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having failed of its fitting end by human wisdom, yet not failing to cling to falsehood as truth, while attempting to belie the truth as falsehood, and raising up creation against the Creator, whose work it is even now to raise up the scriptures of the Spirit against both the Spirit and spiritual works and men.σ

Therefore, the foolish philosophy of the outside sages is not discerning and declarative of the wisdom of God. For how could it be, through which the world did not know God? But if Paul says elsewhere that “though they knew God, they did not glorify him as God,” the disciple of peace, the heir of the otherworldly peace given in us by Christ alone, does not contradict himself. But they came, he says, to a notion of God, but not one befitting God; for they did not glorify him as all-working, all-powerful, all-seeing, or as alone without beginning and uncreated. Therefore from those times of theirs, having been abandoned by God, as Paul also showed this, the wise were given over to a debased mind, worshiping creation rather than the creator and wallowing in the filth of shameful and wicked passions; and not only this, but they also laid down laws and wrote treatises (alas for the passion, alas for the deceit) in agreement with demons and as advocates for the passions. Do you see how from the beginning and from its very self the philosophy of the worldly philosophers has its foolishness, and did not receive it by comparison? He therefore who then rejected it from heaven, when it had fallen away from the truth, and now having come to the earth, justly made it foolish, as it is opposed to the simplicity of the evangelical preaching; wherefore if anyone again applies his mind to this, (p. 96) as though about to be led by it to the knowledge of God or to receive purification of the soul, he suffers this very thing and is made a fool while being wise. And a clear sign of suffering this is, one and first, not to accept in faith the traditions which we have received in simplicity from the holy fathers, knowing that they are better and wiser than human investigation and conception, and are revealed through works, but not demonstrated through words; and all know this and will bear witness to it, who have not only accepted, but have also reaped by experience the benefit from these things and have known from themselves through works that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men.” σ

But this is indeed one and the first sufficient proof of the foolish wise men. A second and greater proof is to marshal the power of their foolish and despised reason against those who receive those traditions in simplicity of heart and, like those who ignored God and set up creation against the Creator, to ignore the oracles of the Spirit and to attack, through these simple believers, the mystical energies of the Spirit, which are at work in those who live according to the Spirit, energies which are beyond what can be expressed in words. A third and clearer proof is to say that those unwise sages have been made wise by God just as the prophets were, and yet Plato, clearly praising the excellent men of his time, makes it the greatest part of his eulogy to show that they were mad. “And whoever,” he says, “approaches poetic works without the inspiration of the daimones, he and his poetry are imperfect, and the poetry of the sane man is eclipsed by that of the mad.” And he himself, in the Timaeus, when about to philosophize concerning the nature of the cosmos, prays that he might say nothing that is not pleasing to the gods. But a philosophy pleasing to demons, how could it be of God (p. 98) and from God? And Socrates had an attendant daimonion, by which of course he was initiated, and perhaps he was also testified by it to be the best in wisdom. And Homer urges a god to sing through him the man-slaying wrath of Achilles, offering himself to be used as an instrument by the demon and the cause of his own wisdom and eloquence

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τοῦ προσήκοντος ἀπολειφθεῖσα τῇ κατ᾿ ἄνθρωπον σοφίᾳ τέλους, οὐκ ἀπολειφθεῖσα καί τοῦ μέν ψεύδους ὡς ἀληθείας ἀντεχομένη, τῆς δ᾿ ἀληθείας ὡς ψεύδους καταψεύδεσθαι πειρωμένη, καί ἐπανιστᾶσα τήν κτίσιν κατά τοῦ κτίσαντος, ἧσπερ καί νῦν ἔργον ἐπανιστάναι κατά τε τοῦ Πνεύματος καί τῶν πνευματικῶν ἔργων καί ἀνδρῶν τάς τοῦ Πνεύματος γραφάς.σ

