Christianity: a brief history. Unamuno, Life 4.1

Unamuno is going to give a brief history of Christianity before explaining Catholic philosophy, as he conceives it.

Vengamos ahora a la solución cristiana católica, pauliniana o atanasiana, de nuestro íntimo problema vital, el hambre de inmortalidad.

Brotó el cristianismo de la confluencia de dos grandes corrientes espirituales, la una judaica y la otra helénica, ya de antes influídas mutuamente, y Roma acabó de darle sello práctico y permanencia social.

It is time for us to consider the Catholic and Christian solution, as offered by Paul (†) or Athanasius (‡), to our vital and intimate problem: the hunger for immortality.

Christianity arose from the confluence of two great spiritual tides, one Jewish and the other Greek. Each exerted influence on the other for some time, and then Rome gave the result its practical stamp, and social permanence.

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(†) Saul of Tarsus (c. 5-67 CE), in Anatolia, was a Jew whose original hostility toward the nascent Christian movement changed dramatically on the road to Damascus, where legend recounts that he met the resurrected Christ. He went on to become an important Christian leader, preaching throughout the Mediterranean and authoring epistles that form a significant part of the Christian canon. He was arrested in Jerusalem for disturbing the peace, and appealed to Caesar, as a Roman citizen. Brought to stand trial in Rome, he was finally condemned and executed by order of Nero after the Great Fire (64 CE). The name Saul is Hebrew; it was Latinized as Paul, which is how most know him today.

(‡) Athanasius the Confessor (c. 296-373 CE) was born into a devout Christian family in the city of Alexandria, where he studied at the local catechetical school (following in the footsteps of Clement and Origen) and entered the priesthood, becoming a deacon in 319. Arius, a presbyter, seeded a serious quarrel in Alexandria that spread throughout the Christian world, preaching that Christ did not share the same nature as the Father, being made by him rather than existing with him from eternity. Others, including Athanasius and the bishop Alexander, disagreed. So vehemently did partisans on both sides contend, that the emperor Constantine called a council to Nicea (in 325), which Arius and Athanasius attended, to end it once and for all. While that council decided in favor of Athanasius' position, subsequent councils and imperial edicts saw him repeatedly exiled from Alexandria, where he was made bishop in 326, and obliged to defend himself, and his faith, before ecclesiastical assemblies.