Folia Theologica 18. (2007)
László Perendy: The Outlines of Systematic Theology in the Ad Autolycum of Theophilus of Antioch
THE OUTLINES OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY 173 Man has a unique position in creation: "For after making everything else by a word, God considered all this as incidental; he regarded the making of man as the only work worthy of his own hands."14 Here he means his Logos and Sophia. Man's uniqueness is shown also by the fact that the whole creation serves mankind: "Consider his works, O man: ... the subjection in which he decreed all things to be subject to mankind..."15 However, God's absolute sovereignty does not mean isolation from the world. He has been active in the world through his Logos: "Indeed the God and Father of the universe is unconfined and is not present in a place, for there is no place of his rest [Isa. 66: 1], But his Logos, through whom he made all things, who is his Power and Wisdom [1 Cor. 1: 24], assuming the role of the Father and Lord of the universe, was present in paradise in the role of God and conversed with Adam. For the divine scripture itself teaches us that Adam said that he 'heard the voice'. What is the 'voice' but the Logos of God, who is also his Son? - not as the poets and mythographers describe sons of gods begotten of sexual union, but as the truth describes the Logos, always innate in the heart of God. For before anything came into existence he had this as his Courisel- lor, his own Mind and Intelligence. When God wished to make what he had planned to make, he generated this Logos, making him external, as th e firstborn of all creation [Col. 1: 15]. He did not deprive himself of the Logos but generated the Logos and constantly converses with his Logos. Hence the holy scriptures, and all those inspired by the Spirit teach us, and one of them, John, says, Tn the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God' [John 1: 1]. He shows that originally God was alone and the Logos was in him. Then he says, 'And the Logos was God; everything was made through him, and apart from him nothing was made' [John 1: 1-3]. Since the Logos is God and derived his nature from God, whenever the Father of the universe wills to do so he sends him into some place where he is present and is heard and seen. He is sent by God and is present in a place."16 14 2.18. 15 1.6. 16 2.22. Logos - together with Sophia - is also mentioned e.g. in 1.7; 2.10, 15.
