The Idea of God in Philo's philosophy

This article is about to resolve the apparent contradiction in Philo's discourse on theology. This contradiction is due to two aspects of Philo's character: his faith in Judaism and his belief in Plato's philosophy.The author holds that Philo's transcendent theology, which takes God as much transcending Plato's ideas and even the highest idea, brought about a new change in the idea of God in the Greek philosophers. Philo did, however, make use of Stoicism in order to reconcile the Omnipresence and panentheism (anthropomorphism) with the transcendence (deanthropomorphization or that He is the other wholly) of God Who transcends the whole creatures.The two above-mentioned sides, according to Brehier, are not in one and the same level, but one is above the other. It means that God is absolute in His True Reality. When construing Him as the creator and the like, we, nevertheless, consider Him as having some kind of relation with the creatures and ascribe to Him some similar attributes.