The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

"
There
PHYSICS: NATURE, GOD, THE SOUL 93
created things to the bosom of the primal substance is
but a far-off and dimly conscious recognition of the
doctrine of the conservation of energy. But the real
interest in the theory for the present day is not scientific
but philosophical. In the face of modern materialism
and of pantheism,
it is instructive to see how these
same doctrines were maintained and held together by
the most materialistic, and yet the most fervently
religious, of the ancient Greek sects. Points,
therefore,
to be specially noted are the following
:
First, as the world, with all that it contains,
is the
product of divine power, and, when viewed pantheistically
in strict Stoic fashion, is itself the Deity,
it is
necessarily perfect. It is an organic unity, with its
parts adapted to each other, and each necessary to the
perfection of the whole.
is
nothing existent,"
says Balbus, in the De Naturfl Deorum (ii. 13), "that
is not defective, except the universe, which is well
provided and fully complete and perfect
and members."
in all its parts
Next, the Deity is in essence material ; yet, this
materialism is
dynamic and not mechanical it includes
all mental and spiritual characteristics, summed up in
Thought and Will, or in the single term Active
Reason.
This fact that the primitive matter is characterized
by reason and activity deprives the Stoic materialism
of what would otherwise be a baneful influence, and
explains how the Stoical ethics and also the Stoical
theology should be so highly spiritualistic as they