Athanasius and Creation

Before there was a beginning, there was only God. God is not restrained by time, nor can God be restrained. Time itself was a creation of God, but God now works within and through time. Athanasius recognized the act of creation as continual thread of human existence. In his work On the Incarnation of the Word, Athanasius develops a doctrine of the incarnation that hinges upon the doctrine of creation, “For in speaking of the appearance of the Saviour amongst us, we must needs speak also of the origin of men, that you may know that the reason of His coming down was because of us” (4: 2).
To understand the nature of the incarnation, one must first have an adequate view of the One who is incarnated. Athanasius taught that the Word was before time, one with the Father, begotten, and yet not created. The Word is known as Son, though not through adoption, but is co-equal with the Father. The Word had an intricate role in the creation process. As Athanasius remarks, “It may be duly perceived that the renewal of creation has been the work of the self-same Word that made it at the beginning” (1: 4). Yet, the grace given humanity by the will of the Father by means of the one law in the garden, so that we may continue in the knowledge of the Creator, afforded the possibility of corruption.
This corruption of God’s good creation did take place. Wickedness, wrongdoing, and evil wasted away God’s plan. God was left with a bit of a quandary: either the creation wastes away to non-existence (nullifying God’s goodness), or God could redeem humanity by turning a blind eye to his own law (thus making God a liar). Neither was acceptable. Humanity must be held accountable while still preserving the goodness and creation of God. Athanasius recognized that man had been created in the image of God, but it was in the fall that the image was lost. The incarnation then takes the role a redemptive act to restore the lost image. It seemed reasonable that the only way in which to restore the image lost was by the Image itself. As it was said by St. Gregory the Theologian, “The unassumed is unhealed.” In this way, the ‘Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.’
It is through the God-man that true knowledge of God also exists. The boring of flesh did not corrupt the divine, rather through the pairing of the divine with the body the body was made perfect. Likewise, through the indwelling of the Word the body is sanctified. Athanasius reminds us that “even though creation be a thing made, it is not absurd that the Word should be in it, then neither is it absurd that He should be in man.” And, while He was man he took upon himself the death of humanity so by it the Resurrection of the dead may be inherited. The Word in Christ gave man’s mortal soul a way in which to progress to immortality. Not only was the Word an instrument in creation but creation meets its fruition in the Word. The incarnation then acts as God’s deliverance to a state of communion with Himself.