“Death has lost its power over all.” Athanasius on the union of Christ with humankind

For Athanasius, the divinity of Christ was crucial for the salvation of humanity. By receiving a human body, Christ, the eternal Word of God, bestowed the gift of his divinity upon our humanity, says Athanasius. “by virtue of the Word’s indwelling in a single human body, the corruption which goes with death has lost its power over all.””