that’s just how he is, and you are defending him even with this behavior, then you are telling me that you don’t believe people can change.”  Then she realized that this is what she believed.

I then realized that these children had no conception of change and growth mindset, which are necessary for progress in learning. Now why I am saying this; it is because it is analogy for the Christian faith: growth mindset is really no different than hope (which actually means “expectation” in the Greek of the New Testament) and faith, and change is the repentance required to lead to realize the hope. One must believe (have faith) that if one changes and takes a certain course in life (repents), then they will reach a certain expectation (hope).

I began a discussion with the class about hope and what it means, that things could and would get better if they only changed their characteristic self-defeating tendencies and misbehaviors that were affecting their growth.  Then, one of the students raised his hand respectfully and asked, “Can you give us five examples of students that changed and grew?”  He honestly wanted to know if it had been done before.  This is how far growth was from the minds of these students.  So, I gave him the five examples from my own students to show him that it can happen and did happen on this campus, and three of those examples were students in the class he was sitting in.

That day I realized that many people have no conception of these things, so when we try to bring the faith to people with backgrounds similar to these, it is truly incomprehensible to them.  They don’t believe in hope and that things can get better, and we come telling them we have good news about hope.  They don’t believe in change and growth, and we come telling them that if they repent, then our Lord will help them change and grow.

Athanasius’s two books are very much the same way.  He shuts down the false ideas that were widespread among the Greeks, and then he sets up and presents the Christian faith in a way that is now comprehensible to his readers.

The structure of On the Incarnation can be divided into three parts:

Part I: Creation and the Fall; the need for the Incarnation, Crucifixion, and Resurrection, and their meaning

Part II: Answering Objections from the Jews and the Greeks

Part III: Conclusion

Style

Athanasius style is simple and straight to the point. It is rife with analogies that deliver his explanations home to his readers and makes them very clear in the readers’ minds.  He has over 14 analogies in this short book to explain what the Incarnation means.

1. The Meaning of Humanity and Its Salvation

The predominant theme of On the Incarnation is the meaning of humanity and how and why our Lord saved us.

The fact that the Lord of the Universe chooses to become human leads to so many revelations about the character of God and our place in the universe.  If we think about what that means for a moment, it should become clear.  The Church Fathers, and indeed the earliest Christians, spent their time ruminating on this fact.  We do not believe we are God’s special creature because of our own speculations and conclusions, but because of the Incarnation of the Son of God. The only-begotten Son of God became human for us.  He holds us in the highest value.

Athanasius points out that only the one who had created humanity could be the one to fix and save humanity: “The renewal of creation has been wrought by the self-same Word Who made it in the beginning.  There is thus no inconsistency between creation and salvation; for the One Father has employed the same Agent for both works, effecting the salvation of the world through the same Word Who made it in the beginning” (Pg. 26).

Western Christians often think of salvation as a ticket to heaven after the wrath of God was satisfied on the Cross, but this is not what Christians have historically thought.   This whole narrative about wrath is a fairly new (and wrong narrative) having become more widespread in the past 300 years.  It was foreign to the early church.

Rather, among the earliest Christians, the Cross was seen, in the words of Athanasius, “as the monument to his victory.”  He uses the word “victory” over 10 times to describe the work of Christ to save us.  The whole narrative Athanasius sets forth is that Christ’s death on the Cross was a pure act of love to bring back humanity to God after they had fallen and had no way to come back to Him, and that this act led to His ultimate and lasting victory over death.  Indeed, Jesus said, “I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself”(John 12:32).  Also, the classic liturgical refrain in the ancient church for the Easter season was “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tombs bestowing life!”

The narrative of the wrath of God being satisfied was foreign to the early church.  The idea that his death is a ticket to heaven was also foreign to the early church.  To the early Christians, heaven is simply where Our Lord Jesus is, not a playground for those who have accepted Him. Actually, throughout the Scriptures, the verses about heaven do not say that we will go somewhere, but that God will come and dwell with us.

For these reasons, Athanasius also points out that salvation is the process of humanity partaking of God’s nature beginning with Christ restoring the Likeness of God within those who follow Him, so in a sense we become like God through His grace pouring out into us much in the same way as a sword begins to have the characteristics of fire when it is placed near a fire for a long time.  It does not cease to be a sword; it does not transform into fire, but it brings the heat of the fire to those near it.  It can even light a fire if it makes contact with flammable materials.  Thus, we are remade to reflect the Likeness of God and bring Him to others in the world.

2. The Transformation of Humanity

Within the predominant theme, the idea of the transformation of humanity runs throughout.

Toward the end of the book, Athanasius gives his final analogy about the Incarnation,

“If a King be reigning somewhere, but stays in his own house and does not let himself be seen, it often happens that some insubordinate fellows, taking advantage of his retirement, will have themselves proclaimed in his stead; and each of them, being invested with the semblance of kingship, misleads the simple who, because they cannot enter the palace and see the real king, are led astray by just hearing a king named.  When the real king emerges, however, and appears to view, things stand differently.  The insubordinate imposters are shown up by his presence, and men, seeing the real king, forsake those who previously misled them” (Pg. 94).

This describes how once people truly come to Christ and put away the idols that they served whether their own lusts and urges or other worldviews.

Impact

There is too much to say about this book.  Indeed, it has left its mark on Orthodox Christian theology, so much so that it becomes a good starting point for those who want to delve into theology and the history and beliefs of early Christianity.  But the goal of this review is not to give a detailed summary of this book but to encourage readers to pick up the book and read. Read it.  You can purchase a copy by clicking here.

It is not a long read either; in the original Popular Patristics Version published by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, the actual text is around 75 pages.  This book has been extremely influential since it was written.  Even modern authors like C.S. Lewis who mentions Athanasius in many of his works, shows its influence especially in his approach to miracles.  C.S. Lewis develops the seeds of Athanasius approach to the topic of miracles in his own book titled Miracles, which I highly recommend as well.

Read it.  It will change your thinking.  It will deepen your understanding of your relationship with God.  It will cause you to view the world, your salvation, and the Christian faith in a more complete way.

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