The time when Athanasius lived and ruled as Bishop was a crazy one for the Church. During his lifetime Christianity became legal and continued to grow (although, surprisingly, it grew faster before being legal, but that's another story for another time). With it growing at this rate, something became very important for the early Church--defining its theology. During his lifetime, the specific theology being discussed had a lot to do with who the person of Jesus was-was He God, was He man, was He both? Who created Him (if anyone)? When did He come into existence?
One of the biggest parts of this debate was a controversy known as the Arian controversy, which was started by a guy named Arius (you could've guessed, right?). Arius held to a popular theology in the East at the time: Jesus was the Logos (Word) which out of the will of the Father. Arius, and others like him (including great names like Origen and very important people like Eusebius of Ceasarea) held that the Son came in some way from the Father, believing that the Father was eternal but that there was a time when the Son did not exist.
To put it simply, the debate was this: was Jesus totally God, or somehow a little bit less? Athanasius played a major part in this battle; he was a major player in the Council of Nicea in 325 and a major theological figure for the rest of his life and long after.
If you want to read more about the personality of Athanasius as well as the controversies he faced, there is a good explanation of it at Fr. Robert Barron's Word on Fire Blog here: Athanasius Contra Mundi. That blog is called Athansius Contra Mundi, meaning Athanasius verse the world, because that is the way much of his life went: he was taken out of Alexandria at least 5 times, even having to hide in the desert at one point simply because he refused to budge on truth when so many others disagreed with him.
So why, you might ask, do we need to know all of this about a guy who lived in the 300s in Egypt?
Well, the example of his life is important for us in a world that so often wants us to ignore truth in favor what feels or sounds good at the time. Athanasius faced other bishops, emperors, and people who had a lot of support; he was taken off of his post, he was chased out of his city, and he was constantly attacked for his beliefs. Despite all this pressure, Athanasius refused to budge; he stood firm in the face of truth, teaching with an eloquence and intelligence that led to his teachings becoming the foundation for much of the Church's theology that we still hold today.
Besides standing strong in the face of difficulty, Athanasius is important to us for another reason: he shows us how important it is to know Scripture and to know our faith well. The Arians and others that he fought against knew the faith very well; if you read their writings today, you would have a hard time seeing what is incorrect many times even if you know that they were heretics. If Athanasius had only kind of known the Scripture, and had spoken without intelligence, he would have been silenced and the incorrect ideas of the time might have become even more mainstream.
Today, it is often the same way; we can't simply assume that a basic knowledge of the faith will be enough. We need to study it, to learn it, to be fluent in it, and to speak it with confidence and unwavering trust.
Take the example of St. Athanasius to prayer today: what ways is the Lord calling each of us to grow in our knowledge of the faith? How are giving in to the false teachings of those around us, and how can we do a better job of standing up for truth?
“For the Lord touched all parts of creation, and freed and undeceived them all from every deceit.”
-St. Athanasius
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