Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 7

Even if they refuse to admit it, almost everyone agrees that the divine is one when they reach the first principles of all things. We, however, maintain that the One who ordered this whole universe is God. So why are others free to say and write whatever they wish about the divine, while we who possess the truth, who think and have rightly believed that one God exists, are bound by a law forbidding us to demonstrate this with signs of truth and reasoned arguments? For poets and philosophers, like everyone else, approached the question thoughtfully. Moved by a sympathy with the breath from God within each soul, they sought to find and understand the truth, if possible. Yet they only managed to speculate; they never found it. They did not ask to learn about God from God, but from themselves. Consequently, each one dogmatized differently about God, matter, forms, and the world. We, on the other hand, have prophets as witnesses to what we think and believe. Inspired by the Spirit, they have spoken out about God and the things of God. You yourselves would say it is irrational to abandon faith in the Spirit from God — who moved the mouths of the prophets like instruments — and instead pay attention to human opinions, since you surpass others in understanding and in reverence for what is truly divine.