The Athanasius Handbook describes the context of the life, work and impact of Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, who died in 373. In their articles, more than thirty authors from Germany and abroad deal with the political, cultural-historical and ideological environment of his work, analyze his individual writings and highlight the history of his influence and his reception from antiquity up to the modern era. In view of the fact that Athanasius was at the center of the theological controversies in the 4th century and that since then he was often regarded as an authority, this Handbook provides new insight into the background of this broad history of reception and a new perspective on the "complete" Athanasius beyond the traditional - and often critical - perceptions of the theologian, polemicist, church politician and inaugurator of asceticism. As a result of this, a formative epoch in the church unfolds for students, university lecturers and those interested in the early church using one of the church's central figures as an example.