Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 8

Consider the reasoning of our faith in this way: from the beginning there is one Creator of this universe, and he is God. If two or more gods had existed from the beginning, they would either have been in one and the same place or each would have been separate. They could not have been in one and the same place, not because they would be similar gods, but because they are uncreated, and uncreated things are dissimilar; they have come neither from something nor toward something. Created things resemble their patterns, but uncreated things do not. If they were like a hand, an eye, and a foot that are parts around one body and complete it together, would that make God one? Yet Socrates, though created, perishable, composed, and divisible into parts, is not like God; God is uncreated, impassive, and indivisible, and therefore does not consist of parts.

But if each god were separate, then where is the other god—or the rest—given that the Maker of the world exists above the things that have come to be and exercises providence over all he made and adorned? If the world has been completed as a sphere and is enclosed by the circles of heaven, and the Creator of the world holds it in his providence from above the things that have been made, what place remains for the other god or gods? He cannot be in the world, because the world belongs to another; he cannot be around the world, because the Creator of the world, God, is above it. If he is neither in the world nor around it—since everything around the world is held by the Creator—then where is he? Above the world and above God? In another world or around another? But if he is in another world or around another, he is no longer around us, for he does not rule this world, nor is he himself powerful, since he would be confined to a limited place. If he is not in another world—because all things have been filled by the Creator—nor around another—because all things are held by the Creator—then he does not exist, having no place in which to exist.

What would he do, while another exists in whom the world is, and he himself is above the Maker of the world, yet is neither in the world nor around it? Is there something else so that he may stand somewhere? But God is above him and the things of God. What place will remain, since the Creator has filled all things above the world? Does he provide? Yet he has made nothing unless he provides. If he neither makes nor provides, and there is no other place in which he exists, then this one—from the beginning and alone—is the Creator of the world, God.