Christianity and Greek Philosophy

ell understood, they affirm these gods of theirs to preside over the several parts of the world, yet so that there is only one chief governor. Whence it follows, that all their ot

n and worshippers of the One Supreme God, has been challenged with some considerab

more precious than the maintenance of any theory, however plausible, we are constrained to accord to this objection the fullest weight, and give to it the most impartial consideration. We can not do otherwise than at once admit that th

discussion must be closed. On the contrary, we have, as yet, scarce caught a glimpse of the real character and geniu

r language amongst us to call corn Ceres, and wine Bacchus, yet who can think any one so mad as to take that to be really a god that he feeds upon?" 141 And Plutarch condemns the whole practice of giving the names of gods and goddesses to inanimate objects, as absurd, impious, and atheistical: "they who give the names of gods to senseless matter and inanimate things, and such as are dest

dworth's "Intell. System,

in Cudworth's "Intell. Syste

, and the Centaurs, "the inventions of former generations," and he demands that God shall be praised in holy songs and nobler strains. 143 Diogenes Laertius relates the following of Pythagoras, "that when he descended to the shades below, he saw the soul of Hesiod bound to a pillar of brass and gnashing his teeth; and that of Homer, as suspended on a tree, and surrounded by serpents; as a punishment for the things they had said of the gods." 144 These poets, who had corrupted theology, Plato proposes to exclude from his ideal Republic; or if permitted at all, they must be subjected to a rigid expurgation. "We shall," says he, "have to repudiate a large part of those fables which are now in vogue; and, especially, of what I call the greater fables,--the stories which Hesiod and Homer tell us. In these stories there is a fault which deserves the gravest condemnation; namely, when an author gives a bad representation of gods and heroes. We must condemn such a poet, as we should condemn a painter, whose pictures bear no resemb

Max Muller, "Science of

rn) "Lives," bk. vi

turn) "Republic,"

be permitted in the ideal republic, then the founders of the state are

ond all else, good in reality, and therefore so to be represented. But nothing that is good is hurtful. That which is good hurts not; does no evil; is the cause of no evil. That which is good is beneficial; is the cause of good. And,

r, or any other poet, who is guilty of such a foo

eshold of Jove's

red with evil, one

whom the Thunder

e checkered wit

o whom he gives the

wa

th unbless'd, g

we should refuse our approbation. Nor can we allow it to be said that the strife and trial of strength between the gods (Iliad, xx.) was inst

ness, he abides ever the same, and without any variation in

tude of st

an with ease al

populous

troduce in tragedies, or any other poems, Hera t

ving children of Inac

ther falsehoods which

orus. Neither shall we allow our teachers to use his writings for the instruction of the young, if we

armony with the facts of the universal religious consciousness of our race. The religion of ancient Greece consisted in something more than the fables of Jupiter and Juno, of Apollo and Minerva, of Venus and Bacchus. "Through the rank and poiso

turn) "Republic,"

bk. ii. ch. xx. Much more to the

turn) "Republic,"

x Müller, "Science of Lan

s. He must and will interpret nature according to the forms of his own personality, or according to the fundamental ideas of his own reason. In the childlike subjectivity of the undisciplined mind he will either transfer to nature the phenomena of his own personality, regarding the world as a living organism which has within it an informing soul, and thus attain a pantheistic concep

erious way he has descended from an eternal mind, he is "the offspring of God." And furthermore, a theocratic conception of nature, associated with a pre-eminent regard for certain apparently supernatural experiences in the history of humanity, becomes the foundation of gov

ll who sit in the ha

nvisible agents--its Nemesis, and Themis, and Diké, the ministers of law, of justice, and of retribution; and its Jupiter, and Juno, and Neptune, and Pluto, ruling, with delegated powers, in the heavens, the air, the sea, and the nethermost regions. So that, in fact, there exists no nation, n

he lingering memories of those manifestations of God to men, in which he or his celestial ministers came into visible intercourse with our race; the reality of which is attested by sacred history. In all these myths there is a theogonic and cosmogonic element. They tell of the generation of the celestial and a?rial divinities--the subordinate agents and ministers of the Divine government. They attempt an explanation of the genesis of the visible universe, the origin of humanity, and the development of human society. In the presence of history, the substance of these myths is preserved by symbols, that is, by means of natural or artificial, rea

