Editing Tatian (section)

== Theology ==
The starting-point of Tatian's theology is a strict monotheism which becomes the source of the moral life. Originally, the human soul possessed faith in one God, but lost it with the fall. In consequence, under the rule of demons, man sank into the abominable error of polytheism. By monotheistic faith, the soul is delivered from the material world and from demonic rule and is united with God. God is spirit (''pneuma''), but not the physical or [[Pneuma (Stoic)|stoical ''pneuma;'']] he was alone before the creation, but he had within himself potentially the whole creation.  Some scholars consider Tatian's creation theology as the beginning of teaching "ex nihilo" (creation from "nothing").<ref>Edwin Hatch, The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church, 195–196.  '' The basis of the theory [ex nihilo] was Platonic, though some of the terms were borrowed from both Aristotle and the Stoics. It became itself the basis for the theory which ultimately prevailed in the Church. The transition appears in Tatian [ca. 170 A.D.]''</ref>

The means of creation was the ''dynamis logike'' ("power expressed in words"). At first there
proceeded from God the [[Logos]] who, generated in the beginning, was to produce the world by creating matter from which the whole creation sprang. Creation is penetrated by the ''pneuma hylikon'', "world spirit," which is common to angels, stars, men, animals, and plants. This world spirit is lower than the divine ''pneuma,'' and becomes in man the ''psyche'' or "soul," so that on the material side and in his soul man does not differ essentially from the animals; though at the same time he is called to a peculiar union with the divine spirit, which raises him above the animals. This spirit is the image of God in man, and to it man's immortality is due.

The first-born of the spirits (identified with [[Satan]]) [[Fallen angel|fell]] and caused others to fall, and thus the demons originated. The fall of the spirits was brought about through their desire to separate man from God, in order that he might serve not God but them. Man, however, was implicated in this fall, lost his blessed abode and his soul was deserted by the divine spirit, and sank into the material sphere, in which only a faint reminiscence of God remained alive.

As by freedom man fell, so by freedom he may turn again to God. The Spirit unites with the souls of those who walk uprightly; through the prophets he reminds men of their lost likeness to God. Although Tatian does not mention the name of Jesus, his doctrine of redemption culminates in his [[Christology]].