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We shall require to apply our mind with far greater intensity to the
present question than was requisite in the solution and unfolding of the
questions handled in the preceding books; for it is not with ordinary
men, but with philosophers that we must confer concerning the theology
which they call natural. For it is not like the fabulous, that is,
the theatrical; nor the civil, that is, the urban theology: the one
of which displays the crimes of the gods, whilst the other manifests
their criminal desires, which demonstrate them to be rather malign
demons than gods. It is, we say, with philosophers we have to confer
with respect to this theology, men whose very name, if rendered into
Latin, signifies those who profess the love of wisdom. Now, if
wisdom is God, who made all things, as is attested by the divine
authority and truth, then the philosopher is a lover of God. But
since the thing itself, which is called by this name, exists not in
all who glory in the name, for it does not follow, of course, that
all who are called philosophers are lovers of true wisdom, we must
needs select from the number of those with whose opinions we have been
able to acquaint ourselves by reading, some with whom we may not
unworthily engage in the treatment of this question. For I have not
in this work undertaken to refute all the vain opinions of the
philosophers, but only such as pertain to theology, which Greek word
we understand to mean an account or explanation of the divine nature.
Nor, again, have I undertaken to refute all the vain theological
opinions of all the philosophers, but only of such of them as,
agreeing in the belief that there is a divine nature, and that this
divine nature is concerned about human affairs, do nevertheless deny
that the worship of the one unchangeable God is sufficient for the
obtaining of a blessed life after death, as well as at the present
time; and hold that, in order to obtain that life, many gods,
created, indeed, and appointed to their several spheres by that one
God, are to be worshipped. These approach nearer to the truth than
even Varro; for, whilst he saw no difficulty in extending natural
theology in its entirety even to the world and the soul of the world,
these acknowledge God as existing above all that is of the nature of
soul, and as the Creator not only of this visible world, which is
often called heaven and earth, but also of every soul whatsoever, and
as Him who gives blessedness to the rational soul, of which kind is
the human soul, by participation in His own unchangeable and
incorporeal light. There is no one, who has even a slender knowledge
of these things, who does not know of the Platonic philosophers, who
derive their name from their master Plato. Concerning this Plato,
then, I will briefly state such things as I deem necessary to the
present question, mentioning beforehand those who preceded him in time
in the same department of literature.
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