STOIC THEOLOGY AND PROVIDENTIALISM

This chapter examines the major theological claims articulated within the physical theory of the early Stoics, and the main lines of justification offered for these claims, with special reference to evidence preserved by Cicero. The Stoics take every human to have a natural preconception of godhood; and the ultimate source of this preconception is (they maintain) the cosmos itself, in its entirety. To confirm this identification of the cosmos as a divine being, they argue that the cosmos is an organism, animated and controlled by a unifying nature; and that this nature, insofar as it constitutes the cosmos as a perfectly rational agent, is divine. The cosmic order is moreover administered by divine providence: here the Stoics deploy an influential argument from design. Stoic views about the value of the cosmic order and the role of human beings (mortal rational animals) within it are then discussed, as well as the complicated legacy of Stoic theology.