Made to Know God, Men Turned to Idols

God, who has power over all things, when he was making the human race through his own Word, saw the weakness of their nature: that it was not sufficient of itself to know its Maker, or to get any idea of God at all. For he was uncreated, while the creatures had been made out of nothing; he was without a body, while men had been formed in a lower way, in the body; and in every way the things made fell far short of being able to grasp and know their Maker. Taking pity, I say, on the human race, since he is good, he did not leave them without the knowledge of himself, so that they would not find their very existence profitless. For what profit would the creatures have if they did not know their Maker? Or how could they be rational without knowing the Word, the Reason, of the Father, in whom they received their very being? There would be nothing to distinguish them even from animals without reason if they knew nothing but earthly things. Indeed, why would God have made them at all, if he did not wish to be known by them? So, to keep this from happening, being good, he gives them a share in his own Image, our Lord Jesus Christ, and makes them after his own image and after his likeness. Then, by such grace perceiving the Image, that is, the Word of the Father, they might be able through him to get an idea of the Father, and, knowing their Maker, live the happy and truly blessed life. [a]

But men once again, in their perversity, despised the grace given them in spite of all this. They turned away from God so completely, and so darkened their souls, that they not only forgot their idea of God but also fashioned one invention after another for themselves. Not only did they carve idols for themselves in place of the truth, and honor things that did not exist above the living God, “and serve the creature rather than the Creator,” but, worst of all, they transferred the honor due to God even to blocks of wood and stones, to every material object, and to men. And they went even further than this, as we said in the former treatise. So far did their ungodliness go that they went on to worship demons and proclaim them gods, satisfying their own cravings. For, as was said above, they performed offerings of animals and sacrifices of men, as was fitting for them, binding themselves down all the faster under their frenzied inspirations. This is also why magic arts were taught among them, and oracles in various places led men astray, and all men credited the influences on their birth and existence to the stars and all the heavenly bodies, with no thought of anything beyond what could be seen. In a word, everything was full of impiety and lawlessness, and God alone, and his Word, was unknown. Yet he had not hidden himself from men’s sight, nor given the knowledge of himself in one way only. On the contrary, he had unfolded it to them in many forms and by many ways.