Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Catholic
Ante-Nicene Ressourcement: The One God Worshiped By All

Ante-Nicene Ressourcement: The One God Worshiped By All

Last updated on: September 19, 2016 at 5:40 am by Henry Karlson

Ante-Nicene Ressourcement: The One God Worshiped By All 2016-09-19T05:40:47-05:00 Henry Karlson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Dome of St Peter’s. Lifting our thoughts to the majesty of God. Photograph by Henry Karlson

This was the way Minucius Felix would be able to demonstrate the ordinary belief in God held by the Romans. He said that they called upon God at their time of need showing their belief in one ultimate divinity despite whatever name or understanding they have for it. Foreshadowing, indeed, the apophatic direction theology would necessarily take to preserve the transcendence of God, he wrote down what his friend Octavius said to his pagan interlocutor:

He who thinks that he knows the magnitude of God, is diminishing it; he who desires not to lessen it, knows it not. Neither must you ask a name for God. God is His name. We have need of names when a multitude is to be separated into individuals by the special characteristics of names; to God, who is alone, the name God is the whole. If I were to call Him Father, you would judge Him to be earthly; if a King, you would suspect Him to be carnal; if a Lord, you will certainly understand Him to be mortal. Take away the additions of names, and you will behold His glory. What! Is it not true that I have in this matter the consent of all men? I hear the common people, when they lift their hands to heaven, say nothing else but Oh God, and God is great, and God is true, and if God shall permit. Is this the natural discourse of the common people, or is it the prayer of a confessing Christian? And they who speak of Jupiter as the chief, are mistaken in the name indeed, but they are in agreement about the unity of the power.[6]

Minicius Felix, therefore, presented how and why people can speak of God in error while still be speaking of the true God and offering worship to him. What we conceive in our minds about God, including the names we use for God, is less than God and to hold God to such predicates is to restrict him and to make him less than he is. People can be and will be mistaken as they represent God with poor predications. Nonetheless, this must not be used to deny it was the same God being addressed by all. It is not that such erroneous predications have no problems associated with them, for they certainly do and this was the foundation for pagan errors about the nature of divinity and human relationships with the divine. And yet behind all such error lies the truth which all naturally seek after and have in common. God is God for all. Whatever they know of God, however wrong their understanding of God is, they still are talking about God. We must hold to the greatness of God which transcends all our predication and start there to find out how we worship God in common with them.

If some would accuse the early Christian apologists of error, of going too far, we must remember that the apologists did not follow this line of reasoning on their own: they got it from the Apostle Paul. When, for example, Paul was with the pagans on Mars Hill, he showed how the statue of the Unknown God, the God who is beyond human knowing and comprehension, recognized and honored by the pagans, was the God of the Christians:

So Paul, standing in the middle of the Areopagus, said: “Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, `To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you (Acts 17:22-23 RSV).

Likewise, in the opening of the Book of Romans, this universal recognition of God was affirmed:

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse; for although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their senseless minds were darkened (Rom. 1:19-21 RSV).

The apologists took what was founded in these and other verses, and used them to explain the unity Christians had with the nations of the world. God was known by all, even if their knowledge was darkened by error. Yet, talking about them as errors only made sense if the recognition of one God over all was believed and worshiped by all had been sustained. If and when this is severed, then Christians not only cut themselves away from the rest of humanity, but from each other. For they would have nothing to sustain unity with each other. And so the position of Athenagoras, representative of the apologists as a whole, should give us a way to understand even today our relationships with other faiths:

Since, therefore, the unity of the Deity is confessed by almost all, even against their will, when they come to treat of the first principles of the universe, and we in our turn likewise assert that He who arranged this universe is God—why is it that they can say and write with impunity what they please concerning the Deity, but that against us a law lies in force, though we are able to demonstrate what we apprehend and justly believe, namely that there is one God, with proofs and reason accordant with truth? For poets and philosophers, as to other subjects so also to this, have applied themselves in the way of conjecture, moved, by reason of their affinity with the afflatus from God, each one by his own soul, to try whether he could find out and apprehend the truth; but they have not been found competent fully to apprehend it, because they thought fit to learn, not from God concerning God, but each one from himself; hence they came each to his own conclusion respecting God, and matter, and forms, and the world. But we have for witnesses of the things we apprehend and believe, prophets, men who have pronounced concerning God and the things of God, guided by the Spirit of God.[7]

God who is God over all transcends all human conceptions of him, though we will all try to come to terms with him with concepts used to describe him. Without revelation to correct us, it is understandable why we will make mistake after mistake, mistake building upon mistake, leading us further and further away from a proper understanding of who God is. Revelation is the corrective to natural theology. But natural theology needs to be recognized and serve as the foundation by which we can explore such revelation, for without it, we will have nothing to hold onto to explain why we should believe such revelation and truly we will become the atheists which the Romans claimed we were.