Οὔκουν διορατική καί ἐξαγγελτική ἐστι τῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφίας ἡ τῶν ἔξω σοφῶν μεμωραμένη φιλοσοφία. Πῶς γάρ, δι᾿ ἧς οὐκ ἔγνω ὁ κόσμος τόν Θεόν; Εἰ δ᾿ ἀλλαχοῦ φησιν ὁ Παῦλος ὅτι «γνόντες τόν Θεόν, οὐχ ὡς Θεόν ἐδόξασαν», οὐχ ἑαυτῷ μάχεται ὁ τῆς εἰρήνης μαθητής, τῆς δ᾿ ἐν ἡμῖν αὐτοῖς παρά Χριστοῦ μόνου διδομένης ὑπερκοσμίου εἰρήνης κληρονόμος. Ἀλλ᾿ ἦλθον μέν, φησίν, εἰς ἔννοιαν Θεοῦ, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί τήν πρέπουσαν Θεῷ˙ οὐδέ γάρ πανουργόν, οὐ παντοδύναμον, οὐ παντεπίσκοπον, οὐ μόνον ἄναρχόν τε καί ἄκτιστον ἐδόξασαν αὐτόν. ∆ιόπερ ἀπό τῶν κατ᾿ αὐτούς ἐκείνων χρόνων ἐγκαταλειφθέντες ὑπό τοῦ Θεοῦ, ὡς καί τοῦτ᾿ ἔδειξεν ὁ Παῦλος, εἰς ἀδόκιμον οἱ σοφοί παρεδόθησαν νοῦν, λατρεύοντες τῇ κτίσει παρά τόν κτίσαντα καί τῷ βορβόρῳ τῶν αἰσχρῶν καί πονηρῶν ἐγκαλινδούμενοι παθῶν˙ οὐ μόνον δέ, ἀλλά καί νόμους ἔθεντο καί λόγους συνεγράψαντο (φεῦ τοῦ πάθους, φεῦ τῆς ἀπάτης) ὁμολόγους τοῖς δαίμοσι καί συνηγόρους τοῖς πάθεσιν. Ὁρᾷς ὡς ἀρχῆθεν ἔχει καί αὐτόθεν τήν μωρίαν ἡ φιλοσοφία τῶν κοσμικῶν φιλοσόφων, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχ ὑπό συγκρίσεως ἔλαβεν αὐτήν; Ὁ τοίνυν ἀποδοκιμάσας αὐτήν ἐξ οὐρανοῦ τότε, τῆς ἀληθείας διαπεσοῦσαν, καί νῦν ἐλθών εἰς τήν γῆν, ὡς τῇ τοῦ εὐαγγελικοῦ κηρύγματος ἀντιταττομένη ἁπλότητι δικαίως ἐμώρανε˙ διόπερ εἴ τις αὖθις ταύτῃ προσέχει τόν νοῦν, (σελ. 96) ὡς παρ᾿ αὐτῆς θεογνωσίαν ὁδηγεῖσθαι μέλλων ἡ ψυχῆς σχήσειν κάθαρσιν, τοῦτ᾿ αὐτό πάσχει καί μωραίνεται σοφός ὤν. Καί τοῦ παθεῖν τοῦτο δεῖγμα σαφές, ἕν μέν καί πρῶτον, τό μή προσίεσθαι πίστει τάς παραδόσεις ἅς παρά τῶν ἁγίων πατέρων ἐν ἁπλότητι παρειλήφαμεν, εἰδότες κρείττους οὔσας καί σοφωτέρας ἤ κατ᾿ ἀνθρωπίνην ἔτασιν καί ἐπίνοιαν, καί δι᾿ ἔργων φανερουμένας, ἀλλ᾿ οὐχί διά λόγων ἀποδεικνυμένας˙ καί τοῦτ᾿ ἴσασι καί συμμαρτυρήσουσι πάντες, οἱ μή προσέμενοι μόνον, ἀλλά καί πείρᾳ καρπωσάμενοι τήν ἐκ τούτων ὠφέλειαν καί παρ᾿ ἑαυτῶν ἔργῳ γνόντες ὅτι τό «μωρόν τοῦ Θεοῦ σοφώτερον τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐστίν». σ

Ἀλλ᾿ ἕν μέν δή τοῦτο καί πρῶτον ἱκανόν τεκμήριον τῶν μεμωραμένων σοφῶν. ∆εύτερον δέ καί μεῖζον, κατά τῶν ἐν ἀφελότητι καρδίας παραδεχομένων ἐκείνας ἐπιστρατεύειν τοῦ μεμωραμένου καί κατηλογημένου λόγου τήν δύναμιν καί κατά τούς παραθεωρήσαντας ἐκείνους καί τῷ κτίστῃ τήν κτίσιν ἐπαναστήσαντας παραθεωρεῖν τά τοῦ Πνεύματος λόγια καί ταῖς μυστικαῖς τοῦ Πνεύματος ἐνεργείας, κρεῖττον ἤ λόγος ἐν τοῖς κατά πνεῦμα ζῶσιν ἐνεργουμέναις δι᾿ αὐτῶν ἐπιτίθεσθαι. Τρίτον δέ καί σαφέστερον, ἐκ θεοῦ καθάπερ καί τούς προφήτας σεσοφίσθαι λέγειν τούς ἀσόφους ἐκείνους σοφούς, καίτοι σαφῶς ὁ Πλάτων, τούς κατ᾿ αὐτούς διαφέροντας ἐπαινῶν, ἐν ἐγκωμίου μεγίστη μοίρᾳ τίθεται δεῖξαι μεμηνότας αὐτούς. «Καί ὅς ἄν», φησίν, «ἄνευ δαιμόνων ἐπιπνοίας ἐπί ποιητικούς λόγους ἀφίκηται, ἀτελής αὐτός τε καί ἡ ποίησις, καί ὑπό τῆς τῶν μαινομένων ἡ τοῦ σωφρονοῦντος ἠφανίσθη». Καί αὐτός δέ διά Τιμαίου μέλλων περί κόσμου φύσεως φιλοσοφεῖν, εὔχεται μηδέν εἰπεῖν ὅ τι μή τοῖς θεοῖς φίλον. Ἡ δέ τοῖς δαίμοσι φίλη φιλοσοφία, πῶς ἄν εἴη Θεοῦ (σελ. 98) τε καί ἐκ Θεοῦ; Τῷ δέ Σωκράτει συνῆν δαιμόνιον, ᾧ δήπου καί μεμύηται, τάχα δέ καί τήν σοφίαν ἄριστος ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ μεμαρτύρηται. Θεόν δ᾿ Ὅμηρος ἄδειν δι᾿ αὐτοῦ τήν Ἀχιλλέως ἀνδροφόνον μῆνιν προτρέπεται, παρέχων ἑαυτόν ὡς ὀργάνῳ χρῆσθαι τῷ δαίμονι καί τῆς αὐτοῦ σοφίας καί εὐεπείας τήν αἰτίαν