Christianity and Greek Philosophy Part 12

[Footnote 182: Cudworth, vol. i. pp. 593, 594.]

From the poets we now pa.s.s to the philosophers. The former we have regarded as reflecting the traditional beliefs of the unreasoning mult.i.tude. The philosophers unquestionably represent the reflective spirit, the speculative thought, of the educated cla.s.ses 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 amongst the unreflecting portions of the Greek populations, we shall find their theological ideas distinctly and articulately expressed, and that we shall consequently be able to determine their religious opinions with considerable accuracy.

Now that Thales, Pythagoras, Xenophanes, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were all believers in the existence of one supreme, uncreated, eternal G.o.d, has been, we think, clearly shown by Cudworth.[183]

[Footnote 183: Vol. i. pp. 491-554.]

In subsequent chapters on "_the Philosophers of Athens_," we shall enter more fully into the discussion of this question. Meantime we a.s.sume that, with few exceptions, the Greek philosophers were "genuine Theists."

The point, however, with which we are now concerned is, _that whilst they believed in one supreme, uncreated, eternal G.o.d, they at the same time recognized the existence of a plurality of generated deities who owe their existence to the power and will of the Supreme G.o.d, and who, as the agents and ministers of His universal providence, preside over different departments of the created universe_. They are at once Monotheists and Polytheists--believers in "one G.o.d" and "many G.o.ds."

This is a peculiarity, an anomaly which challenges our attention, and demands an explanation, if we would vindicate for these philosophers a rational Theism.

Now that there can be but one infinite and absolutely perfect Being--one supreme, uncreated, eternal G.o.d--is self-evident; therefore a multiplicity of such G.o.ds is a contradiction and an impossibility. The early philosophers knew this as well as the modern. The Deity, in order to be Deity, must be one and not many: must be perfect or nothing. If, therefore, we would do justice to these old Greeks, we must inquire what explanations they have offered in regard to "the many G.o.ds" of which they speak. We must ascertain whether they regarded these "G.o.ds" as created or uncreated beings, dependent or independent, temporal or eternal We must inquire in what sense the term "G.o.d" 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 G.o.d as the teachers and rulers of men. "_They are called G.o.ds_ to whom the word of G.o.d came."[184] And if it shall be found that all the G.o.ds of which they speak, save _one_, are "generated deities"--dependent beings--creatures and subjects of the one eternal King and Father, and that the name of "G.o.d" is applied to them in an accommodated sense, then we have vindicated for the old Greek philosophers a consistent and rational Theism. In what relation, then, do the philosophers place "_the G.o.ds_"

to the one Supreme Being?

_Thales_, one of the most ancient of the Greek philosophers, taught the existence of a plurality of G.o.ds, as is evident from that saying of his, preserved by Diogenes Laertius, "The world has life, and is full of G.o.ds."[185] At the same time he a.s.serts his belief in one supreme, uncreated Deity; "G.o.d is the oldest of all things, because he is unmade, or ungenerated."[186] All the other G.o.ds must therefore have been "generated deities," since there is but one unmade G.o.d, one only that had "no beginning."[187]

[Footnote 184: See John x. 35.]

[Footnote 185: "Lives," bk. i.; see also Aristotle's "De Anima," bk. i.

ch. viii. p??ta ???? p????.]

[Footnote 186: "Lives," bk. i.]

[Footnote 187: "Lives," bk. i.]

_Xenophanes_ was also an a.s.sertor of many G.o.ds, and one G.o.d; but his one G.o.d is unquestionably supreme. "There is one G.o.d, the greatest amongst G.o.ds and men;" or, "G.o.d is one, the greatest amongst G.o.ds and men."[188]

_Empedocles_ also believed in one Supreme G.o.d, who "is wholly and perfectly mind, ineffable, holy, with rapid and swift-glancing thought pervading the whole world," and from whom all things else are derived,--"all things that are upon the earth, and in the air and water, may be truly called the works of G.o.d, who ruleth over the world, out of whom, according to Empedocles, proceed all things, plants, men, beasts, and _G.o.ds_."[189] The minor deities are therefore _made_ by G.o.d. It will not be denied 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 G.o.ds, and in his last moments expressed his belief that "it is lawful and right to pray to the G.o.ds that his departure hence may be happy."[191] We see, however, in his words addressed to Euthydemus, a marked distinction between these subordinate deities and "Him who raised this whole universe, and still upholds the mighty frame, who perfected every part of it in beauty and in goodness, suffering none of these parts to decay through age, but renewing them daily with unfading vigor;... even he, _the Supreme G.o.d_, still holds himself invisible, and it is only in his works that we are capable of admiring him."[192]

[Footnote 188: Clem. Alex., "Stromat." bk. v.]

