The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

"
Order
PRESENT-DAY VALUE OF STOICISM 247
technically expressed by saying
that He is a
or primary conception of the mind, and, popularly, in the
argument known as consensus gentium, or the general
consent of mankind. No great help, however, was
given by Stoicism in determining the idea of God,
inasmuch as the Stoics oscillated between pantheism
and monotheism, and seemed not to feel the need of an
absolutely definite conception. Nevertheless, the idea
had for them ethical or moral, as well as intellectual,
content, so that the nature of man that craved for or
demanded a Deity was his whole nature, not merely a
part of it not the intellect alone (as with Aristotle),
nor the conscience alone (as with Kant), nor feeling
chiefly (as with Schleiermacher). Not a little of their
theistic reasoning would commend itself to the modern
theist, who essays above all things to find a thorough
going basis in human nature (feeling, intellect, and
will alike) for his Natural Theology. 1
Next,
its firm belief in the World as a
manifestation
of Divine Order, and man s life and human society as a
plan
"
of God.
is Heaven s first law"; and
social order is binding, not simply through its utility,
but because it comes with the divine sanction law
in every form means God. The consequence
of this
conviction was an optimism which was both invigorating
and robust, and a trust and submission so unflinching
that even to come into contact with it elevates and
stirs.
Man, be desperate now, as the saying is, on
behalf of happiness, on behalf of liberty, on behalf of
high-mindedness. Lift up your head at this time as one
1 Cf. my Theism as grounded in Human Nature,