Revelation, Rationality, Knowledge & Truth — Page 92
GREEK PHILOSOPHY. However when he speaks of his own experience, he totally discards the plurality and begins to refer to one God. 917 'I believe that no greater good has ever come to you in the city than this service of mine to the god. (Note the singleness of God in relation to the mission bestowed to him. ). His religio-political philosophy was always at one with the universal trend of Divine teachings. No prophet of. God is recorded in history to have risen in revolt against the law of the land, but when the state interfered with his obedience to God, he unhesitatingly rejected the state power without fear and followed the dictates of God. . The same was the philosophy of Socrates. He was absolutely loyal to the state but when loyalty to the state contradicted his loyalty to God, the only conclusion he drew for himself was to discard the lesser loyalty for the sake of the higher one which was due only to the Creator. . Addressing the senate which was about to convict him to death, he spoke of this with unperturbed composure and dignity: ". . . Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy. . . ' 18 (Note that Jowett always writes ‘God' with a capital 'G' when he relates Him to Socrates. ). When the Athenians offered him release from the death penalty on the condition that he should stop 'corrupting' the youth of Athens by instigating them to defy the Athenian gods and obey his own, Socrates refused them outright. There is a long discourse on this issue between him and Meletus, his chief prosecutor. During this, Meletus insists that his defiance of Athenian gods, 92