Folia Theologica et Canonica 1. 23/15 (2012)
SACRA THEOLOGIA - László Perendy, Athenagoras on the Triune God of Christians
70 PERENDY LÁSZLÓ Passive matter obviously needs an active Craftsman.9 Are the gods only the al- legorization of natural forces? If so, these species of matter will be the body of God, who consequently will perish at the final conflagration.10 We recognize other powers, concerned with matter. One of them is opposed to God’s goodness. He was also created by God to administer the species of matter, but he led some of the angels to revolt against God.11 Pagan gods never belonged to the realm of being. The essence of his train of thought is that Christians cannot be called atheists, because they believe in God the Maker of the cosmos, and his Word proceeding from him. The gods of the poets are not in possession of divine attributes.12 III. Judging Athenagoras. The views of 20™ century scholars ON HIS THEOLOGICAL IDEAS Having surveyed the numerous and sometimes lengthy passages with references to Athenagoras’ doctrine of God and Trinitology, in the following part of my contribution I give a summary of the most important items of scholarly research, arranged chronologically, evaluating Athenagoras’ utterances. I start my survey from the 1930s, but I give occasional references also to the earlier authors. 1. Influenced directly by philosophers? In what I call the first period of research we can observe that scholars tried to find traces of direct dependence on various philosophical schools (Pythagoreans, Plato, Aristotle, or the Stoa). Without sufficient knowledge of the second century intellectual environment, they either defended or attacked Athenagoras’ doctrine. In G. Bareille’s opinion the greatest achievement of Athenagoras is that he made the first attempt to present the Holy Trinity in a ‘scientific’ way.13 As we know, the creation and government of the world was attributed to the Logos, 9 Chapter 19. 10 Chapter 22. 11 Chapter 24-25. 12 Cf. Marcovich, M., Athenagoras, Legatio pro Christianis, 3-14 and Schoedel, W. R., Athenagoras, Legatio and De Resurrectione, xxiii-xxv; see chapter 30. 13 See also Barnard, L. W., God, the Logos, the Spirit and the Trinity in the Theology of Athenagoras, in Studia Theologica 24 (1970) 70-92.
