Contra Mundum: The Price of Faith and Leadership

For more than two billion Christian people in the world today, the Nicene Creed neatly summarizes their faith in ten sentences. It includes a “definition” of who Jesus Christ, the central figure in Christianity, is. Yet, unbeknownst to many, the Christian faith may have been very different today if not for one man’s leadership and steadfastness in faith: Athanasius of Alexandria. At one point in his life, he was pretty much “one man against the world,” and he paid a hefty price for it. If you ever wonder if one person can shape the course of history, his story will inspire you.

Note: If you prefer to read this story on paper, you can download the PDF version from here .

Prologue: A Letter from the Emperor?

“Since you have been told of my will, grant free access to all who wish to enter your organization. If I learn that you have hindered them, I will send someone who at my command will remove you from your position and send you into exile.” These threatening words came in a letter from Emperor Constantine the Great to Athanasius in Alexandria, Egypt, in 330. The organization he mentioned was the Christian Church in that city.

As the bishop of Alexandria, Athanasius led nine Christian churches and about sixteen presbyters (priests or church ministers) in the metropolis, plus about a hundred other bishops in Egypt, Libya, and the surrounding area. Still, he was young, barely thirty years old, and he had been elected to his position just two years ago. In fact, some fractions in the Church had opposed his election due to his age.

Sitting in the bishop office near the western gate of the city, Athanasius read the letter over and over. What should he do? The emperor wanted him to admit some people who, in his view, were heretics, i.e., people whose belief were contrary to the Church’s teaching. But this was an order from a Roman emperor. (Those of us who have ever lived under a dictator could surely appreciate the gravity of the situation.) While it was true that Constantine had embraced Christianity (the first Roman Emperor to do so), he was a man of changing mind and violent temper. Just four years earlier, he had his own son poisoned and his wife asphyxiated.

More specifically, what the emperor ordered was for him to readmit Arius and his supporters into the Church. Arius had been expelled by Bishop Alexander (Athanasius’ predecessor) in 322 for teaching a heresy. That decision was upheld by the Council of Nicaea (a gathering of Christian bishops and leaders) three years later and subsequently approved by the emperor himself. But through a cunning play of words and political maneuvering, Arius managed to convince Emperor Constantine to reverse his decision without actually changing his belief – and Athanasius knew this full well.

Athanasius was between a rock and a hard place, but he had to make a decision.

“Defining moments define your leadership,” wrote the best-selling author John Maxwell in Leadership Gold. When we face a crisis or a personal failure, have to take a stand on an important issue, or need to make an unpleasant choice, our decision and action reveal our true character and motives, and also our potential.

Part 1: From Alexandria to Nicaea

Athanasius was born in Alexandria, Egypt, around year 296. Founded by Alexander the Great, Alexandria was a great city of the time. With an estimated population of 400,000, it was second only to Rome. The city was famous for its culture and educational institutions, and its port supplied corn and grain to the whole Roman Empire, clearly vital for the nation’s well-being. Alexandria was also the religious center of Egypt. Various places of worship for the Greek, pagan, Jewish, Christian, and native religions were located there.

We don’t know much about Athanasius’ early years, but his parents were probably middle-class, native Egyptian Coptic people. Physically small and blackish, Athanasius was active, smart, and eloquent. He was well-educated and spoke Coptic and Greek (plus Latin later in life). His parents were not Christians, but when Athanasius was a teenager, he was taken on by Alexander, the then-bishop of the Alexandrian Christian Church, to be his assistant. Alexander became a mentor and a father-like figure to him.

Christianity was brought to Alexandria in the mid-first century by St. Mark, the author of the earliest Gospel. By the time Athanasius was born, Alexandria had become the most important center of Christianity in Egypt and the surrounding area, and Christians were a significant part of the society. Still, they suffered greatly from various persecutions, and none was worse than during the Emperor Diocletian’s time (303-313 AD). Convinced that the Christians were conspiring to weaken his empire, Diocletian ordered them tortured, scraped, burned alive, and crucified upside down. The persecution only abated when a new emperor, Constantine, rose to power in 312 and attributed his victory in a battle in Rome to the sign of Christ. Subsequently, in 313 he issued the Edict of Milan which tolerated all religions.

While the Christian community in Alexandria had been growing, they were far from united. Much like the political parties of our time, there were fractions within it. There were the Meletians and the Catholics, each holding separate worship services in separate churches – and then, came the Arians.

