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Reply to Faustus the Manichaean

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Faustus said: Do we believe in one God or in two? In one, of course. If we are accused of making two gods, I reply that it cannot be shown that we ever said anything of the kind. Why do you suspect us of this? Because, you say, you believe in two principles, good and evil. It is true, we believe in two principles; but one we call God, and the other Hyle, or, to use common popular language, the devil. If you think this means two gods, you may as well think that the health and sickness of which doctors speak are two kinds of health, or that good and evil are two kinds of good, or that wealth and poverty are two kinds of wealth. If I were describing two things, one white and the other black, or one hot and the other cold, or one sweet and the other bitter, it would appear like idiocy or insanity in you to say that I was describing two white things, or two hot things, or two sweet things. So, when I assert that there are two principles, God and Hyle, you have no reason for saying that I believe in two gods. Do you think that we must call them both gods because we attribute, as is proper, all the power of evil to Hyle, and all the power of good to God? If so, you may as well say that a poison and the antidote must both be called antidotes, because each has a power of its own, and certain effects follow from the action of both. So also, you may say that a physician and a poisoner are both physicians; or that a just and an unjust man are both just, because both do something. If this is absurd, it is still more absurd to say that God and Hyle must both be gods, because they both produce certain effects. It is a very childish and impotent way of arguing, when you cannot refute my statements, to make a quarrel about names. I grant that we, too, sometimes call the hostile nature God; not that we believe it to be God, but that this name is already adopted by the worshippers of this nature, who in their error suppose it to be God. Thus the apostle says: "The god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not." ¹ He calls him God, because he would be so called by his worshippers; adding that he blinds their minds, to show that he is not the true God.

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Contra Faustum Manichaeum libri triginta tres

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Faustus dixit: _Unus deus est an duo?_Plane unus. p. 568,10 Quomodo ergo vos duos asseritis? Numquam in nostris quidem assertionibus duorum deorum auditum est nomen. Sed tu unde hoc suspicaris, cupio scire. Quia bonorum et malorum duo principia traditis. Est quidem, quod duo principia confitemur, sed unum ex his deum vocamus, alterum hylen, aut, ut communiter et usitate dixerim, daemonem. Quodsi tu hoc putas duos significare deos, poteris et medico disputante de infirmitate atque sanitate duas easdem putare sanitates; et cum quis bonum nominat et malum, tu poteris eadem duo putare bona; et copiam audiens atque egestatem duas easdem putabis copias. Quid si et de albo et nigro disputante me et frigido et calido et dulci et amaro dicas, quia duo alba et duo calida et duo dulcia ostenderim? p. 568,22 Nonne videberis mentis incompos et cerebri minime sani? Sic et cum duo principia doceo, deum et hylen, non idcirco videri iam debeo tibi duos ostendere deos. An quia vim omnem maleficam hyle assignamus et beneficam deo, ut congruit, idcirco nihil interesse putas, an utrumque eorum vocemus deum? Quod si ita est, poteris et venenum audiens et antidotum nihil interesse putare, an utrumque vocetur antidotum, quia utrumque eorum vim suam habeat, utrumque agat aliquid et operetur. Necnon et medicum audiens ac venenarium utrosque vocabis medicos, et iustum audiens atque iniustum poteris utrosque vocare iustos, quia uterque eorum aliquid agat. Quodsi hoc facere absurdum est, quanto absurdius deum et hylen idcirco duos putare deos, quia eorum quisque aliquid operetur? p. 569,8 Quapropter inepta haec et viribus satis effeta argumentatio est, ut quia de re mihi respondere non possis, de solis nominibus confles invidiam. Nam nec diffiteor etiam interdum nos adversam naturam nuncupare deum, sed non hoc secundum nostram fidem, verum iuxta praesumptum iam in eam nomen a cultoribus suis, qui eam imprudenter existimant deum, quemadmodum et apostolus deus inquit saeculi huius excaecavit mentes infidelium, deum quidem nominans, quia sic iam vocaretur a suis, sed adiciens, quod mentes excaecet, ut ex hoc intellegatur non esse verus deus.