y concealed. The unity of the all-pervading Intelligence was veiled beneath an apparent diversity of power, and a manifoldness of operations. They caught some glimpses of this universal presence in nature, but were more immediately and vividly impressed by the several manifestations of the divine perfections and divine operations, as so many separate rays of the Divinity, or so many subordinate agents and functionaries employed to execute the will and carry out the purposes of the Supreme Mind. 151 That unseen, incomprehensible Power and Presence was perceived in the sublimity of the deep blue sky, the energy of the vitalizing sun, the surging of the sea, the rushing wind, the roaring thunder, the ripening corn, and the clustering vine. To these separate manifestations of the Deity they gave personal names, as Jupiter to the heavens, Juno to the air, Neptune to the sea, Ceres to the corn, and Bacchus to the vine. These personals denoted, not the things themselves, but the invisible, divine powers supposed to preside over those several departments of nat

n is such that he "seeks after" God Acts xvii. 27. "Al

of the individual part, in opposition to the sense of the whole,--to the analogia fidei or spiritus which alone gives unity to the book of nature, while it dilutes and renders as transitory as possible the sense of the universal in the

Cudworth, "Intellect. S

) Max Müller, "Scienc

could be represented to the eye by an image, or symbol. The views of Paul are still more articulately expressed in Romans, i. 23, 25: "They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the similitude of an image of corruptible man,.... and they worshipped and served the thing made, παρ?--rather than, or more than the Creator." Here, then, the apostle intimates, first, that the heathen knew God, 154 and that they worshipped God. They worship

54: (retur

nsciously take the place of God, and be worshipped instead of Him. From the purest form of symbolism which prevailed in the earliest ages, there may be an inevitable descent to the rudest form of false worship, with its accompanying darkness, and abominations, and crimes; but, at the same time, let us do justice to the religions of the ancient world--the childhood stammerings of religious life--which were something more than the inventions of designing men, or the mere creations of human fancy; they were, in the words of Paul, "a seeking after Go

hers who may be fairly regarded as representing the sentiments and opinions of the ancient world. At the same time, we have no desire to conceal the fact that this whole question as to the origin, and character, and philosophy of the mythology

to laws, and maintain social order. 155 Others have regarded them as intended to be allegorical interpretations of physical phenomena--the poetic embodiment of the natural philosophy of the primitive races of men; 156 whilst others have looked upon them as historical legends, having a substratum of fact, and, when stripped of the supernatu

e have presented in the preceding pages, viz., that Grecian mythology was a grand symbolic representation of the Divine as manifested in nature and providence, is the onl

return) Empedoc

6: (return)

Herodotus, some of the early Fa

) Bochart, G.J. Vossi

ctual System of the Universe," especially ch. iv. The style of Cudworth is perplexingly involved, and his great work is unmethodical in its arrangement and discussion. Nevertheless, the patient and persevering student will b

ons laid down by Cudworth which con

iplicity of independenty uncreated, self-existent deities; they almost universally believed in the existence of ONE SUPREME,

e power and will of the Supreme God, who are by Him invested with delegated powers, and who, as t

k and Latin poets, of the Oriental, Greek, and Alexandrian philosophers, and a review of the statements and criticisms of Rabbinical and Patristic writers in regard to the religions of the pagan world. An adequate conception of the varied and weighty evidence which is collected by our author from these fields, in support of his views, could only be conveyed by transcribing to our pages the larger portion of his memorable

istence of one uncreated and eternal mind, one Supreme God, anterior and superior to all the gods of their mythology. They had some intuition, some apperception of the Divine, even before they had attached to it a sacred name. The gods of their mythology had all, save one, a temporal origin; they were generated of Chaos

the gods pla

rther,

was Chaos, aft

spaciou

re-eminent among a

t motion, and hold bodies in union together. But how, in regard to these, one oug

h of the earliest human thought even before the separation of the Aryan family into its varied branches. The study of Comparative Mythology, as well as of Comparative Language, assures us that the myths had an origin much earlier than the times of Homer and Orpheus. They floated down from ages on the

turn) "Metaphysic

o moment to the argument. The more important inference is, that amongst the gods of Pagan theology but one is self-existent, or else none are. Because the Hesiodian gods, which are, in fact, all the gods of the Greek mythology, "were either all of them derived from chaos, love itself likewise being generated

eturn) "Cudworth

lity, the generation of the heavens, the sun, the moon, the stars, and all the various powers and phenomena of nature. This is dimly shadowed forth in the very names which are given to some of these divinities. Thus

of Jupiter! Grant

of immortal gods,

ing of the earth,

night, whom also t

and the earth at

d the mighty deep,

tars, and the bro

ivers of good,

ht out of chaos; of the ether and of day, from night; of the starry heavens, mountains, and seas. All which generation of gods is really nothing but a poetic description of the cosmogonia; as through the sequel of the poem all seems to be physiology veiled under fiction and allegory.... Hesiod's gods are thus not only the animated parts of the w

en, and sometimes in a historic sense, to designate a hero or deified man said to have been born in Crete. It is also true that the Homeric Zeus is full of contradictions. He is "all-seeing," yet he is cheated; he is "omnipotent," yet he is defied; he is "eternal," yet he has a father; he is "just," yet he is guilty of crime. Now, as Müller very justly remarks, these contradictions may teach us a lesson. If all

urn) Cudworth, vol

eturn) Id., ib.,

) Max Müller, "Scienc

(return) Id.