Arianism was named after Arius, a presbyter in Alexandria who came up with the teaching in 318. It is neither within the scope nor the intent of this article to discuss Arianism in detail. Suffice to say that Arius developed a novel idea about the divinity of Jesus Christ (which is obviously central to the Christian faith) that was different from the teaching of the Church.

In contrast to Athanasius, Arius was tall, lean, and quite old (about 68) when he created the controversy. But he was also charming, and his teaching would spread like a wildfire and wreak havoc in the Christian Church throughout the 4th century.

The new Emperor Constantine, more than just tolerating Christianity, saw the nascent religion as a tool to unite his empire. In him, the British historian A. H. M. Jones would say, “The Church had acquired a protector, but it had also acquired a master” [2]. Disturbed by the quarrel (which included protests and street fighting) in the Church of Alexandria, he wrote a long letter to Bishop Alexander and Arius, telling them to avoid “useless talk” about “theological matters of small importance.” When that didn’t work, he summoned the Christian bishops to Nicaea, near the newly minted capital city of Constantinople, to solve the matter.

The Ecumenical Council of Nicaea was the first worldwide gathering of the Church leaders, and it has been considered as one of the most important moments in the Church history. About 300 bishops, accompanied by their presbyters and deacons, made the trek in the summer of 325 – all expenses paid by the emperor. Bishop Alexander went, taking Athanasius along, as did Arius and his proponents.

Clothed in a radiant purple robe and adorned with gold and precious stones, Emperor Constantine stood amid the bishops. What a sight it must have been. The Christian leaders who had been persecuted by the Roman emperors not so long ago, now sat around one and enjoyed his lavish banquet. “Discard the causes of that disunion that has existed among you,” the emperor told the bishops. “Remove the controversy and embrace peace.” He then displayed various letters of complaint that he had received from one fraction against the other and burned them in their view.

The Council of Nicaea voted almost unanimously to rebuke Arianism and uphold the Catholics’ view. It summarized the Christian faith in what has been called the Nicene Creed, and those who refused to sign it were condemned. (The Nicene Creed was slightly improved in 381, and it is still in use today.) Altogether seven people, Arius plus five bishops and one deacon who supported him, were sent to exile. The emperor also decreed the Arian books to be burned.

Great Place to Visit: Bibliotheca Alexandrina

Ancient Alexandria was the learning and intellectual center of the world, thanks to the famed Library of Alexandria. Built by Pharaoh Ptolemy II in the third century BC, it housed 400,000 to 500,000 scrolls, pretty much all the "books" in its world at the time. Alas, the library was burned in 48 BC.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina is the re-imagined, modern version of the ancient library. The building exterior is shaped like an Egyptian sun disc embedded in the ground, and inside, the impressive main reading room can hold up to eight million books. But more than just a library, it is also a museum and a cultural center [5, 6]. It is "dedicated to recapture the spirit of openness and scholarship of the original Bibliotheca Alexandrina," and it aspires to be "a center for learning, tolerance, dialogue and understanding" [8].

I have never been to Alexandria, but if I ever go there, Bibliotheca Alexandrina would definitely be in my list to visit.

Part 2: Turmoil in Alexandria?

If the Council of Nicaea had ended the controversy and united the Church, history would have been much simpler. But within a short time, the exiled party appealed to the emperor. Using a vague language that we often heard in politics and business today, they said that they had changed their mind and now “sort of” embraced the Nicene Creed. Craving unity in the empire, Constantine pardoned and reinstated them to their positions.

Soon the Arian star was rising. Using any means necessary, their proponents steadily took over the leadership positions in the key cities from the Catholics. In Antioch, the first place where Jesus’ followers were called “Christians,” the Arians drummed up a false accusation of adultery to remove the legitimate bishop and replace him with their own.

In Alexandria, Bishop Alexander died in April 328. His death threw the Alexandrian Church into turmoil as the Catholics, the Meletians, and the Arians battled each other to get their candidate be the next leader. The Catholics won out in this crucial city, but it took two months before Athanasius was finally elected (reluctantly, I should say; Athanasius actually didn’t want to become the bishop).

As a moderate and conciliatory leader, Athanasius worked hard to unify the Christian community in Alexandria. Many clergies who initially opposed him turned around to his side. Still, some people, especially the Arians, cried foul of improper election, unfit character, and just being too young. When those didn’t work, they falsely accused him of demanding linen tunic payment from the Egyptians. Again, this was unsuccessful.

Amidst all of these, Arius slowly made his way back to Alexandria. Armed with the emperor’s letter, he demanded his job back as a presbyter in the Alexandrian Church.

