Much scholarship on the ancient church has been too concerned with its relationship to the Graeco-Roman context (Harnack, Wilken, etc.). Scholars note where early Christians use genres and ideas made available to them by a preexisting social milieu (Brown, Brakke). In objection, some have raised how Christians have transformed genres and ideas (Petitfils, Hagner). For example, the genre of exemplum is Christianized by replacing the Roman virtues and figures with Christian ones. While this is well and good, what such a response fails to account for is the tectonic shifts that happen underneath such works at the level of metaphysics. They imagine that the Greeks and Romans have built a house, and the Christians have merely repainted it. However, Christianity is not just Platonism in blue. It is nothing less than the complete razing of prior structures to make way for something new. In the process of destruction and devastation, some pieces of art or furniture may be retained, but they serve a fundamentally new entity. Thus, when the Christians overlap with their culture in style and concepts, the question becomes: What seismic movements have occurred under the surface?
The Life of Antony by Athanasius presents a useful case study for this new perspective. When reading the numerous citations and allusions that compare Antony to other saints, one should ask, “What is uniquely Christian about the way in which Athanasius uses these references?” While Athanasius may intend to write in an already existing medium (such as encomium or vita) about a new figure, and he certainly wants to bolster Antony’s reputation by associating him with figures like Elijah and Jacob (7.13; 24.1), one cannot help but wonder whether that is all he is trying to accomplish.
I will contend that, for Athanasius, Antony was mystically participating in the lives of the saints through his union with Christ. In order to accomplish this goal, I will first give a brief overview of Athanasius’ doctrine of θεοποίησις. Then, I will examine the relationship between union with Christ and imitation of him, θεοποίησις and μίμησις, showing how Antony’s life is meant to be understood as an imitatio Christi. Finally, Athanasius’ belief that the Church is mystically the body of Christ will reveal that imitating the saints results in a deeper unity with them and Christ. This is the doctrine in the background that motivates Athanasius to make his numerous comparisons between Antony and other saints, and it also is assumed in the role Antony plays in the lives of Athanasius’ readers: By following Antony’s example, they will be united to him, and through him, Christ.