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Pelagius (considered heretical):

• Everyone is born neither a sinner nor a saint. We become sinners through our own choices, but we could have chosen otherwise. Adam was just a single man and his sin did not affect anyone but himself. Just as Adam decided to be a sinner, so can we. When we are born we are just like Adam was before the sin of the fall.

Reading St. Athanasius’s On the Incarnation was my first experience with any of the early church fathers. I found this exercise both fun and interesting. As a Christian, and as any “-an” for that matter, it is important to know the history of the faith (or the history of the United States, if one is an Americ”-an”). Through understanding the history of the early church, we can not only gain a better theological understanding but also, as apologetics students, an understanding of the various heresies these founders were confronting and how they overcame them. Responses to early heresies should be on every apologist’s bookshelf as the same heresies keep coming back in different forms. For example, today’s Jehovah’s Witness heresy is a form of Arianism. Early responses to the Arian heresy by church fathers such as Athanasius are critical tools for confronting this cult today.