St. Athanasius and the "Purpose of the Faith"
the fourth century, the situation remained unchanged. The controversy with the Arians was again centered, at least in its initial phase, the question of exegesis. Arians and their supporters had assembled an impressive record of scriptural texts in support of their doctrinal position. They wanted to restrict the discussion to the theological one Biblical field. It was therefore necessary, above all, confront them on this land and meet their demands. Moreover, their method exegetical, how they used the text was very similar to that of heretics of previous centuries. They used a selection of quotes to support their claims, without much concern for the general context of Revelation. It was imperative, for the Orthodox, to appeal to the conscience of the Church, the "Faith" once delivered all and faithfully kept since. Such were the primary concern and the ordinary method of Athanasius .
The Arians cited various passages of Scripture to support their allegation that the Saviour was a creature. In response, St. Athanasius invoked the "rule of faith." It is his most common argument. "We know that the object of faith ( your skopon tês pisteos ), reestablish the true meaning (Orthene tèn dianoian ) of what they have falsely interpreted." ( Against the Arians , 3, 35). St. Athanasius argued that the "correct" interpretation of a particular passage was possible that by placing in the overall perspective of faith. "The Gospel they claim now, they explain in an arbitrary direction, as we discover if we take into consideration the purpose of faith is ours, we Christians ( your skopon tes kath ' Hema all Christianoùs pisteos ), and if we read Scripture in making this our goal rule ( your skopon hospes canoni chresamenoi ) ( Ibid., 3, 28).
the other hand, it must also be very attentive to the immediate context and sequence in which each particular sentence or phrase is embedded, and we must carefully determine the precise intent of the author ( Ibid., 1, 54).
In a letter to the Bishop Serapion on the Holy Spirit, St. Athanasius back on this accusation, that the Arians negligent or deliberately ignore "The purpose of Divine Scripture" - me eidontes your skopon tês Theias Graphs [27] . The word skopos , in the language of Athanasius , means roughly the same as the term hypothesis normally used by Irenaeus : the underlying idea, the real connection, meaning that the text is [28] . Moreover the word skopos was a common word vocabulary exegetical some philosophical schools, particularly those of neo-Platonism. In the philosophical effort of the day, exegesis played a big role, and the question of a hermeneutic principle should be raised. Iamblichus, among others, had been explicit on this point. He had to discover the "key point", the basic theme of the whole treaty subject to review and always keep that theme in mind [29] .
St. Athanasius may well have been familiar with the technical use of the term skopos . He argued that it was misleading to cite passages and isolated texts, neglecting the general intent of Scripture . It would obviously be wrong to see in the Athanasian skopos simply "the general sense" of Scripture. The "goal" of faith, or Scripture, is precisely their central content of faith, which is presented in condensed in the "rule of faith" as it was kept in the Church and handed down from fathers to fathers "rather than the Arians" have no fathers to ensure their views [30] . As correctly observed by the Cardinal Newman , St. Athanasius regarded the "rule of faith" as an ultimate "principle of interpretation" between the "ecclesial sense" ( tèn ekklesiastikèn dianoian, C. Arian. 1, 44) to "personal opinions" heretics [31] .
At any time, St. Athanasius, examining the arguments of the Arians, resumed in summary form the basic points of Christian faith, before entering the discussion proper quotations of Scripture given by the adversary, and that to put the texts in their proper perspective. Here's how HEW Turner describes this process of exegetical Athanasius [32] :
favorite technique Against the Arians, of forcing the grammatical meaning of a text without care or the immediate context or, more broadly, the framework within which it fits within the biblical teaching taken as a whole St. Athanasius insists on the need to take the overall meaning of the faith of the Church as Canon interpretation. Arians are blind to the widest scope of the theology of the Bible, and so they fail to take sufficient account the context in which their quotations are taken. The meaning of Scripture itself must be regarded as Scripture. Some thought that this was a virtual abandonment of the appeal to Scripture in favor of the argument of tradition. Certainly, in most careless hands, it could have led to put a straightjacket force to the Bible, as had attempted to do the Arian and Gnostic dogma. But this was surely not the intention of Athanasius himself. This argument is in his eyes, a call back from a drunk exegesis exegesis sober, staring fixedly myopia grammatical letter to an understanding of the intent ( skopos, Charakter) of the Bible.