[Footnote 189: Aristotle, "De Mundo," ch. vi.]

[Footnote 190: Xenophon's "Memorabilia," i. 4.]

[Footnote 191: "Phaedo," -- 152.]

[Footnote 192: "Memorabilia," iv. 3.]

It were needless to attempt the proof that _Plato_ believed in one Supreme G.o.d, and _only_ one. This one Being is, with him, "the first G.o.d;" "the greatest of the G.o.ds;" "the G.o.d 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 Maker of the universe; the Father of G.o.ds and men; the sovereign Mind which orders all things, and pa.s.ses through all things; the sole Monarch and Ruler of the world.[193]

And yet remarkable as these expressions are, sounding, as they do, so like the language of inspiration,[194] there can be no doubt that Plato was also a sincere believer in a plurality of G.o.ds, of which, indeed, any one may a.s.sure himself by reading the _tenth_ book of "the Laws."

[Footnote 193: See chap. xi.]

[Footnote 194: Some writers have supposed that Plato must have had access through some medium to "the Oracles of G.o.d." See Butler, vol. ii.

p. 41.]

And, now that we have in Plato the culmination of Grecian speculative thought, we may learn from him the mature and final judgment of the ancients in regard to the G.o.ds of pagan mythology. We open the _Timaeus_, and here we find his views most definitely expressed. After giving an account of the "generation" of the sun, and moon, and planets, which are by him designated as "visible G.o.ds," he then proceeds "to speak concerning the other divinities:" "We must on this subject a.s.sent to those who in former times have spoken thereon; who were, as they said, the offspring of the G.o.ds, and who doubtless were well acquainted with their own ancestors..... Let then the genealogy of the G.o.ds be, and be acknowledged to be, that which they deliver. Of Earth and Heaven the children were Ocea.n.u.s and Tethys; and of these the children were Phorcys, and Kronos, and Rhea, and all that followed these; and from these were born Zeus and Hera, and those who are regarded as brothers and sisters of these, and others their offspring.

"When, then, _all the G.o.ds were brought into existence_, both those which move around in manifest courses [the stars and planets], and those which appear when it pleases them [the mythological deities], the Creator of the Universe thus addressed them: 'G.o.ds, and sons of G.o.ds, of whom I am the father and the author, produced by me, ye are indestructible because I will.... Now inasmuch as you have been _generated_, you are hence _not_ immortal, nor wholly indissoluble; yet you shall never be 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 contain within it every kind of animal.... In order that these mortal creatures may be, and that this world may be really a cosmos, do you apply yourselves to the creation of animals, imitating the exercises of my power in _creating_ you.'"[195]

[Footnote 195: "Timaeus," ch. xv.]

Here, then, we see that Plato carefully distinguishes between the sole Eternal Author of the universe, on one hand, and the "souls," vital and intelligent, which he attaches to the heavenly orbs, and diffuses through all nature, on the other. These subordinate powers or agents are all created, "_generated_ deities," who owe their continued existence to the _will_ of G.o.d; and though intrusted with a sort of deputed creation, and a subsequent direction and government of created things, they are still only the _servants_ and the _deputies_ of the Supreme Creator, and Director, and Ruler of all things. These subordinate agents and ministers employed in the creation and providential government of the world appear, in the estimation of Plato, to have been needed--

1. _To satisfy the demands of the popular faith_, which presented its facts to be explained no less than those of external nature. Plato had evidently a great veneration for antiquity, a peculiar regard for "tradition venerable through ancient report," and "doctrines h.o.a.ry 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 rejected, yet the sentiment and the lesson which pervades the whole of Grecian mythology, viz., that the G.o.ds are in ceaseless intercourse with the human race, and if men will do right the G.o.ds will protect and help them, was one which commended itself to his heart.

[Footnote 196: Ibid., ch. v.]

2. These intermediate agents seem to have been demanded to _satisfy the disposition and tendency which has revealed itself in all systems, of interposing some scale of ascent between the material creation and the infinite Creator_.

