Athenagoras — Plea for the Christians 4
As regards, first of all, the allegation that we are atheists— for I will meet the charges one by one, that we may not be ridiculed for having no answer to give to those who make them — with reason did the Athenians adjudge Diagoras guilty of atheism, in that he not only divulged the Orphic doctrine, and published the mysteries of Eleusis and of the Cabiri, and chopped up the wooden statue of Hercules to boil his turnips, but openly declared that there was no God at all.
But to us, who distinguish God from matter, and teach that matter is one thing and God another, and that they are separated by a wide interval (for that the Deity is uncreated and eternal, to be beheld by the understanding and reason alone, while matter is created and perishable), is it not absurd to apply the name of atheism? If our sentiments were like those of Diagoras, while we have such incentives to piety— in the established order, the universal harmony, the magnitude, the color, the form, the arrangement of the world — with reason might our reputation for impiety, as well as the cause of our being thus harassed, be charged on ourselves.
But, since our doctrine acknowledges one God, the Maker of this universe, who is Himself uncreated (for that which is does not come to be, but that which is not) but has made all things by the Logos which is from Him, we are treated unreasonably in both respects, in that we are both defamed and persecuted.
Greek
Ὅτι μὲν οὖν οὐκ ἐσμὲν ἄθεοι· πρὸς ἓν ἕκαστον ἀπαντήσω τῶν ἐγκλημάτων, μὴ καὶ γελοῖον ᾖ τοὺς λέγοντας μὴ ἐλέγχειν· Διαγόρᾳ μὲν γὰρ εἰκότως ἀθεότητα ἐπεκάλουν Ἀθηναῖοι, μὴ μόνον τὸν Ὀρφικὸν εἰς μέσον κατατιθέντι λόγον καὶ τὰ ἐν Ἐλευσῖνι καὶ τὰ τῶν Καβείρων δημεύοντι μυστήρια καὶ τὸ τοῦ Ἡρακλέους ἵνα τὰς γογγύλας ἑψοῖ κατακόπτοντι ξόανον, ἄντικρυς δὲ ἀποφαινομένῳ μηδ᾿ ὅλως εἶναι θεόν. Ἡμῖν δέ, διαιροῦσιν ἀπὸ τῆς ὕλης τὸν θεόν, καὶ δεικνύουσιν ἕτερον μέν τι εἶναι τὴν ὕλην ἄλλο δὲ τὸν θεὸν καὶ τὸ διὰ μέσου πολύ (τὸ μὲν γὰρ θεῖον ἀγένητον εἶναι καὶ ἀΐδιον, νῷ μόνῳ καὶ λόγῳ θεωρούμενον, τὴν δὲ ὕλην γενητὴν καὶ φθαρτήν), μή τι οὐκ ἀλόγως τὸ τῆς ἀθεότητος ἐπικαλοῦσιν ὄνομα; Εἰ μὲν γὰρ ἐφρονοῦμεν ὅμοια τῷ Διαγόρᾳ, τοσαῦτα ἔχοντες πρὸς θεοσέβειαν ἐνέχυρα, τὸ εὔτακτον, τὸ διὰ παντὸς σύμφωνον, τὸ μέγεθος, τὴν χροίαν, τὸ σχῆμα, τὴν διάθεσιν τοῦ κόσμου, εἰκότως ἂν ἡμῖν καὶ ἡ τοῦ μὴ θεοσεβεῖν δόξα καὶ ἡ τοῦ ἐλαύνεσθαι αἰτία προσετρίβετο. Ἐπεὶ δὲ ὁ λόγος ἡμῶν ἕνα θεὸν ἄγει τὸν τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς ποιητήν, αὐτὸν μὲν οὐ γενόμενον (ὅτι τὸ ὂν οὐ γίνεται ἀλλὰ τὸ μὴ ὄν), πάντα δὲ διὰ τοῦ παρ᾿ αὐτοῦ λόγου πεποιηκότα, ἑκάτερα ἀλόγως πάσχομεν, καὶ κακῶς ἀγορευόμεθα καὶ διωκόμεθα.