[1] The Martyrdom of Polycarp in ANF(1):41.

[2] Athenagoras, “A Plea for the Christians” in ANF(2):131.

[3] Ibid., 131.

[4] St. Justin Martyr, “First Apology” in ANF(1):169-70.

[5] St. Clement of Alexandria, “Exhortation to the Heathen” in ANF(2):191.

[6] Minucius Felix, Octavius in ANF(4): 183.

[7] Athenagoras, “A Plea for the Christians,” 132.

Stay in touch! Like A Little Bit of Nothing on Facebook:

A Little Bit of Nothing

Previous Post

September 17, 2016

Marian Contemplations X: Mediatrix of All Graces and Co-Redemptrix (Part 4)

Next Post

September 21, 2016 Become Like Fire, Acquire the Holy Spirit

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abortion Abraham abuse Aesthetics AI Aliens Ambrose Ancestors and Everything Andrew Angels Animals Anne Anthony Antisemitism apologetics Apophatic Apostle John Aquinas Artificial Intelligence Asanga Ascension Asceticism Assumption Atheism Attachment Augustine Authority Avarice Balthasar Baptism Beauty Biden birthright citizenship Bishops Black History Books Buddhism Bulgakov Byzantine Calendar C.S. Lewis Calcidius Catholic Catholicism Catholicism Celibacy Charity Chastity children Chrismation Christ Christmas Christology Church Climate Change Common Good Communion Confession Confirmation Conscience Constantine conventions conversion councils Covid Creation Cross Dead Death Death Penalty Debate Deception Demagogues Demons Desert Monks Desert Mothers Desire destruction development Dialogue Dignity Dionsyius Dionysius Discipline Diversity Division Doctor Who doctrine dogma Dormition Dualism Easter Easter Series Ecumenical Councils Ecumenism Education Election Empathy Environment Error Eschatology eschaton Eternity Ethics Eucharist Evangelism Eve Evil evolution Faeries Faith Fear femininity Ficino Florence Florensky Folktale Fools Forgiveness Freedom Future gender Gentile Gentiles Glory Gnostic God gods Good Samaritan Goodness Gospel Government Grace Great Fast Guns Hate healing Health Heaven Hell Hellenism Heresy Hierarchy Hildegard Hinduism History Holiness Holy Spirit Holy Week Hope Horror Human rights humanity Humility hypocrisy ICE icon icons Identification Identity Idol II Nicea Immigration incarnation Individualism Informal Reflections Inklings Intention Inter-Religious Interfaith Internet Interpretation Intrinsic evil Irenaeus Islam Israel Jacob Jerome Jesus Jews John Chrysostom John of Damascus John the Baptist Joseph Judaism justice Justification kenosis Kindnesss Kingdom of God Kingdom of Heaven Law Law of Moses Lazarus Leaf by Niggle Lent Lenten Reflection Liberation Theology Lies Life Listen Literature Liturgy locutions Logic Logos Love Marriage Martyrs Mary Mass Maximos The Confessor Meanness Meditation Mercy Middle Path Migrants Mind Miracles Miriam Morals Moses Movies Music Muslims Myths Names Nationalism Native Americans New Year Nicea Nicholas Nothing Novatian Obedience Occam's Razor Ordination Origen Original Sin Orthodox orthopraxis Pagans Palamas Palm Sunday Paradise Paschaltide Paul Peace Pentecost person Peter piety PKD Plato pluralism Plurality Poem Poetry Poiltics Politics Poor Pope Pope Francis Pope Leo XIV Post Office Prayer Pride Pro-life Prodigal Son propaganda Prophecy Prophets Providence Putin Racism Reading Reason Reflection Refugees Relationships Religion Religion Series Religious Liberty Repent Republicans Rest Resurrection Rich Rites Russia Sacraments Saints Salvation Salvian Santa Science Scripture Self-Giving Sexuality Sibyl Sick Silence Sin Singlehood Social Justice Society Sodom Solovyov Speculations Spiritual Reflection St. Cyril of Alexandria St. Justin Martyr Suffering Sunday of the Paralytic Man Sunday of the Samaritan Woman Superhero Supreme Court Teaching Technology Thanksgiving The Father the Universe Theological Reflection Theology Theosis Theotokos Thomas Timaeus Time Tolerenace Tolkien Tradition Transfiguration Trinity Trump Truth Uncategorized Unity Universities USCCB Value Vatican II Vegetarian Vices Violence Virtue Vocations War Water Welcome Wisdom Womanhood Women Work World View Worship Writing Zacchaeus

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz