Chapter Th to Theist, Deist, Atheist, Agnostic of T by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

Theban Legion The legion raised in the Thebaïs of Egypt, and composed of Christian soldiers, led by St. Maurice. This legion is sometimes called “the Thundering Legion” (q.v.).

Thebes (1 syl.), called The Hundred-Gated, was not Thebes of Boeotia, but of Thebaïs of Egypt, which extended over twenty-three miles of land. Homer says out of each gate the Thebans could send forth 200 war - chariots. (Egyptian, Taape or Taouab, city of the sun.)

“The world's great empress on the Egyptian plain,
That spreads her conquests o'er a thousand states,
And pours her heroes through a hundred gates,
Two hundred horsemen and two hundred cars
From each wide portal issuing to the wars.”
Pope: Iliad, 1.

Thecla (St.), styled in Greek martyrologies the proto-martyress, as St. Stephen is the proto-martyr. All that is known of her is from a book called the Periods, or Acts of Paul and Theela, pronounced apocryphal by Pope Gelasius, and unhappily lost. According to the legend, Thecla was born of a noble family in Iconium, and was converted by the preaching of St. Paul.

Theist, Deist, Atheist, Agnostic A theist believes there is a God who made and governs all creation; but does not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, nor in a divine revelation.
   A deist believes there is a God who created all things, but does not believe in His superintendence and government. He thinks the Creator implanted in all things certain immutable laws, called the Laws of Nature, which act per se, as a watch acts without the supervision of its maker. Like the theist, he does not believe in the doctrine of the Trinity, nor in a divine revelation.
   The atheist disbelieves even the existence of a God. He thinks matter is eternal, and what we call “creation” is the result of natural laws.
   The agnostic believes only what is knowable. He rejects revelation and the doctrine of the Trinity as “past human understanding.” He is neither theist, deist, nor atheist, as all these are past understanding.