[boatbums]

The attempts to present St. Athanasius as a proto-Protestant or to portray his works as having never addressed the Church or Tradition by only presenting quotes carefully chosen for the Protestant ear is dishonest. Equally dishonest is the attempts to then impeach these same Saints when their further writings are shown to Paint Ptrotestantism in a bad light.

I think it is dishonest to portray early Christians as Roman Catholic. I think it is equally dishonest to disqualify anyone BUT Roman Catholics from quoting the early church fathers - especially since "they" don't belong to "Catholics" or "Protestants" but comprised the body of Christ in the first centuries of the faith before temporal power, wealth and prestige crept in and corrupted what began in truth. As to why I quoted Athanasius, here is what I prefaced the comment with:

That's a misconception of what the term sola scriptura means. The term - understood and taught by Jesus, the Apostles and the early church fathers - means that the Holy Scriptures are the authority by which truths of the faith must be measured against. Athanasius, for example said:

No matter how the doctrines of the faith are verified today, it is unquestionable that those first church leaders understood, accepted and expected that anyone who thought they had authority to teach Christian doctrine had better have solid backing from the Word of God. When Athanasius disputed with heretics of his day, from where did he base his arguments? He used Scripture to dispute the false teachers who claimed to have Scriptural warrant and he proved them wrong BY the same Scripture. At one time, Scripture WAS the authority respected by the leaders and doctors of the faith alike and no "tradition" was acceptable that did not have Holy Scripture behind them. What presents itself today as THE church, is NOT comparable to the church in Athanasius' day. Something changed. My contention is the Scriptures were placed in a subordinate role to whatever "tradition" the self-identified infallible magesterium favored and that would be something Athanasius would be at the forefront disputing even today if he were here.

[Natural Law]

"No matter how the doctrines of the faith are verified today, it is unquestionable that those first church leaders understood, accepted and expected that anyone who thought they had authority to teach Christian doctrine had better have solid backing from the Word of God."

On the contrary, it is highly questionable. St. Athanasius lived and taught in a time BEFORE a Canon of Scripture and relied 100% on the Traditions of the Church to develop the Creeds and that later served as the test for Canonicity.

The term "Roman Catholic" is a fabrication of the Reformation, However Rome has always been the seat of the successors to St. Peter the first Pope and the See of the Catholic Church.

Peace be to you.