Folia Theologica 21. (2010)
Perendy László: An Enigmatic Apology - Aristides on God's created world
AN ENIGMATIC APOLOGY 93 philosophical thought, A. Puech gives a well-balanced survey: "La première phrase, sur la Providence et le spectacle du monde qui la révèle, est nettement stoïcienne; la seconde et la troisième, avec l'opposition de la matière qui est mue, et du principe du mouvement, est en dernière analyse d'origine platonicienne."34 R. Seeberg pointed out the resemblance with the 2 Maccabees35, but in A. Puech's opinion this does not mean that Aristides used it as a source, only that the Christian apologist was following the steps of its Jewish predecessor. This Mover of the universe, however, is not presented as a philosophical concept, but as the personal God of Jews and Christians. This is shown by the fact that the masculine form, TÓV KWOÜVTCC is used instead of the neuter TO KtvoCv. If we accept the existence of a personal God as the mover and sustainer of the universe, a lot of other characteristics are also implied. He is without beginning and an end, and the heavens cannot contain him. These ideas had already been expressed by the Kerygma Petri, and St. Paul in the Acts. It is a disputed question if the Preaching of Peter influenced the Apology of Aristides or vice versa. Their main concerns and topics are definitely the same, and they both grow out of the same soil. As Robert M. Grant explains: "the Preaching combines philosophical discussion of attributes with a biblical emphasis on God as Creator."36 In its elaborate description, God is "the invisible one who sees all things, the infinite who contains all, the one without needs whom all need and for whom they exist, the incomprehensible, everlasting, imperishable, uncreated, who made all things by the word of his power."37 As to the elements of Stoic origin, Michel Spanneut's classic work38 contains a thorough description. A dominant part of the Stoic tradition regards the cosmos as a reflexion of God. But we know about another stream of authentic Stoicism (represented by Ariston of Chios, a disciple of Zeno), which says that God is unknowable. This double tendency can also be found in the Fathers, as Spanneut says: "Tantôt, 34 Puech, A., Les apologistes grecs du IIe siècle de notre ère, Paris 1912. 36-37. 35 On the veneration of the martyrs of the 2 Maccabees., see Martín, J. P., La antropologia de Filon y la de Teófilo de Antiocjuia. Sus lecturas de Génesis 2-5, in Salmanticensis 36 (1989) 57. 36 Grant, R. M., Greek Apologists of the Second Century, Philadelphia 1988. 39. 37 Preaching of Peter, quoted by Grant, R. M., Greek Apologists of the Second Century, 37. 38 Spanneut, M., Le stoïcisme des Pères de l'église, Paris 19692.
