the key word homoiousios, from homoi, “similar,” plus ousia; later writers referred dramatically to the importance of the distinguishing i, or iota, the smallest Greek letter). In the end homoousios won out because it reinforced as unequivocally as possible the fact that Christ was truly “very God of very God.” The term was held to be a just summary of Jesus’s own teaching, that “I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Athanasius on the Incarnation What—or rather Who—was it that was needed for such