the
Old
Testament.
These
elements
had
a
distinct
influence
upon
Christian
theology;
and
it
is
also
indisputable
that,
compared
with
the
spirit
known
in
the
New
Testament
writings,
the
inner
life
of
the
succeeding
generations
showed
a
marked
falling
off
in
energy
and
depth,
and
gave
room
for
reac-
tions
of
a
non-Christian
tendency,
sometimes
mainly
pagan,
sometimes
more
Jewish,
but
always
based
upon
the
natural
disposition
of
sinful
humanity.
In
regard
to
philosophy,
it
is
necessary
to
bear
in
mind
the
more
or
less
direct
influence
of
Pla^
tonism,
which
viewed
as
the
highest
of
all
things
the
good
that
was
above
all
being
and
all
knowledge,
identified
it
with
the
divine
nouSf
and
2.
Plato-
attempted
to
raise
the
human
spirit
nism.
into
the
realm
of
ideas,
into
a
likeness
with
the
Godhead;
which
taught
men
to
rise
to
the
highest
by
a
process
of
abstraction
disregarditig
particulars
and
grasping
at
imiversals,
and
conceiv^
the
good
of
which
it
spoke
not
in
a
strictly
ethical
sense,
but
as,
after
all,
the
most
utterly
abstract
and
imdefinable,
entirely
eluding
all
attempts
at
positive
description.
Neoplaton-
ism
(q.v.)
went
the
furthest
in
this
conception
of
the
divine
transcendence;
God,
the
absolute
One,
was,
according
to
Plotinus,
elevated
not
only
above
all
being,
but
also
above
all
reason
and
rational
activity.
He
did
not,
however,
attempt
to
attain
to
this
abstract
highest
good
by
reasoning
or
logical
abstraction,
but
by
an
immediate
contact
between
God
and
the
soul
in
a
state
of
ecstasy.
This
tendency
was
shared
by
a
school
of
thought
within
Judaism
itself,
whose
influence
upon
Chris-
tian
theology
was
considerable.
The
more
Jewish
speculation,
as
was
the
case
especially
at
Alexandria,
rose
above
an
anthropomorphic
idea
of
God
to
a
spiritual
conception,
the
more
abstract
the
latter
became.
In
this
connection
Platonism
was
the
principal
one
of
the
Greek
philosoph-
3.
Alezan-
leal
systems
toward
which
this
Jewish
drian
theology
maintained
a
receptive
atti-
Judaism,
tude.
According
to
Philo,
God
is
to
an,
"
that
which
is
"
par
excellence^
and
this
being
is
rather
the
most
universal
of
all
than
the
supreme
good
with
which
Plato
identified
the
divine;
all
that
can
be
said
is
that
God
is,
without
defining
the
nature
of
his
being.
Between
God
and
the
world
a
middle
place
is
attributed
by
Philo
to
the
Logos
(in
the
sense
of
ratiOf
not
at
all
in
the
Johannine
sense),
as
the
principle
of
diversity
and
the
summary
of
the
ideas
and
powers
operating
in
the
world.
When
the
Gnostics
attempted
to
construct
a
great
system
of
higher
knowledge
from
a
Christian
standpoint,
through
assimilating
various
Greek
and
Oriental
elements,
and
worked
the
facts
of
the
Christian
revelation
into
their
fantastic
speculation
on
general
metaphysical
and
cosmic
4.
Gnosti-
problems
(see
Gnosticism),
this
ab-
cism.
stract
Godhead
became
an
obscure
background
for
their
system;
accord-
ing
to
the
Valentinian
doctrine,
it
was
the
primal
beginning
of
all
things,
with
eternal
silence
{sigi)
for
a
companion.
In
the
development
of
the
Chureh's
doctrine
with
Justin
and
the
succeeding
apologists,
and
still
more
with
the
Alexandrian
school,
the
transcendental
nature
of
God
was
emphasized,
while
the
Scrip-
tures
and
the
religious
conscience
of
5.
Post-
Christendom
still
permitted
the
con-
Apostolic
templation
of
him
as
a
personal
and
TheologianB.
loving
Spirit.
Theology
did
not
at
first
proceed
to
a
systematic
and
logical
explanation
of
the
idea
of
God
with
reference
to
these
different
aspects.
Where
philosophical
and
strictly
scientific
thought
was
active,
as
with
the
Alexandrians,
the
element
of
negation
and
abstrac-
tion
got
the
upper
hand.
God
is,
especially
with
Origen,
the
simple
Being
with
attributes,
exalted
above
noua
and
ousia,
and
at
the
same
time
the
Father,
eternally
begetting
the
Logos
and
touching
the
world
through
the
Logos.
In
opposition
to
this
developed
a
Judaistic
and
popular
conception
of
God
which
leaned
to
the
anthropomorphic,
and
also
a
view
like
Tertullian's,
which,
under
the
influ-
ence
of
Stoic
philosophy,
felt
obliged
to
connect
with
all
realities,
and
thus
also
with
God,
the
idea
of
a
tangible
substance.
In
this
direction
Dionysius
the
Areopagite
(q.v.)
finally
proceeded
to
a
really
Neoplatonist
theology,
with
an
inexpressible
God
who
is
above
all
categories,
both
positive
and
nega-
tive,
and
thus
is
neither
Being
nor
Not-being;
who
permits
that
which
is
to
emanate
from
himself
in
a
descending
scale
coming
down
to
things
perceived
by
the
senses,
but
is
unable
to
reveal
his
eternal
truth
in
this
emanation.
With
this
doctrine
is
con-
connected,
after
the
Neoplatonist
model,
an
inner
union
with
God,
an
ecstatic
elevation
of
the
soul
which
resigns
itself
to
the
process
into
the
obscure
depth
of
the
Godhead.
The
ethical
conception
of
God
and
redemption
thus
gives
place
to
a
phys-
ical
one,
just
as
the
emanation
of
all
things
from
God
was
described
as
a
physical
process;
and
as
soon
as
speculation
attempts
to
descend
from
the
hidden
God
to
finite
and
personal
life,
this
physical
view
connects
itself
with
the
abstract
metaphysical.
In
the
West
there
was
long
a
lack
of
scientific
and
speculative
discussion
of
the
idea
of
God.
Augustine,
the
most
significant
name
in
Western
theology,
sets
forth
the
conception
of
God
as
a
self-
conscious
personal
being
which
fitted
in
with
his
doctrine
of
the
Trinity;
but
as
his
own
develop-
ment
had
led
him
through
Platonism,
the
influence
of
that
philosophy
is
found
in
the
6.
Augus-
idea
of
God
which
he
developed
sys-
tine.
tematically
and
handed
down.
He
con-
ceives
God
as
the
imity
of
ideas,
of
abstract
perfections,
of
the
normal
types
of
being,
thinking,
and
acting;
as
simple
essentia,
in
which
will,
knowledge,
and
being
are
one
and
the
same.
The
fundamentally
determinant
factor
in
the
con-
ception
of
God
by
the
Augustinian
theology
is
thus
pure
being
in
general.
Scotus
Erigena
(q.v.),
who
gave
Dionysius
the
Areopagite
to
Western
theology,
though
Augustine
was
not
without
influence
upon
him,
fully
accepted
the
notion
of
God
as
the
absolute
In-
7.
Scotus
conceivable,
above
all
affirmation
and
Erigena.
all
negation,
distinguishing
from
him
a
world
to
which
divine
ideas
and
primal
forms
belong.
He
emphasizes
the
other
side
of
this
view
—
that
true
existence
belongs
to
God
