The First Apology

We also do not honor with many sacrifices and garlands of flowers the deities that people have made and placed in shrines, calling them gods. We understand these are soulless and dead and do not have the form of God (for we do not believe that God has a form that some claim to imitate in His honor), but rather have the names and forms of those wicked demons that have appeared. Why should we explain to you, who already know, into what forms craftsmen, through carving, cutting, casting, and hammering, shape the materials? Often, from objects of dishonor, simply by changing the form and creating an image of the desired shape, they make what they call a god. We find this not only senseless but also insulting to God, who, possessing ineffable glory and form, has His name attached to things that are corruptible and require constant service. You know very well that the makers of these are both intemperate and skilled in every vice, without detailing further; they even corrupt their own women who work with them. What madness! Dissolute men are said to create and fashion gods for your worship, and yet you appoint them as guardians of the temples where these gods are enshrined, not realizing that it is improper even to think or say that men are the guardians of gods.