A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

James Hastings • SECTION 1096

Section 1096

← A Dictionary of Christ and the Gospels — Volume 1

This is the effort of eaiU Greek thought, though as >et the distinction of spiritual and material had scarceh eineigea From \enophanes «ith his assertion that ™th>"i,.'» „^?^,f Being, and Herachtus «ith his flu\, the piobleni of the higher thinkers v\ho philosophiziii_ imp ultimate unit\ of the unnerse as Thought From them a^jain it Iv ing compli " jel IS n

the need and aspuation of regarding human personal the broadest minded lai u and that consequcnth in - itself, the human self is ill a the unn ersal self and beco This fact forces its wai to

ual nlture

to determine is to limit God is thus the indeterminable To Him no predicates apph Philo s duahsm is thus wider and deeper than that of the Gieek thmkeis It is a dualism not be tvveen God conceived as puie thou„'ht and the world condemned betv\ een the transcendent God w ho is too hi„'h to the loftiest rategorj of thought and the realm itt as such His ju 1 lui a rrdin,h - '"

be expressed

IS to find i

lime and space wo

I lulo built of elem

Gieek pbilosoph

handed on to :o exliibit the >i Thought of ,ne\ei deepen

itu the hfe of

reproduction

on and iiiipassioiied

date ma\ be pictu iLiatioii Toi the

I w orl 1 the hour had come in tne isi terns the one boin on Gieek soil the 1 thL minds of educated men, and supplied them

I t God and to ascribe to it t reation and of judgment I 1 1 nt of Greek philosophj , 1 I Liuii ot the LOoOS or immanent liom this twofold attitude of mind, lo reached the conception of a prin and jet distinct from God which

IS descended and

i( endent God and the : double lineage

the\ did

(a) One was btoicism The sv stems of Plato and Aiistotle hatlbeen pieicedb\ dualism whi h these masters had sought in vam to o\eiconie Then supirme merit is not disguise the intensit\ of the oppositoi rational and the iriational, between torm a btoioisni speculation is „'rownng wear\ of tb this aohism of the unuerse and is hoping t casj for itsrlf h\ sei/in ' one of the rpposin_ raakm tl t s ,, , Tli '

ultunat

luteh 1

dlrects'tbc m<U lit t tin.. J _iv^ from^a^P

This famous desunili n i i !■ effoit the nun 1 the seeimngh 1

union with tb in the 1st cei 1

ophv or of the Alevandiian tin an intellectual atmosphere fi And a shorthand expression ii IS continualh on the hps of they sought and of what thcv

this phrase" and all it stoo 1 whethei in its •stoic m 1 hilonie which awakene 1 self i failed to re^c obvious fact 1 which it off I thought an 1

,ht or as sometliii On the other is t rsed findin^ m

, at the fu

indiMdnalis

political '

iiself

.vorldo

thp 1

•ue satisfM It piomise hn will fin 1

'sal element !rse Thus t, PhUos

, I ither must w e imagine ' the speculations which

term Logos This phrase

It tells at once of what

,'ht thc\ had found An>

"w lid must icckon with

Tliat the 1 o^os doctrine,

1 nceived aspure tl ereal indescnh

litions with the How shall these will h God throws across he luwer side The Logos 1 itself anv particle of the I wbieh IS bound up with ach stretch or leap as he iiiiin;; 1 ridge Matter will ml phvsical ecstasj, which confines of the spiritual

The

with t

and ^ernunalh present in w as bound 1 1 ha\ e great issi chenshing it and in widei ferredbv Stoicism on cuiliz Atth

is bound I toiled at what thev knev earned their burden iiobh

fail Its

I atent an 1 imperishable as no moie than faith in itrenuous exponents

t hopeless task and though the\ .ir hearts weie pureed with the

„ „. ..._ „._ Belief in a purpose wl iPh links all the

discords of the world into one plan conquers all things evil and makes them subservient to good, requiies some surer basis than the meditations of a philosopher, however true or noble these mav be. The failure of Stoicism is obvious now ; but in the Hellenic world, in the early years of the Roman Empire, it permeated educated society like an atmosphere, and supplied thinking men with a point of view whence they might look out on life not wholly dismayed or despairing. ....

(6) The other system, which expresses the demand of the age for union with God, and which helps us to understand the attitude of the Greek mind toward Christianity, when it came forth with its great mcssa','e of reconciliation accomplished, was that which ori..in-.tM.l "iH, Ph. In. and which at a later stage, as eIabor.it. 1 i I" ( n . i i '1 it^c f as a rival to Chnstianitv. I'l. ' i i ' ', .,..lv m name. It

isessentialh tU, ' i . .l.tlerence. The

'idea' of PL.tM . I I ,1^1, .tie have ahke

lilos-

(3) In order to complete e\ en so hasty a sketch of the spiiitual situation m the Hellenic Roman woil.l nt the advent of Christiamt>, it is necessary I 1. tl the fiesh and moie hopeful point of view I I t I liy the ieliL,Km ot Isi lel («) Its pie II il 1 in IS not the tontrist but the afhnity of ( .oil in I man On the one Innd God is like man Antluopomoiphism is not false for human natuie is the leflex of the Dnine ind the attnbutes ot man do therefoie, inaderiuitel> but not falsely, lepresent the attributes of God On the other hand, man is like God c ijitble of comnuinion -nith Him, as one person is v.Mi anothei, hnding in that fellowship his true hfe. The Greek dualism of God and the universe, of form and matter, is un- known to the OT. Whatever mediation is wanted is found in man himself, who is creation s cvovm, to whom nature is bound by community of sub- stance, in whose destiny, for weal or woe, nature is profoundly implicated, (b) Its analysis is wholly difierent from, and far deeper than, the Greek. It lays bare, not distance between God and man, as between two .li-i.^iv.iti" natures, but a breach, as between tNv., ,..r-....^ ^vl.o ought to have been at one, but an- i...... tLi-Huh the action of the de- pendent piMs, mal . I \ . w . .. fnlly opposed. The gulf to be brid<'ed, therefore, is not that between form and matter, hut between will and will. To overcome thiS; no one of the Divine attributes, but God Him-

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