The demiurge is a concept that appears in mythology, philosophy, and Christian theology. In each of these cultural areas, it acquires its own meaning and features, however, the word "creator" can be considered a common synonym for the demiurge.
Demiurge is a Greek word that arose from demos (people) and urgos (work), as a result, its translation is the one who created people, the creator of humanity.
Demiurge in mythology
Mythology calls the demiurge a craftsman, blacksmith, potter, weaver. The myths of individual peoples tell about their individual demiurges, who showed their qualities not only as masters and workers, but also as divine creatures. So, in Greek mythology, Hephaestus (the patron saint of blacksmithing) made a shield that personified an example of the creation of the world, and in Finnish mythology Seppo Ilmarinen (the god of air and weather) created the sun and the moon through blacksmithing. In Hinduism, the demiurge is represented as Vishvakarman - the creator of the world, and in the culture of Ancient Egypt gods Khnum and Ptah appear, Khnum piled a person on a potter's wheel, and Ptah created the world with the help of language and heart. In a number of mythologies, the demiurge is described as the creator of not just the world, but the entire Universe, and the phenomena corresponding to it. According to some ideas, the demiurge takes the position of the leading assistant of the Creator of all that exists.
Demiurge in philosophy
In philosophy, the concept of the demiurge appeared thanks to Plato, who describes how the demiurge created the entire visible cosmos, and interprets the artisan as "Mind", which creates by ordering matter, and he himself does not create this matrix, but simply forms the world from what is already there is. Alkinoy refers the demiurge to the part of God that thinks under the pressure of divine mechanisms and properties of Mind. In the 2nd century AD, the Neo-Pythagorean philosopher from Greece, Numenius Apameisky, calls the demiurge the second god who is engaged in both the formation of divine ideas and the practical creation of the world from matter under the influence of Mind, from which divine ideas emanate.
Demiurge in Christian Theology
In Christian theology, the demiurge is God, the Creator, etc., that is, the one who arranged everything in this world and even beyond. In this vein, the demiurge can be considered both a free artist who himself created everything that he invented, and a master who formed the world and all its components from ready-made materials. In patristics, the term demiurge is applied both to the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit as a whole, as well as calling each part of the Divine Trinity a demiurge. Basil of Caesarea, who lived in the 4th century, argued that the concept of a demiurge refers primarily to the Son, since he created everything under the influence of the Father, who embodied spiritual thought, which the Son transformed in a practical way, while the Holy Spirit performed the function of accomplishment, then is the completion created by the Father and the Son.