Such was the predicament that Athanasius found himself in in the summer of 330. In front of him were two difficult choices. He could obey the emperor’s command and admit Arius back into the Church even though there was no doubt in his mind that the latter still harbored a conflicting belief that was dangerous to his organization.

Or, he could refuse the demand and face the consequences of losing his job, being sent to exile in a faraway place, and cut off from his family, friends and flocks. And God knows what else the emperor would do.

If Athanasius took the first choice, people would have understood. After all, it was the emperor’s demand. He would also still stay in his position (at least for now) and could try to contain Arius’ impact in Alexandria. On the other hand, if he was deposed, Athanasius’ influence on the Alexandrian Christian community would diminish greatly, if not completely. Letter was the only method of communication, and it took months for one to arrive from a distant place. At the same time, Arius’ influence would surely expand.

What should he do?

If one aspires to be a leader, what should he/she first do? Take a leadership training course, improve his/her communication skills, find a mentor? All of them are helpful, but I suggest the first thing one should do is to count the cost the leadership and think carefully about whether he/she is willing to bear it. By “cost,” I don’t mean the financial cost (although it may be part of it), but the sacrifice. In The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership Tested by Time, James Garlow wrote that self-sacrifice is one of the tickets to leadership. Besides self-sacrifice, true leadership often comes with the cost of time away from the family, criticism, pressure, and stress – to name a few. So, “Assuming you want to be a leader,” Garlow asked, “have you purchased your ticket?”

Part 3: Contra Mundum?

Athanasius decided he could not betray his faith and conscience. For him, Arianism was heretical and evil, clear and simple. “The heresy that attacks Christ has no communion with the Catholic church,” he wrote. They didn’t even deserve to be called Christians, for “how can they be Christians when they blaspheme the name of Jesus Christ?” He wrote to the emperor explaining his decision and braved the consequences.

Not surprisingly, Emperor Constantine wasn’t happy. He summoned Athanasius to appear before him, which Athanasius did in Nicomedia in 331. There he successfully defended himself. But like mad men, the Arians, aided by the Meletians, kept piling up more fake accusations against him, from inciting violence in Alexandria to murdering a Meletian bishop named Arsenius. These issues forced Athanasius to appear before the emperor again in Tyre (now in Lebanon) and Constantinople in 335.

Finally, Athanasius' opponents found the perfect charge to lay: they accused him of prohibiting the shipment of grain from Alexandria to Constantinople. This last issue was so sensitive (it threatened the stability of the Roman Empire) that the emperor exploded upon hearing it. He ordered Athanasius’ exile to Trier in Gaul (now Germany) immediately without a hearing.

Athanasius spent two years and four months in Trier. In 337, just prior to his death, Emperor Constantine told his son that he wished for Athanasius to return to his position and hometown of Alexandria; a wish that the young Constantine II fulfilled. Athanasius was welcomed joyfully by the Christians of Alexandria and the surrounding areas, both rich and poor.

For the next 30 years, Athanasius’ fate would rise and fall as the Arianism influence on the successive Roman emperors waxed and waned. Throughout all this time, his faith never wavered. He always viewed Arianism as incompatible with the Christian faith (and the Nicene Creed), and he refused to reconcile it into the Church. More than the fight for power or even for a theological view, Athanasius saw it as “the battle for the [salvation of the] souls of men and women” [2].

At one point, Athanasius was pretty much the only bishop staunchly defending the Nicene Creed, earning him the nickname Athanasius Contra Mundum (Athanasius against the world). For that unflinching principle, Athanasius was banished four more times in his life by three other emperors. All in all, he spent a total of 17 years in exile.

“Being men and women of integrity – following the rules, following the law, and following what you know to be right – is hard. It is hard because you have to fight against your natural tendencies: the desire to go along, to get along, and to be well liked among the herd.” – Admiral William H. McRaven in The Hero Code.

Great Place to Visit: Monastery of St. Anthony

Anthony was a Christian monk who seek solitude in a cave the eastern desert of Egypt. His pious life attracted followers, and he later organized a monastic community at the foot of Gebel al Galala al Qibliya plateau near the Red Sea. St. Anthony of Egypt (or St. Anthony of the Desert) - as he is now known - is considered the father of the monasticism.

Athanasius was a good friend of Anthony. In fact, much of what we know about Anthony came from the Life of Anthony book that Athanasius wrote during his third exile. In one rare occasion where Anthony left his seclusion, he went to Alexandria to personally support Athanasius against Arianism in July 338.

