Folia Theologica 17. (2006)
László Perendy: A Christian Platonist
A CHRISTIAN PLATONIST 181 the consequence of a tragic accident, as the Gnostics affirmed, but God created the material world pronouncedly in his goodness.18 G. May accentuates that in Justin's system God's omnipotence is not restricted in his created activity even by prime matter. Otherwise May disputes that in addition to spatial transcendence we can talk about ontological transcendence.19 In my mind we can, as the several negative attributes that he applies to God, in possession of the Platonic tradition, serve to accentuate God's transcendence also in ontological sense. It is S. Vergés who draws our attention to the fact that Justin tries to demonstrate God's transcendence and immanence with equal force by emphasizing that God sent his own Logos to redeem man, who had fallen.20 D. Bourgeois accentuates that God's paternal care became apparent already in his creating activity, and can be observed in the goodness of the created world.21 E. Robillard observes that for Justin the cosmos forms a coherent unity.22 From this fact the apologist draws the conclusion that its Demiurge must be one and only one, and he must have existed before everything, i.e. with an expression applied in contemporary Platonism, he must be dyevvriTOS. So in Justin's mind on the one hand God's immanence manifests itself in the goodness of the created world, on the other by the fact that he preserves, stabilizes and governs the universe through his Logos. Without any doubt here the influence of Plato's teaching about the World Soul can be observed. But the Logos was also sent to save the world. The process of preparation for salvation had begun well before the incarnation of the Logos. H. Chadwick calls our attention to the fact that salvation meant also the fall of the evil cosmic spirits. He observes that already for Justin the order of the redeemed cosmos leads us up to God like a ladder. Redemption is not 18 E. F. OSBORN, Justin Martyr, Tübingen, 1973, 49. 19 G. MAY, Schöpfung aus dem Nichts. Die Entstehung der Lehre von der creatio ex nihilo, Berlin-New York, 1978, 128. 20 S. VERGÉS, Dios y el hombre. La creación, Madrid, 1980, 499. 21 D. BOURGEOIS, La sagesse des anciens dans le mystère du Verbe. Evangile et philosophie chez Saint philosophe et martyr, Paris, 1981, 96-99. 22 E. ROBILLARD, Justin. L’itinéraire philosophique, Montréal-Paris, 1989, 115.
