Product Description

The fatherhood of God has a central, if increasingly controversial, place in Christian thinking about God. Yet although Christians referred to God as Father from the earliest days of the faith, it was not until Athanasius in the fourth century that the idea of God as Father became a topic of sustained analysis. Looking at the genesis of Athansius' understanding of divine fatherhood against the background of the Alexandrian tradition, Dr Widdicombe demonstrates how the concept came to occupy such a prominent place in Christian theology. He argues that there is a continuity in the Alexandrian tradition which runs from Origen to Athanasius, and shows how in the detail of their language and in the structure of their arguments, the third and fourth century Alexandrians drew on Origen's portrayal of God as Father. For Origen, the fatherhood of God lay at the heart of the Christian faith: to know God fully and thus to be saved is to know God as Father. For Athanasius, the fatherhood of God was integral to the defence of the divinity of the Son against the Arian challenge: Fatherhood identified God as the loving and fruitful source of all things and as the one who has sought to meet us in his Son Jesus Christ. Arius, however, was an important exception, and for him it was logically possible to refer to God without calling him Father. In the context of modern debates about describing God as Father, this illuminating examination of early Christian thinking will help us to consider whether it is either desirable or possible to call God Father if we are to maintain an intelligible doctrine of God.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1337270 in Books
• Published on: 2000-11-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 316 pages

Review
"[A] very readable work....Widdicombe's thoroughness gives the book a synthetic dimension that some other treatments of Origen and Athanasius lack: the reader has a clear sense of both Origen's and Athansius' theologies of God over-all, and how the specific doctrine of the fatherhood of God figures in each of those theologies....[A] work of first-class scholarship."--Theological Studies
"The author must be thanked for his clarity of style and his determination not to wear his learning heavily'....The work is well crafted, accurate and useful at the right level of study."--Regent's Review
"A technical but eminently lucid investigation....This book should be required reading for those who seek to dismiss traditional Christian language about God as Father and Son without first understanding what its classic formulations meant to those who articulated them."--Religious Studies Review
"I would highly recommend this book."--Pro Ecclesia
"Subtly, this is a very good book. It is a good book because of its clear, sure-handed scholarship."--Church History

About the Author
Peter Widdicombe is Assistant Professor in the Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.