Heraclitus' Theology: A Case Study of Divine Omnipresence in Early Greek Thought

The early Greek philosophers pioneered important philosophical and theological concepts that are still with us today. The concept of omnipresence is a case in point. Thales is reported to have said that ‘all things are full of gods’. Anaximander states that a boundless substance ‘contains all things and steers all things’; Xenophanes that God is immobile but shakes all things with his mind; Anaxagoras that ‘everything is in everything’. With respect to specifically divine omnipresence, it isn’t until Heraclitus that we find a clear and robust commitment to an omnipresent God. What sets Heraclitus’ theology apart from his predecessors’ is that it is more developed and integrated into a holistic metaphysical worldview. Heraclitus also invented a philosophically rich metaphor for the mode of divine omnipresence in the world: oil-spice mixture. This chapter offers an examination of Heraclitus’ theology and explores its relation to the concept of divine omnipresence in philosophical-theology.