The Theological Teaching of St. Athanasius

The Doctrine of the Creation of the World

As in the case of Origen, the key to the theology of St. Athanasius is his teaching on the creation of the world. In Origen's system, the act of creation takes place in eternity, and creation is a manifestation of the very essence of God. God by nature cannot but create, and therefore He creates always, eternally. The rational creatures created by Him are in eternal communion with the Creator: it is precisely in this negation of time that the main weakness of Origen's teaching lies. Inasmuch as God does not create the world freely, but by virtue of His "essence," the created world has no real independent existence; rational creatures are deprived of true freedom, they are, as it were, attached to their Creator, now falling away, then again inevitably returning to the contemplation of His divine essence. In such a system, our life, our human history has no real meaning: the return of the fallen creature to the Creator is predetermined from eternity, and in this rotation there is no place for true freedom, neither divine nor created.

St. Athanasius fundamentally rejects this approach. At the heart of his teaching is the distinction between the divine nature (f'isis) and the divine will (t'elima). By nature, God is the Father. He begat the Son; by nature He sends the Holy Spirit. Spirit. But the creation of the world does not take place by nature, but by the will of God:

It would be pious to say that created beings came into existence by grace and will, and the Son is not a creature of the will that has come into being, like a creature, but is the essence that is proper by nature, for being the Father's own Word, He does not allow us to think of any will that preceded Him, because He Himself is the Father's counsel, the Father's power and the Creator of that which is pleasing to the Father... So, if the creatures came about by will and favor... yet everything has come into being by the Word, then the Word consists outside of those who have received existence by will.

(On the Arians, Homily 3:63, 66)

Thus, it was not at all necessary for God to create the world. He could "do without" (if I may say so) without it. This is the difference between nature and will: God could not but begat the Son, for He is a parent by nature; He was not supposed to create the world, but He created it - such is His divine and all-good will. It is possible to imagine, at least theoretically, in a potential sense, that there was a time when God did not create and the world did not exist.

The world created by the divine will is essentially different from Origen's world, which is, as it were, a continuation of the divine nature, and therefore lacks true independence from the Creator. In the system of Athanasius, creation exists on the water of God, but by itself. God and creation have different natures. God created the world out of nothing by the movement of His free will, and although after that He continues to rule the world, "provides" for it, this free autonomous world is opposed to God. The reason for this is as follows. God created the world for a purpose. Every creature and the whole world were originally destined for union, for unity with the Creator. For God created out of love and expected reciprocal love. The center and crown of creation is man, who was called upon to unite all creation with his activity and through himself to realize the union of love between God and the world. This free aspiration of the creature to its Creator at some point deviated from the straight path. In biblical terms, the Fall took place. Speaking of the Fall and the death that followed it, St. Athanasius uses the term corruption, which he understands both in the physical and spiritual sense: