The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Basis of Early Christian Theism, by
Lawrence Thomas Cole

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Basis of Early Christian Theism

Author: Lawrence Thomas Cole

Release Date: January 16, 2008 [EBook #24328]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK EARLY CHRISTIAN THEISM ***

Produced by Fritz Ohrenschall, Colin Bell and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Transcriber's Notes: Many printing errors, particularly in the French
and Greek, have been corrected. The inconsistent hyphenation of the
word stand-point has been retained. Greek has been transliterated and
placed inside {}.]

THE BASIS OF EARLY CHRISTIAN THEISM

BY

LAWRENCE THOMAS COLE, A. M., S. T. B.,

_Post-graduate Scholar of the Church University Board of Regents_

SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS
FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN THE
FACULTY OF PHILOSOPHY
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

NEW YORK
May, 1898

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I: Introduction 9

CHAPTER II: Greek and Roman Theistic Arguments 14

CHAPTER III: The Patristic Point of View 26

CHAPTER IV: Patristic Use of the Theistic Arguments 38

CHAPTER V: Eclectic Theism 55

"Les preuves de Dieu metaphysiques sont si eloignees du
raisonnement des hommes, et si impliquees, qu'elles frappent peu;
et quand cela serviroit a quelques-uns, ce ne seroit que pendant
l'instant qu'ils voient cette demonstration; mais, une heure apres,
ils craignent de s'etre trompes. _Quod curiositate cognoverint,
superbia amiserunt._"
--_Pensees de Pascal_, II, xv. 2.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A question which every author ought to ask of himself before he sends
forth his work, and one which must occu