The critical reaction to this prevailing hagiography of Athanasius emerged at the beginning of the twentieth century through the work of the great German historians Eduard Schwartz and Otto Seeck, 4 and modern attitudes towards Athanasius have varied widely. A number of scholars, of whom the most influential is Charles Kannengiesser, 5 have reacted in turn against the critical challenge to Athanasius, whom they continue to uphold as a moral exemplar and saint. 6 At the other extreme, T. D. Barnes has likened the bishop of Alexandria to a ‘modern gangster’. 7 R. P. C. Hanson presents Athanasius as an ambivalent character of theological genius and divisive violence, 8 while John Behr has now returned to the older verdict of Harnack, that if Athanasius is judged ‘by the standards of his time, we can discover nothing ignoble or mean about him’. 9 The present monograph offers a further contribution to this debate, and to the ongoing reinterpretation of the fourth-century controversies and their participants. For it is the measure of Athanasius’ importance that any reassessment of the man, his theology, and his writings inevitably leads to a reassessment of the times in which he lived. - David M. Gwynn, The Eusebians, p. 2.