Oldal 86 [86]
OCR
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