The mechanical theory of the universe has interposed its long series of secondary causes--the qualities, properties, laws, forces of nature; the vital theory which attaches a separate "soul" to the various parts of nature as the cause and intelligent director of its movements. Of these "souls" or G.o.ds, there were different orders and degrees--deified men or heroes, aerial, terrestrial, and celestial divinities, ascending from nature up to G.o.d. And this tendency to supply some scale of ascent towards the Deity, or at least to people the vast territory which seems to swell between the world and G.o.d, finds some countenance in "the angels and archangels," "the thrones, and dominions, and princ.i.p.alities, and powers" of the Christian scriptures.[197]

3. These inferior ministers also seemed to Plato to _increase the stately grandeur and imperial majesty of the Divine government._ They swell the retinue of the Deity in his grand "circuit through the highest arch of heaven."[198] They wait to execute the Divine commands. They are the agents of Divine providence, "the messengers of G.o.d" to men.

[Footnote 197: "The G.o.ds of the Platonic system answer, in office and conception, to the angels of Christian Theology."--Butler, vol. i. p.

225.]

[Footnote 198: "Phaedrus," -- 56,7.]

4. And, finally, the host of inferior deities interposed between the material sensible world and G.o.d seemed to Plato as _needful in order to explain the apparent defects and disorders of sublunary affairs_. Plato was jealous of the Divine honor. "All good must be ascribed to G.o.d, and nothing but good. We must find evil, disorder, suffering, in some other cause."[199] He therefore commits to the junior deities the task of creating animals, and of forming "the mortal part of man," because the mortal part is "possessed of certain dire and necessary pa.s.sions."[200]

[Footnote 199: "Republic," bk. ii. p.18.]

[Footnote 200: "Timaeus," xliv.]

Aristotle seems to have regarded the popular polytheism of Greece as a perverted relic of a deeper and purer "Theology" which he conceives to have been, in all probability, perfected in the distant past, and then comparatively lost. He says--"The tradition has come down from very ancient times, being left in a mythical garb to succeeding generations, that these (the heavenly bodies) are G.o.ds, and that the Divinity _encompa.s.ses the whole of nature_. There have been made, however, to these certain fabulous additions for the purpose of winning the belief of the mult.i.tude, and thus securing their obedience to the laws, and their co-operation towards advancing the general welfare of the state.

These additions have been to the effect that these G.o.ds 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 as a divine utterance. In all probability, every art, and science, and philosophy has been over and over again discovered to the farthest extent possible, and then again lost; and we may conceive these opinions to have been preserved to us as a sort of fragment of these lost philosophers. We see, then, to some extent the relation of the popular belief to these ancient opinions."[201] This conception of a deep Divine ground of all existence (for the immateriality and unity of which he elsewhere earnestly contends)[202] is thus regarded by Aristotle as underlying the popular polytheism of Greece.

[Footnote 201: "Metaph.," xi. 8.]

[Footnote 202: Bk. xi. ch. ii. -- 4.]

The views of the educated and philosophic mind of Greece in regard to the mythological deities may, in conclusion, be thus briefly stated--

I. _They are all created beings_--"GENERATED DEITIES," _who are dependent on, and subject to, the will of one supreme G.o.d_.

II. _They are the_ AGENTS _employed by G.o.d in the creation of, at least some parts of, the universe, and in the movement and direction of the entire cosmos; and they are also the_ MINISTERS _and_ MESSENGERS _of that universal providence which he exercises over the human race_.

These subordinate deities are, 1. the greater parts of the visible mundane system animated by intelligent souls, and called "_sensible G.o.ds_"--the sun, the moon, the stars, and even the earth itself, and known by the names Helios, Selena, Kronos, Hermes, etc.

2. Some are _invisible powers_, having peculiar offices and functions and presiding over special places provinces and departments of the universe;--one ruling in the heavens (Zeus), another in the air (Juno), another in the sea (Neptune), another in the subterranean regions (Pluto); one G.o.d presiding over learning and wisdom (Minerva), another over poetry, music, and religion (Apollo), another over justice and political order (Themis), another over war (Mars), another over corn (Ceres), and another the vine (Bacchus).

3. Others, again, are _ethereal_ and _aerial_ beings, who have the guardians.h.i.+p of individual persons and things, and are called _demons, genii_, and _lares_; superior indeed to men, but inferior to the G.o.ds above named.