Athanasius introduces his double apology Contra Gentes and De Incarnatione with: "Indeed, the knowledge concerning the practice of piety that leads to right conduct (qeosebei/a) and the truth of all things is required not so much from the teaching of men, as much as it has the knowledge (to/ gnw/rimon) from within itself." (CG 1-3a - translation my own). Yet, this is the only time Athanasius uses qeosebei/a in the whole of CG-DI. Elsewhere throughout the double apology, he uses eu0sebei/a. Why?
I shall argue in this paper that qeosebei/a is the 'umbrella' that unites CG and DI when in response to a question from an individual it was necessary for Athanasius to develop something new in his theology that required him to write CG and add it to his already existing DI to form the double apology.
The use of qeosebei/a may also indicate when and where this happened.
I shall seek to do this through a short overview of the contexts in CG and DI in which eu0sebei/a appears.
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