Single Idea 7815

[catalogued under 28. God / A. Divine Nature / 2. Divine Nature]

Full Idea

Logos was also called 'god' or 'Zeus' by the early Stoics, but they did not think of this deity as a separate being, but as a principle of organization of things. As the soul is the principle of an individual life, so 'god' is the soul of the universe.

Clarification

'Logos' is (roughly) right reason

Gist of Idea

Early Stoics called the logos 'god', meaning not a being, but the principle of the universe

Source

Stoic school (fragments/reports [c.200 BCE]), quoted by A.C. Grayling - What is Good? Ch.3

Book Reference

Grayling,A.C.: 'What is Good? The Best Way to Live' [Phoenix 2003], p.52


A Reaction

This sounds not too far from Spinoza's pantheism. Interestingly, the Stoics were making God more impersonal, and it is Jesus who reverts to the much more popularly appealing personal image.