other divinities, and mark him out as the Supreme. He is "the highest, first of Gods" (bk. xix. 284); "most great, most glorious Jove" (bk. ii. 474). He is "the universal Lord" (bk. xi. 229); "of mortals and immortals king supreme," (bk. xii. 263); "over all the immortal gods he reigns in unapproached pre-eminence of power" (bk. xv. 125). He is "the King of kings" (bk. viii. 35), whose "will is sovereign" (bk. iv. 65), and his "power invincible" (bk. viii. 35). He is the "eternal Father" (bk. viii. 77). He "exc

the great, the predominant God, 'the Father of gods and men,' whose power none of the gods can hope to resist, or even deliberately think of questioning. All the other gods have their specific potency, and peculiar sphere of action and duty, with which Zeus does not usually interfere; but it is he who maintains the lineaments of a providential government, as well over the phenomena of

are his o

uage of the poets is, "We are the offspring of Zeus;" consequently

ourse, the Universal Father of the Scriptures

the Erinys, the Nemesis, or Moira. 'Eat,' says the swineherd, 'and enjoy what is here, for God 168 will grant one thing, but another he will refuse, whatever he will in his mind, for he can do all things' (Od. xiv. 444; x. 306). This surely is religion, and it is religion untainted by mythology. Again, the prayer of the female slave, gr

us is, as it were, a sentence; and persons dividing it in two parts, some of us make use of one part, and some of another; for some call him Ζ?ν, and some Δ??. But these parts, collected together into one, exhibit the nature of the God;... for there is no one who is more the cause of living, both to us an

n) Müller, "Science

rs, the Greek stage was, more nearly than any thing else, the Greek pulpit. 170 With a priesthood that offered sacrifice, but did not preach, with few books of any kind, the people were, in a great measure, dependent on oral instruction for knowledge; and as they learned their

(return) Pul

Tyler, "Theology of Gre

philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, developed them more fully by their didactic method. ?schylus stands on the dividing-line between them, no less poetic than the former, scarcely less philosophical than the latter, but more intensely practical, personal, and theological than either. The character of the Supreme Divinity, as represented in his tragedies, approaches more

γ?ρ ο?κ ?π

λλ? π?ν ?π

gh and perfect One (τ?λειον ?ψιστον, Eumen. 28); King of kings, of the happy, most happy, of the perfect, most perfect power, blessed Zeus (Su

d of his tragedies have come down to us. There are passages cited by Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, and others whi

θε?αισιν, ε?

? ?τευξε κα?

ο?δμα, κ?ν?μων ?

us, who is the God of jus

n starry hea

lding, all-dir

vengeance."--"El

undecaying power and dominion of Zeu

ower of age, en

mid heaven's

ages past th

nd shall

ortal race on

rene, a course u

," pp. 60

Tyler, "Theology of Gre

n) "Intellectual Sys

ruth, one only God, who made heaven an

rn) "Theology of Gr

that, for the masses of the people Zeus was the Supreme God, "the God of gods" as Plato calls him. Whilst all other deities in Greece are more or less local and tribal gods, Zeus was known in every village and to every clan. "He is at home on Ida, 176 on Olympus, at Dodona. 1

ather, O Z

ate urgency and need, of greatest stres

courage,

l in heaven t

er all things

eeding bitter

gry against t

get the

return) "Iliad,

: (return) B

: (return) M

turn) Sophocles,

God who reigns on high, in

on the land of the Athen

logy gave to that Supreme Intelligence, which they instinctively recognized as above and ruling over the universe, the name of Zeus; but in doing so, they knew well that by Zeus they meant more than the sky. The unfathomable depth, the everlasting calm of the ethereal sky was to their minds an image of that Infinite Presence which overshadows all, and looks down on all. As the question perpetually recurred to their minds, 'Where is he who abideth forever?' they lifted up their eyes, and saw, as they thought, beyond sun, and moon, and stars,

