If Athanasius actually said this, I'd bet about anything that he said (c)atholic Faith...Small c...And likely he didn't say Catholic at all...Probably 'universal' faith...
And looking at what you posted as the 'Catholic Faith', minus a couple of twists and turns it is not exclusive to your religion...
Since your posted definition of Catholic Faith excludes anything about popes and focuses on the Trinity, what you describe is the Protestant Faith as well...So to claim Athanasius prescribed the Cathoic church is ridiculous...Any Trinitarian whether he be inside your religion or outside of your religion holds to these 'Christian' truths...Has nothing to do at all with 'Catholic Faith'...
You wrote:
“Since your posted definition of Catholic Faith excludes anything about popes and focuses on the Trinity, what you describe is the Protestant Faith as well”
No. Athanasius - living in a time almost 1200 years before Luther invented Protestantism - simply didn’t envision later heretics and schismatics and simply wrestled with those in his own day.
“...So to claim Athanasius prescribed the Cathoic church is ridiculous...Any Trinitarian whether he be inside your religion or outside of your religion holds to these ‘Christian’ truths...Has nothing to do at all with ‘Catholic Faith’...”
Sure it does. The Catholic faith, then and now, included a hierarchy, the Eucharist, veneration of saints, Church councils, and many other things Protestants simply cannot abide by. Protestants long ago excluded themselves from orthodox faith and practice.
>> If Athanasius actually said this, I’d bet about anything that he said (c)atholic Faith...Small c...And likely he didn’t say Catholic at all...Probably ‘universal’ faith... <<
The capitalization of Catholic only took place after there was that which was not Catholic, so the first part of what you say is true. However, the nation that ‘catholic’ merely means universal is false. If the faith is universal, how could there be dissent? Rather, what was meant was something closer to ‘objective’ or ‘consensual.’ At the time, people were applying their own interpretation of scripture to the bible, and the early ‘catholic apologists’ argued that they no authority to invent their own interpretation. Thus, the council of Nicea spoke of the church being ‘one,... catholic, and apostolic’ to describe its unity of doctrine: All Christians must share a common faith in a common doctrine.