Thus, according to the grace of the Spirit given to us, we are in him, and He is in us. And since the Spirit that is in us is God's, then we, having the Spirit in us, are justly considered to be in God, and thus God is in us. Therefore, we do not dwell in the Father as the Son does. The Son does not become a partaker of the Spirit, so that through this He may be in the Father. He does not receive the Spirit, but rather He Himself gives Him to all, and it is not the Spirit who unites the Son with the Father, but rather the Spirit receives from the Word. And the Son is in the Father, as His own Word and radiance. And without the Spirit we are alien to God and far from Him, but through the communion of the Spirit we are united with the Divinity.

(Against, Arian. 3:24)

The phrase "rather He Himself gives Him to all" has often been misinterpreted as an argument in favor of the Filioque: as if in this case St. Athanasius asserts that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son. Such an understanding overlooks the context of the statement, which does not discuss the eternal procession of the Spirit at all. Athanasius was alien to the philosophical approach to the existence of God, which gave rise to the doctrine of the Filioque, and in his writings he never speaks of the Holy Trinity in abstract terms. Athanasius' thought is always focused on the idea of saving man from slavery to death and corruption. Salvation was brought into the world by Christ, and He also sends us the Holy Spirit, through whom we partake of the divine life.

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In general, it can be said that St. Athanasius the Great was an extremely attractive person, courageous and tireless, a true Christian hero. He was not understood by many contemporary Eastern theologians, who were brought up on the teachings of the Neoplatonists and Origen. Athanasius, on the other hand, completely freed himself from adherence to Neoplatonic thought, especially in his teaching on the creation of the world. In the West, his teaching was received more favorably, since Western theology had never fought against modalism and therefore did not see any danger in the term consubstantial.

However, the final victory over Arianism was won not by St. Athanasius, but by his younger contemporaries, the Cappadocian Fathers, who managed to develop the correct terminology that eliminated the contradiction between the concept of consubstantiality and the Trinitarian nature of God, and who cleared the Nicene faith of suspicions of modalism.

Chapter 10

St. Cyril of Jerusalem