Abstract

Athanasius begins to defend Nicaea's in the De decretis of ca. 353, pursuing two basic strategies. First, the term is defended as a necessary corollary of Nicaea's controversial phrase, a phrase which appears to be more fundamental to Athanasius. Second, however, he defends both and as necessary in order to preserve the sense of important scriptural terminologies that he takes to emphasize the Son's status as the Father's Wisdom and Word. thus functions as a cipher for phrases that are what Richard Vaggione has termed "basic dogmatic statements." In his account of Nicaea Athanasius also appears to draw on Eusebius of Caesarea's argument in his Epistula ad Caesarienses of 326. The skill with which he adopts and adapts Eusebius' arguments further demonstrates the subtlety with which doctrinal ciphers could be

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