Moreover, it is not to be denied that Athenagoras views the revelation
in the prophets and in Christ as completely identical. But in one very
essential point he agrees with Justin; and he has even expressed himself
still more plainly than the latter, inasmuch as he does not introduce
the assumption of a "seed of the Logos implanted by nature" [Greek:
sperma logou emphuton]. The philosophers, he says, were incapable of
knowing the full truth, since it was not from God, but rather from
themselves, that they wished to learn about God. True wisdom, however,
can only be learned from God, that is, from his prophets; it depends
solely on revelation.[379] Here also then we have a repetition of the
thought that the truly reasonable is of supernatural origin. Such is the
importance attached by Athenagoras to this proposition, that he declares
any demonstration of the "reasonable" to be insufficient, no matter how
luminous it may appear. Even that which is most evidently true--e.g.,
monotheism--is not raised from the domain of mere human opinion into the
sphere of undoubted certainty till it can be confirmed by
revelation.[380] This can be done by Christians alone. Hence they are
very different from the philosophers, just as they are also
distinguished from these by their manner of life.[381] All the praises
which Athenagoras from time to time bestows on philosophers,
particularly Plato,[382] are consequently to be understood in a merely
relative sense. Their ultimate object is only to establish the claim
made by the Apologist with regard to the treatment of Christians by the
state; but they are not really meant to bring the former into closer
relationship to philosophers. Athenagoras also holds the theory that
Christians are philosophers, in so far as the "philosophers" are not
such in any true sense. It is only the problems they set that connect
the two. He exhibits less clearness than Justin in tracing the necessity
of revelation to the fact that the demon sovereignty, which, above all,
reveals itself in polytheism,[383] can only be overthrown by revelation;
he rather emphasises the other thought (cc. 7, 9) that the necessary
attestation of the truth can only be given in this way.[384]
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