Kingsley, "Good News fr

aven;" "his throne is in the heavens;" "he reigns on high." Now, without doing any violence to thought, the name of the abode might be transferred to him who dwells in heaven. So that in our

that heard m

wed shall dai

object perceived by the eye of reason. They who at first called God "Heaven" had some conception within them they wished to name--the growing image of a God, and they fixed upon the vastest, grandest, purest object in nature, the deep blue c

rn) See "Science of

here and there of the solid trunk of native faith, around which this parasitic growth of fancy is entwined. Above all the phantasmata of gods and goddesses who descended to the plains of Troy, and mingled in the din and strife

do mankind erect altars to Jupiter-King (Δι?? ?ασιλ?ω?) and hesitate not to call him Father in their devotions" (Orat. xxxvi.). And Maximus Tyrius declares that both the learned and the unlearned throughout the pagan world universally agree in this; that there is one Supreme God, the Father of gods and men. "If," says he, "there were a meeting called of all the several trades and professions,... and all were required to declare their sense concerning God, do you think that the painter would say one

urn) Cudworth, vol

of the educated classes of Greek society. Turning to the writings of the philosophers, we may therefore reasonably expect that, instead of the dim, undefined, and nebulous form in which the religious sentiment revealed itself amongs

Plato, and Aristotle were all believers in the existence of one supreme,

(return) Vol.

more fully into the discussion of this question. Meantime we assume t

their existence to the power and will of the Supreme God, and who, as the agents and ministers of His universal providence, preside over different departments of the created universe. They are at once Monotheists

many gods" of which they speak. We must ascertain whether they regarded these "gods" as created or uncreated beings, dependent or independent, temporal or eternal We must inquire in what sense the term "god" is applied to these lesser divinities,--whether it is not applied in an accommodated and therefore allowable sense, as in the sacred Scriptures it is applied to kings and magistrates, and those who are appointed by God as the teachers and rulers of men. "They are

tius, "The world has life, and is full of gods." 185 At the same time he asserts his belief in one supreme, uncreated Deity; "God is the oldest of all things, because he

: (return) S

i.; see also Aristotle's "De Anima

: (return) "

: (return) "

God is unquestionably supreme. "There is one God, the greatest amongst

nied that Socrates was a devout and earnest Theist. He taught that "there is a Being whose eye pierces throughout all nature, and whose ear is open to every sound; extending through all time, extended to all places; and whose bounty and care can know no other bounds than those fixed by his own creation." 190 And yet he also recognized the existence of a plurality of gods, and in his last moments expressed his belief that "it is lawful and right to pray to the gods that his departure hen

turn) Clem. Alex.

turn) Aristotle,

urn) Xenophon's "M

: (return) "

(return) "Memo

"the God over all;" "the sole Principle of the universe." He is "the Immutable;" "the All-perfect;" "the eternal Being." He is "the Architect of the world; "the Mak

nspiration, 194 there can be no doubt that Plato was also a sincere believer in a plurality

: (return) S

hat Plato must have had access through some medium

ing the other divinities:" "We must on this subject assent to those who in former times have spoken thereon; who were, as they said, the offspring of the gods, and who doubtless were well acquainted with their own ancestors..... Let then the genealogy of the gods be, and be acknowledged to be, that which they deliver. Of Earth and Heaven the children were Oceanus and Tethys; and of these the children were Phorcys, and K

dissolved nor become subject to the fatality of death, because so I have willed.... Learn, therefore, my commands. Three races of mortals yet remain to be created. Unless these be created, the universe will be imperfect, for it will not co

(return) "Ti

rdinate powers or agents are all created, "generated deities," who owe their continued existence to the will of God; and though intrusted with a sort of deputed creation, and a subsequent direction and government of created things, they are still only t

nes hoary with years." 196 He aspired after supernatural light and guidance; he longed for some intercourse with, some communication from, the Deity. And whilst he found many things in the ancient legends which revolted his moral sense, and which his reason reje

: (return) I

sition and tendency which has revealed itself in all systems, of interposing

director of its movements. Of these "souls" or gods, there were different orders and degrees--deified men or heroes, a?rial, terrestrial, and celestial divinities, ascending from nature up to God. And this tendency to supply some scale of ascent towar

ne government. They swell the retinue of the Deity in his grand "circuit through the highest arch of heaven." 198

ystem answer, in office and conception, to the ang

(return) "Ph

ublunary affairs. Plato was jealous of the Divine honor. "All good must be ascribed to God, and nothing but good. We must find evil, disorder, suffering, in some other cause." 199 He ther

eturn) "Republic

: (return) "

bedience to the laws, and their co-operation towards advancing the general welfare of the state. These additions have been to the effect that these gods were of the same form as men, and even that some of them were in appearance similar to certain others amongst the rest of the animal creation. The wise course, however, would be for the philosopher to disengage from these traditions the false element, and to embrace that which is true; and the truth lies in that portion of this ancient doctrine which regards the first and deepest ground of all existence to be the Divine, and this he may regard

