Seite 86 [86]
ISTVÁN PÁSZTORI-KUPÁN
Now if it is the term “faith” itself that you are attacking (for I have heard you saying
also that we do not bring forth any proof of our doctrines, but merely direct our
disciples to believe), you utterly and openly malign our teaching, because we indeed
connect the testimony of the facts themselves to our words. Yet again, according
to the proverb, you are wounded by your own feathers! In fact even the famous
Pythagoras, son of Mnesarchus, student of Pherecydes and founder of the Italian
school, gave as a rule to his students to keep silence for five years and to listen only
to him in order to accept what they were told without dispute and contestation;
thus, to believe and not to be inquisitive, as though in doubt. Indeed, even his
successors, to anyone demanding demonstration of what had been said, customarily
replied, “He said it!”, thus both assuming themselves and demanding others, to
hold the word of Pythagoras stronger than any demonstration. If both speakers and
listeners deemed the doctrines and instructions of Pythagoras sufficient for belief,
who is then so foolish or rather quite moonstruck to doubt the God of the universe
in his teaching, and neither to believe his words nor to impart to the God of
the universe as much veneration as was accorded to Pythagoras by those who were
recipients of his teaching? How is it not pitiful, my dear friends, that whilst Plato
recommends to believe undoubtingly even in poets, you rage against us, since it is
evident that we exhort you to believe in God the teacher?!
Furthermore, even if the teachings of various philosophers differed (and
Theodoret goes on to present some of these differences at toilsome length),
“despite speaking differently, each of the groups [of teachers] had some
who believed what they said”.!? This was again due to their faith, i.e. their
confidence in their own teacher. Consequently, faith is the very path which
leads to initiation:
The Sicilian poet Theognis also advocates the nourishment of faith [tov tpdgipov
TÂS Miotews] and says, “The man of faith [or the trustworthy/faithful man], Cyrnos,
is worth his weight in gold and silver in times of grievous dissension”.
The expression “the nourishment of faith’ is commonplace enough in
Theodoret. According to the basic meaning of the term, Theodoret considers
Christians as “having been raised in faith”, and as a result, having received
1 Theodoret, Curatio I, 54—57.
2 Theodoret, Curatio I, 64.
Theodoret, Curatio I, 69. See also Eusebius, Praeparatio evangelica XII, 2, 2. The guotation is
from Theognis, Elegiae, 1, 77-8 in D. Young (ed.), Theognis Elegiae, second edition, Leipzig,
Teubner, 1971.
Theodoret uses the same expression in De Trinitate 3 (Patrologia Graeca, henceforth: PG
75, 1149D), in his Letter 92 to Anatolius (Sources Chrétiennes, henceforth: SC 98, 244),
in the Commentary on the Psalms (PG 80, 860), on Galatians (PG 82, 477), as well as in
Haereticarum fabularum compendium (PG 83, 525 and 537).
+ 84 +
Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 84 6 2020. 06.15. 11:04:14