St Athanasius the Great ON THE OPINION OF DIONYSIUS, Complete

Translated by Cardinal Newman.

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29 Pages

Page 6

The tract of Athanasius, with his extracts in de Decr. and de Syn., tell us all that we know of the history of this important controversy. Dionysius had previously (Eus. H. E. vii. 6) had some correspondence with Xystus, the previous Bishop of Rome, on the subject of the Sabellian teaching current in the Pentapolis. He was in fact during his episcopate in constant communication with Rome and with the other important churches of the Christian World. His letters are much used in the sixth and seventh books of the History of Eusebius, to whom we are indebted for most of our knowledge of his writings.

The general arrangement of the tract is as follows:--

S:1-4 are prefatory, the fourth section broadly indicates the line of the defence. S:S:5-12 deal with the incriminated passages: Athan. gives the history of them, and lays stress on their incomplete presentation of the belief of Dionysius, as having been written for a special purpose,--as may also be said of much of the language of the Apostles. But even in themselves the expressions of Dionysius are orthodox, referring (as Athanasius claims) to Christ as man. In S:S:13-23 he turns to the Refutation and Defence, from which he makes copious extracts, bringing out the diametrical opposition between Dionysius and the Arians. In S:S:24, 25 the anti-Arian doctrine of Dionysius is summed up, and S:26 recapitulates the main points of S:S:5-12. He concludes (S:27) by claiming a verdict upon the evidence, and urging upon the Arians the alternative of abandoning their error, or of being left with the devil as their only partisan.

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Reference address : https://www.elpenor.org/athanasius/opinion-dionysius.asp?pg=6