(return) "Me

(return) Bk. x

of Greece in regard to the mythological deiti

TED DEITIES," who are dependent on, and

niverse, and in the movement and direction of the entire cosmos; and they are also the MI

mated by intelligent souls, and called "sensible gods"--the sun, the moon, the stars,

Zeus), another in the air (Juno), another in the sea (Neptune), another in the subterranean regions (Pluto); one god presiding over learning and wisdom (Minerva), another ov

nship of individual persons and things, and are called demons, genii,

that all that multiplicity of Pagan gods which make so great a show and noise was really either nothing but several names and notions of one supreme Deity, according to his different manifestations, gifts, and effects upon the world personated, or else many inferior understanding beings, generated or created by one supreme: so that one unmade, self-existent Deity, and

Cudworth, "Intellectual

chief object of worship is evident from the apologies which the

jesty, they being all his ministers and attendants. 3. That as demons are mediators between the celestial gods and men, so those celestial gods are also mediators between men and the supreme God, and, as it were, convenient steps by which we ought with reverence to approach him. 4. That demons or angels being appointed to preside over kingdoms, cities, and

r passing from them to the prototype. And since we live in bodies, and can scarcely, conceive of any thing without having some image or phantasm, we may therefore b

notwithstanding their idolatry, He only ought to be worshipped. The heathen polytheists are therefore justly condemned in Scripture, and pronounced to be "inexcusable." They had the knowledge of the true God--" they knew G

(return) Rom

ons and weaknesses of humanity. They had their favorites and their enemies; sometimes they fought in one camp, sometimes in another. They were susceptible of hatred, jealousy, sensual passion. It would be strange indeed if their worshippers were not like unto them. The conduct of the Homeric heroes was, however, better than their creed. And there is this strange incongruity and inconsistency in the conduct of the Homeric gods,--they punish mortals for crimes of which they themselves are guilty, and reward virtues in men which they do not themselves always practise. "They punish with especial severity social and political crimes, such as perjury (Iliad, iii. 279), oppression of the po

rrent of religious ideas in Greece; one spiritualist

ogy of Greek Poets," pp. 167, 168; Pre

that has been shed congeals on the ground, crying out for an avenger." The old poet made himself the echo of what he called "the lyreless hymn of the Furies," who, with him, represented severe Justice striking the guilty when his hour comes, and giving warning beforehand by the te

us the divine and luminous side. No one has ever spoken with nobler eloquence than he of mor

e lot for

ed to m

word, with

ent laws

from purer

r is the Ol

ivion veil thei

great, nor fears the

rds of ?dipus, when the old banished king sees through the darkness of death a mysterious light dawn

turn) "?dipus Tyr

Pressensé, "Religion be

ens. 209 Those who resign the government of this lower world almost exclusively to Satan, may see, in the religion of the Greeks, a simple creation of Satanic powers. But he who believes that the entire progress of humanity has been under the control and direction of a benignant Providence, must suppose that, in the purp

h cuts both ways. The prevalence of murder, and slavery, and treachery, and polygamy, in Greece and Rome, is no more a proof that "the religions of the pagan nations were destructive of morality" (Watson, vol. i. p. 59), than the polygamy of the Hebrews, the falsehoods and impositions of Mediaeval Christianity, the persecutions and martyrdoms of Catholic Christianity, the oppressions and wrongs of Christian England, and the slavery of Protestant America, are proofs that the Christian religion is "destructive of morality." What a fearful picture of the history of Christian nations might be drawn to-day, if all the lines of light, a

and it made man conscious of his inability to save himself from sin and guilt; and "the day that humanity awakens to the want of something more than mere embellishment and culture, that day it feels the need of being saved and restored from the consequences of sin" by a higher power. ?sthetic taste had found its fullest gratification in

uerable desire to bring God nearer to the human apprehension, and closer to the human heart. Hence the hold which Polytheism had upon the Grecian mind. But in this human aspect was also found its weakness, for when philosophic thought is brought into contact with, and permitted critically to test mythology, it dethrones the false gods. The age of spontaneous religious sentiment must necessarily be succeeded by the age of reflective thought. Popular theological faiths must be placed in the hot