University of Zanjan Philosophical Meditations 2228-5253 Articles in Press 2026 04 25 The etymology of the concept of God based on natural theology in the thought of the late Stoics The etymology of the concept of God based on natural theology in the thought of the late Stoics 727578 10.30470/phm.2025.2044955.2600 FA Majid Yarian Koupaei Assistant professor, faculty member of philosophy department of Zanjan University. 0009-0006-5064-4420 Negar Ezhari Jenekanloo Master's student in Philosophy of Religion, Zanjan University. Raham Sharaf Associate Professor, member of the Faculty of Philosophy, Zanjan University. Journal Article 2024 11 04 The purpose of this article is to investigate the central role of the etymology of the concept of God in the natural theology of the late Stoics, a theology that does not only deal with the details and physical aspects of cosmic processes, but also focuses on the overall coherence, teleology and providential plan that governs it. By reinterpreting the existing religious beliefs, the Stoics paved the way for what they thought was real religion, that is, they always followed their pantheistic and hallozoic conception of the universe, from etymology to discover the various manifestations of God under various titles such as; Intellect, nature, pneuma, etc. used in the world. Therefore, the main claim of this article is to show that in the Stoicism of the late period and even before that, etymology was not simply a study of the history of words, but rather etymology had a triple role in the following way: Firstly, it was a means of worshiping God, because for Stoics, studying the names of gods was equivalent to searching for God, secondly, it was a method of interpreting poetry, and finally, there was a tool for transformation, which in this article, the writer is looking for an etymological research in the theological dimension and Stoic existence. The purpose of this article is to investigate the central role of the etymology of the concept of God in the natural theology of the late Stoics, a theology that does not only deal with the details and physical aspects of cosmic processes, but also focuses on the overall coherence, teleology and providential plan that governs it. By reinterpreting the existing religious beliefs, the Stoics paved the way for what they thought was real religion, that is, they always followed their pantheistic and hallozoic conception of the universe, from etymology to discover the various manifestations of God under various titles such as; Intellect, nature, pneuma, etc. used in the world. Therefore, the main claim of this article is to show that in the Stoicism of the late period and even before that, etymology was not simply a study of the history of words, but rather etymology had a triple role in the following way: Firstly, it was a means of worshiping God, because for Stoics, studying the names of gods was equivalent to searching for God, secondly, it was a method of interpreting poetry, and finally, there was a tool for transformation, which in this article, the writer is looking for an etymological research in the theological dimension and Stoic existence.