The Basis of Early Christian TheismCole, Lawrence Thomas
Religion
The Basis of Early Christian Theism
Cole, Lawrence Thomas
Church history -- Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600; Theism
in which now revolve the stars and the sun and the moon and the air and
the æther that are separated off."[3] This, however, amounts to no
argument, and it is extremely doubtful whether Anaxagoras ever meant
anything more by his Nous than Empedocles did by his Love and Strife, of
which it was the historical successor, and we may safely, I think,
endorse the judgment of Aristotle when he says that "Anaxagoras, also,
employs mind as a machine" (_i.e._, as the Laurentian MS. indicates, as
a theatrical _deus ex machina_) "for the production of the cosmos; and
when he finds himself in a perplexity as to the cause of its being
necessarily so, he then drags it in by force to his assistance; but, in
the other instances, he assigns as a cause of the things that are being
produced, everything else in preference to mind (Nous)."[4] This
criticism will, I am confident, apply fully as well to any apparent
theism in the other pre-Socratic writers,[5] so that we shall be
justified in assigning to them as their part in the development of the
theistic argument, the mere undefined feeling and growing conviction of
a permanent behind the changing, a "one" behind the "many."
We find the natural deep and practical piety of Socrates reinforcing
itself with a very full and complete statement of a teleological
argument, based upon final cause, or adaptation of means to ends. It is
in the _Memorabilia_[6] that we get the clear statement of this, and,
therefore, it is a Socratic teaching which can, fortunately, be
definitely distinguished from the Platonic treatment of the subject.
"But which," he asks, "seemed to you most worthy of admiration,
Aristodemus--the artist who forms images void of motion and
intelligence, or one who has the skill to produce animals that are
endued not only with activity, but understanding?" Then as Aristodemus
answers, "The latter," Socrates proceeds to a detailed description of
the adaptations of the eye, ear, teeth, mouth and nose to their several
uses, and concludes with the question: "And canst thou still doubt,
Aristodemus, whether a disposition of parts like this should be a work
of chance, or of wisdom and contrivance?" He also argues in like manner
from the existence of intelligence in man, the soul, and the general
adaptability of man's powers and conditions to the furthering of his
life. This argument to design has appropriately been called "peculiarly
the Socratic proof,"[7] and to his treatment of it, so in keeping with
the practical, sturdy common-sense of the man, nothing essential or
important, except in multiplication of applications and details, has
been added since his time. In the opinion of the writer, however,
Socrates, so far as one can judge from his recorded utterances,
developed merely the form of the Argument to Design, but it cannot be
positively asserted that he used it as a _theistic_ argument. In the
_Memorabilia_ it is always "the gods" to which the argument leads, and
the worship of them that he urges.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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