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Defence of the Nicene Definition

Athanasius of Alexandria

“This letter must have been written in the interval between the return of Athanasius in 346 and his flight in 356...It is written in answer to a friend who in disputing with Arians had been posed by their objection to the use of non-scriptural terms in the Nicene Definition. He accordingly asks for some account of what the council had done...Athanasius begins his answer by stigmatising the evasions and inconsistency of the Arianisers, and describing their conduct at the council, and how they eventually subscribed to the terms now complained of (1–5). He then investigates the meaning of the divine Sonship (6–14), and how its true meaning is brought out by the other titles of the Son (15–17). Coming to the non-scriptural expressions he shews how they were forced upon the council by the evasions of the Arians (18–20), and that they express no sense not to be found in Scripture (21–24)...” From Introduction to de Decretis or Defence of the Nicene Definition.

Soloist Note: The term “catholic” used here in St. Athanasius’s letter and those of other early Church Fathers was used to mean “universal” –anciently used in both East and West Churches-- before the East-West Great Schism of 1054, thus the use of this term in the Nicene Creed by the Eastern Orthodox up to the present. - Summary by J. Denning