God's Omnipresence in Jewish and Christian Platonism: From Philo to Origen

With special reference to authors who were active in Alexandria in the period first century bce-third century ce, this chapter shows that an original conception of divine omnipresence emerges in Jewish and Christian thought at this time, resulting from the conflation and reformulation of two fundamental principles in the Greek philosophical tradition. Such principles are the Stoic doctrine of the logos and the Platonic theory of participation of Ideas by sensible things. The resulting conception of divine omnipresence combines the philosophical view of a transcendent godness (that is, totally separated from the world) with the biblical view of a demiurgic godness (that is, involved in a relation of creation towards the world and active ruling over the universe). This 'hybrid' conception is part and parcel of the Alexandrians' broader attempt to harmonize classical Greek philosophy with an allegorical reading of the scriptures.