Athanasius, the renown Christian apologist, was born into a greek family around 293. Very little of his childhood is known. It is not until he became a religious and thus political figure that he is recorded in history. He studied theology and philosophy, graduating to an episcopal position in the Catholic Church of Alexandria. Soon the Arian controversy sprung up and caused many disputes in the Christian church. The Arians were known for their erroneous belief that God the Father was not one in the same with Jesus. They believed that Jesus was a great man, possibly one of the greatest of God’s creations, but not God-incarnate. Needless to say this topic riled many a theologian. Arius and the other leaders of the Church gathered together (the First Council of Nicaea in 325). Here Athanasius spoke out against the heresy and the Nicaean Creed was drafted. Afterwards, Athanasius was said to have mistreated Arius and consequently he was exiled to Tyre by Constantine I. Over the next years 40 years Athanasius came in and out of exile, depending on the bias of the Emperor and the people influencing him. During these years Athanasius wrote many papers and treatis arguing for the Christian faith based on the Bible. Among these is one of his most famous works: On the Incarnation, the dispute over Arianism gave Athanasius incentive to write his book. In the year 366 Athanasius was allowed home and for the rest of his life he was allowed to continue his work in the church.
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