Summa Theologica

But against this is what is said (Wisd. XIV, 14): This emptiness of men brought idols into the world.

CONCLUSION. — The cause of idolatry could have been, in part, from men, whether by an inordinate affection, or by the delight in representation, or by ignorance: but the consummating cause of it were the demons, who presented themselves to be worshipped by men in the images of idols, by doing some things that appeared wonderful to them.

I answer that there is a twofold cause of idolatry: one is a dispositive cause, and this was on the part of men, and this in three ways: first, from an inordination of affection, insofar as men, either loving or venerating someone too much, bestowed divine honor upon him. And this cause is assigned (Wisd. XIV, 15): For a father afflicted with bitter grief made an image for his son quickly taken away, and him who then had died as a man, he now began to worship as a god: and it is also added in the same place that men, serving either affection or kings, imposed the incommunicable name, namely, of Divinity, upon wood and stone. Second, because man naturally delights in representation, as the Philosopher says (Poetica, ch. 2, in the beginning), and therefore unlearned men from the beginning, seeing images of men made expressively through the diligence of craftsmen, bestowed the cult of Divinity upon them: whence it is said (Wisd. XIII, 2): If some craftsman, a smith, having cut a straight piece of wood from the forest, and by the skill of his art shapes it, and makes it like the image of a man, making a vow of his substance, and his children, and his nuptials, he inquires. Third, because of ignorance of the true God, whose excellence men not considering, bestowed the cult of Divinity upon certain creatures, on account of their beauty or virtue; whence it is said (Wisd. XIII, 1): Neither by attending to the works did they know who was the craftsman, but thought either fire, or spirit, or swift air, or the circle of the stars, or great water, or the sun, or the moon, the rulers of the world, to be gods. But another, the consummating cause of idolatry, was on the part of the demons, who presented themselves to be worshipped by erring men, by giving answers in idols, and by doing some things which seemed wonderful to men; whence also (Ps. XCVI, 5) it is said: All the gods of the gentiles are demons.

To the first, therefore, it must be said that the dispositive cause of idolatry was on the part of man, a defect of nature, whether through ignorance of the intellect, or through inordination of affection, as has been said (in the body of the article), and this also pertains to guilt. However, idolatry is said to be the cause, the beginning, and the end of all sin, because there is no genus of sin that idolatry does not sometimes produce, either by expressly inducing it by way of a cause, or by offering an occasion by way of a beginning, or by way of an end, insofar as certain sins were assumed into the cult of idols; such as the killing of men, the mutilation of limbs, and other such things; and yet some sins can precede idolatry, which dispose the man toward it.

To the second, it must be said that in the first age there was no idolatry because of the recent memory of the creation of the world, from which the knowledge of one God still flourished in the minds of men; but in the sixth age, idolatry has been excluded by the virtue and doctrine of Christ, who triumphed over the devil.

To the third, it must be said that that reasoning proceeds regarding the consummating cause of idolatry.