Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 7

Nearly everyone agrees, even against their will, that a single divine principle underlies the origins of all things; we insist that the One who ordered the whole world is this God. Why, then, are others free to speak and write about the divine as they please, while we who both understand and rightly believe are bound by a law to demonstrate by signs of truth and reason that one God exists? Poets and philosophers, like everyone else, approached these matters thoughtfully. Moved by a kinship with the breath from God, each one's own soul stirred them to seek and, if possible, find and grasp the truth. Yet they only managed to speculate; they never found it, because 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, however, have prophets as witnesses to what we understand and believe. Inspired by the divine Spirit, they proclaimed the truth about God and the things of God. You yourselves would say the same: surpassing others in understanding and in reverence for the truly divine, you would call it irrational to abandon faith in the Spirit from God, who moved the prophets' mouths like instruments, and instead pay attention to human opinions.