Lonely Planet travel guide to Egypt calls the monastery "fascinating and inspiring," and "the surrounding desert scenery is simply breathtaking." It offers "a refreshing change of scene from the hassles and noise of Cairo and the Nile Valley, and from the package tourism of the coastline" [5].

Epilogue: What's the Difference?

Seven Arian people stood their ground during the Council of Nicaea and refused to endorse the Nicene Creed: Arius, Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia, and five others. So, what is the difference between them and Athanasius? After all, these seven people also paid the price of holding on to their belief.

To me, there are two main differences. First, through thick and thin Athanasius never changed his position. On the other hand, the exiled Arians soon told Emperor Constantine that they retracted their view and asked for a pardon (which the emperor granted). Once released, they “changed their mind” again and got back to promoting Arianism.

Second, Athanasius never used fraudulent and vicious tactics against his challengers. Although he exhorted his followers to be steadfast in their faith, he never encouraged them to harm or to slander the Arians. On the contrary, he urged them, “Let your love overcome the malice of the heretics” [2]. ?Writing about Athanasius in 380, Gregory of Nazianzen described him as “gentle, free from anger, sympathetic, sweet in words … [and] calm in rebuke” [1]. Indeed, his nature won over many of his opponents to his side, including Arsenius, the man he was accused of killing.

In contrast, the Arians, led by Bishop Eusebius of Nicomedia (whose office was close to the capital city of Constantinople, and hence to the emperors), used every means, legitimate or not, to dislodge Athanasius. Beyond what has been said earlier, they accused him of desecrating a church, torturing people, supporting a coup leader, and many other things, without real evidence.

(Some modern scholars have argued that Athanasius did incite violence in Alexandria to maintain his position. But as Peter Barnes pointed, every time Athanasius came back from exile, the Alexandrians welcomed him with joy – and that is simply “difficult to explain if Athanasius was [a] bully and tyrant” [2].)

In the end, the truth prevailed. The accusations against Athanasius were either proven untrue or recanted by the actors. Under pressure from the people of Alexandria, Emperor Valens finally allowed their beloved bishop to return from his fifth exile in February 366. At long last, Athanasius got to spend the last seven years of his life in peace.

Athanasius died in Alexandria on May 2, 373. Eight years later, Emperor Theodosius and the ecumenical Council of Constantinople put an official end to Arianism and upheld the Nicene Creed “as the standard definition of Christian faith” [1]. The Creed still guides the mainstream Christian churches around the world today [7] – thanks to one man’s steadfastness in faith and his willingness to pay the price for it.

“He who would accomplish little need sacrifice little; he who would achieve much must sacrifice much. He who would attain highly must sacrifice greatly.” – James Allen, British inspirational writer.

References

I used two books as the main sources of my story. Both are written by church history scholars. Book [1] is by Dr. John R. Tyson, Professor Emeritus of Church History at Colgate Rochester Crozier Divinity School in Rochester, NY, and book [2] is by Dr. Peter Barnes, a lecturer in Church History at Christ College in Sydney, Australia. The former is an easy-to-follow and well-organized book on Athanasius, but the reader has to wade through many theological discussions. The latter is a shorter and faster-to-read book, and it underlines different opinions among scholars and historians on Athanasius, but it has a somewhat “messier” flow than the former.

Books [3] and [4] tell the story of Alexandria in ancient times, and both of mentioned Athanasius and Arianism. Book [4] has a nice story of of Athanasius, summarized in only nine pages. Books [5] and [6] are travel guides to Egypt, and they provide a good section on Alexandria.

1. Tyson, J. R. (2017). The Great Athanasius: An Introduction to His Life and Work . Wipf and Stock Publishers.
2. Barnes, P. (2019).?Athanasius of Alexandria: His Life and Impact . Christian Focus.
3. Pollard, J., & Reid, H. (2006). The Rise and Fall of Alexandria: Birthplace of the Modern Mind . Viking Adult.
4. Vrettos, T. (2010). Alexandria: City of the Western Mind . Simon and Schuster.
5. Lee, J., & Sattin, A. (2021). Lonely Planet Egypt . Lonely Planet.
6. Smierciak, S. (2022). Moon Egypt . Hachette UK.
7. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1998, July 20). Nicene Creed | History & Text . Encyclopedia Britannica website.
8. About the BA - Bibliotheca Alexandrina. (n.d.). https://www.bibalex.org/en/Page/About