The Professor Turner exaggerates, however, it seems the danger. The argument is, in fact, strictly based on scripture, and St. Athanasius admits the principle of full sufficiency of Scripture, sacred and inspired, to defend the truth [33] . The only thing is that Scripture must be interpreted in the context of the living tradition of faith under the control or direction of the "rule of faith." However, this rule was in any case, an "outsider" might have been "imposed" from outside the Holy Scriptures. She was the "preaching of the Apostles" which was in black and white, in the New Testament books, but she passed, so to speak, in short .
St. Athanasius wrote to the Bishop Serapion : "consider from the very first beginning this tradition, doctrine and faith of the Catholic Church that the Lord has given ( édoken ) , the Apostles preached ( ekéruxan ) , and the Fathers kept ( ephulaxan ) . On it the Church is founded [34] . This passage best defines the method of Saint Athanasius. The three terms of the sentence correspond to the same reality: paradosis [tradition] coming of Christ Himself, didaskalia [education] lavished by the Apostles, and pistis [Faith] received by the Catholic Church. And that is the foundation ( themélion ) of the Church-a single foundation [35] . Scripture itself seems to be part of this "Tradition" which encompasses and transcends , and comes on its own, the Lord. In the conclusion of his first epistle to Serapion, Saint Athanasius back again on this subject. "In keeping with the apostolic faith that the Fathers have transmitted by tradition, I reproduced the tradition, without inventing anything extraneous to it. What I learned, I've listed ( enecharaxa ) in accordance with the Scriptures [36] . Once even St. Athanasius speaks of Scripture by calling him a paradosis [tradition] Apostolic [37] . It is characteristic that in the whole controversy with the Arians, is not a single reference to any "traditions" in the plural. The only term used is always "Tradition" in the singular : This is, of course, the Tradition Apostolic Tradition , embracing the total content and full of "preaching" apostolic and summarized in the "rule of faith." The unity and solidarity of this principle and tradition formed the crux of the whole argument Orthodox.
[27] Ad Serap ., 2, 7. See Ad episc. Eg ., 4: Ta legomena monon skopôn, kai Me Ten dianoian theorôn , "paying attention only to expressions and not thinking" of the text.
[28] See Guido Müller, Athanasianum Lexicon, sv : Id quod quis docendo, scribendo, credendo steward.
[29] See Karl Pracht, "Schule und im Richtungen Neuplatonismus" Genethliakon - Carl Roberts zum 8. März 1910 , Berlin 1910. Prachter skopos translated by Zeitpunkt or Grundthema (p. 128 ff.) He describes the method of Iamblichus universalistische Exegese (p. 138). Proclus in his Commentary on Timaeus opposes to Porphyry Iamblichus: the first interprets the texts in a more timely manner ( merikoteron ), while the second did epoptikoteron , that is to say taking a comprehensive view or synthetic: In Tim ., I, p. 204, 24 ff, quoted by Pracht, P. 136.
[30] Saint Athanase, De Decr ., 27.
[31] Select Treatises of St Athanasius , freely translated by J.H. Cardinal Newman, vol. 2, eighth impression 1900, p. 250-252.
[32] H.E.W. Turner, The Pattern of Christian Truth , London 1954, p. 193-194.
[33] Contra Gentes , 1.
[34] Ad Serap ., 1, 28.
[35] CRB Shapland has aptly suggested that the themélion spoken text was, for St. Athanasius, precisely, the triple name, as it is invoked during the Holy Baptism. In fact, St. Athanasius cites a little later in the same paragraph of his letter, the recommendation made thereon by the Lord, by introducing it this way: the Lord "told them [the apostles] to ask what foundation for the Church, saying ... The apostles went, and well taught ". The Letters of Saint Athanasius Concerning The Holy Spirit, translated With Introduction and Notes by CRB Shapland, London 1951, p. 152, n. 2 (on p. 134).
[36] Ibid ., 33.
[37] . Ad Adelphi ., 6.
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