L’umanità di Cristo nel pensiero teologico di Atanasio di Alessandria

Abstract

The article questions what is the conception of the humanity of Jesus Christ revealed from the works of Athanasius of Alexandria that are most significant in this regard and if an evolution of this thought emerges from them over time. Therefore, it is not the anti-Arian question of the divinity of the incarnate Logos that is deepened, but how Athanasius, in relation to this divinity, considers the human properties of Christ. Three works by Athanasius, written at different ages, are taken into consideration: the De Incarnatione, youth work, the Tomus ad Antiochenos, a text of maturity, and the Epistula ad Epictetum, written few years before his death. From the scrutiny of the passages chosen in such texts, it clearly emerges that Athanasius cannot be suspected of crypto-apollinarianism: he is not at all aprioristically and rigidly linked to the Logos-sarx model and his explicit affirmation of the human soul in Christ – made in his mature age – cannot be considered a mere expedient of ecclesial politics. It rather results the Patriarch’s awareness of having to articulate and clearly explain a conception that, until a certain moment, he had not considered necessary to deepen and to declare.