Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall, Colin Bell and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net [Transcriber's Notes: Many printing errors, particularly in the French and Greek, have been corrected. The inconsistent hyphenation of the word stand-point has been retained.] THE BASIS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN THEISM BY LAWRENCE THOMAS COLE, A. M., S. T. B., _Post-graduate Scholar of the Church University Board of Regents_ SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY NEW YORK May, 1898 CONTENTS CHAPTER I: Introduction 9 CHAPTER II: Greek and Roman Theistic Arguments 14 CHAPTER III: The Patristic Point of View 26 CHAPTER IV: Patristic Use of the Theistic Arguments 38 CHAPTER V: Eclectic Theism 55 "Les preuves de Dieu métaphysiques sont si éloignées du raisonnement des hommes, et si impliquées, qu'elles frappent peu; et quand cela serviroit à quelques-uns, ce ne seroit que pendant l'instant qu'ils voient cette démonstration; mais, une heure après, ils craignent de s'être trompés. _Quod curiositate cognoverint, superbiâ amiserunt._" --_Pensées de Pascal_, II, xv. 2. CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION A question which every author ought to ask of himself before he sends forth his work, and one which must occur to every thoughtful reader, is the inquiry, _Cui bono?_--what justification has one for treating the subject at all, and why in the particular way which he has chosen? To the pertinency of this question to the present treatise the author has been deeply sensible, and therefore cannot forbear a few prefatory words of explanation of his object and method.