Athenagoras, Plea for the Christians 15

Let the opponents keep their view. What follows? Since the multitude cannot distinguish matter from God, or define the boundary between them, they turn to idols made of matter. Must we who do distinguish and separate the unbegotten from the begotten, true being from non-being, the intelligible from the sensible, and assign to each its proper name, also draw near and worship statues? If matter and God are identical—two names for one reality—then by refusing to call stones, wood, gold, and silver gods we are impious. But if they are separated by an infinite distance, as far apart as the craftsman and the material he prepares for his art, what charge lies against us? Just as the potter is the craftsman and the clay is the matter, so God is the Creator and matter obeys Him for the work. Yet clay by itself cannot become vessels without the craftsman, and the all-receptive matter, apart from the Creator God, never received distinction, shape, and order. We do not value the ceramic above the potter, nor the cups and gold ornaments above the metalsmith; rather, when we praise the craftsman for the skill shown in them, he is the one who receives the glory for the vessels. Likewise, regarding matter and the ordering of adorned things, the glory and due honor belong not to matter but to its Creator, God. Therefore, if we treated the forms of matter as gods, we would show ourselves ignorant of the true God’s glory, equating the perishable and corruptible with the eternal.