In the last lecture we traced the growth of Christianity through the
three stages that are represented in the New Testament, and we saw
that when the new religion passed beyond the bounds of Palestine and
entered on a campaign for converts among the Gentiles, it came into
contact with Greek philosophic thought and perforce began to state its
doctrines in terms which should be intelligible to educated men. For
in spite of the fact that the majority of its adherents—like those
of every other contemporary religion—were naturally of humble birth
and station, it is certain that from the first it appealed also to men
of position and education, and that such were among its followers.
Therefore when it put forth its claims to be the universal religion, it
had to meet and satisfy the demands of the intellectual classes.
Not only were the various forms of Greek philosophy rivals of
Christianity, but the oriental mysteries also proved serious opponents.
In our discussion of the most important of these mystery religions
in an earlier lecture we tried to show the reasons for the wide
appeal which they made during the first two centuries and a half of
our era. Christianity therefore had to offer a greater assurance and
satisfaction than these religions if it was to make headway against
them. Thus Christianity was forced to meet two classes of opponents.
But it was inevitable that while the new religion was seeking to
influence the environment into which it had come, it should itself be
influenced by the world it had entered. No living belief or institution
can exist without being affected by the life of which it is a part.
Christianity accordingly ran many dangers, received many accretions,
and was in some ways transformed during the first few centuries of its
history. In this final lecture we shall consider briefly, by means of
significant illustrations, first, the way in which Christianity during
the second and third centuries accommodated itself to the intellectual
world; secondly, the influence which the pagan environment had on
Christian thought; and finally, the causes of its triumph.
By the beginning of the second century it was evident that in its
conflict with pagan polytheism and philosophy Christianity could hope
to win the victory only by taking into itself the fundamental elements
of that intellectual life and civilization which the Greco-Roman world
had been establishing through centuries. Its claim that the gospel
was universal, that it solved the deepest mysteries and satisfied the
highest human aspirations, inevitably brought it into the arena of
contemporaneous life. It not only was obliged to defend itself in terms
current in Greek thought, and to carry on a successful polemic against
polytheism, but it had to prove that it offered the fullest, indeed the
only true satisfaction of that longing for salvation which men felt.
From these necessities of attack and defense came the Greek Apologists
of the second century, the most important of whom were Aristides,
Justin, Tatian, and Athenagoras.
Moreover as the Christian communities multiplied, their members were
exposed to many influences which tended to injure or destroy the unity
and purity of their belief, so that for self-protection Christianity
was forced to develop a formal statement of its faith, that is, to
create a dogmatic theology. By formal dogma the common doctrine of
the church could be maintained comparatively unimpaired and at the
same time the faith could be made intelligible and attractive to the
learned of the pagan world. But to give philosophic expression to
Christianity’s beliefs meant the Hellenization of this religion.
The Gnostics—to whom we shall presently return—were perhaps the
first to undertake the construction of a Christian theology, but their
aberrations were so extreme and violent that the growing church had
to rid itself of them so far as possible. The work of building up a
dogmatic system was carried on more slowly in the great catechetical
school of Alexandria.
We have already seen the beginning of both the apologetic and the
theological movements in the Pauline and Johannine writings of the New
Testament. Let us now consider the work of the Apologists of the second
century.
These defenders were all educated converts; indeed some of them, like
Aristides and Athenagoras, called themselves philosophers. Naturally
they did not give up their philosophic custom when they went over to
Christianity, but rather applied their intellectual habit to their
new faith. We should be wrong, however, in thinking that they wished
to reconcile Greek philosophy and Christianity; on the contrary they
wished to show that Christianity was the only true philosophy. Still
all, with the exception of Tatian, treated Greek philosophy and
civilization with respect and were ready to recognize God’s revelations
among the Greeks as well as the Jews. They labored, however, with the
fundamental antagonism between revelation and reason, and were often
obliged somewhat illogically to blame Greek thinkers while praising
them. Yet the sway of Hellenic philosophy was so complete and the means
of defense which it furnished so powerful, that the Christians readily
disregarded logical difficulties and gladly used the weapons which
pagan thought had forged.
It is impossible here to distinguish in full detail the contributions
of the several Apologists; we must therefore be content with a
summarized statement of their positions.
First of all they accepted the historic tradition of the person, work,
and teachings of Christ as authentic, and made no attempt to enlarge or
diminish that tradition. They endeavored rather to present Christianity
as a rational religion in such a way as to win the approval of the
intellectual world. As Harnack says: “These Christian philosophers
formulated the content of the Gospel in a manner which appealed to the
common sense of all the serious thinkers and intelligent men of the
age. Moreover, they contrived to use the positive material of
tradition, including the life and worship of Christ, in such a way as
to furnish this reasonable religion with a confirmation and proof that
had hitherto been eagerly sought, but sought in vain.”[336]
They all set forth Christianity as a revelation from God, given in
the Old Testament through the inspired prophets, who had foretold
the supreme revelation in Jesus Christ. Christianity therefore was
something which had existed from the beginning of the world; it
was a thing which revelation had continuously attested, and which
consequently was ultimate truth.[337] According to Justin not only the
prophets of the Old Testament but also the Greek philosophers had borne
witness to the truth and had been in a measure Christians. This power
of insight and of prophecy he would ascribe in the latter case as in
the former to the operation of the reason of God, a seed of which was
granted to every man by nature; all therefore that was reasonable in
Greek thought was due to divine inspiration. He found the cause of
the Greeks’ failure to expound the whole truth in the view that man’s
natural endowment was insufficient to enable him to resist the evil
demons which beset him.[338] Although Athenagoras did not say that every
man had within him a germ of the divine wisdom, he no less than Justin
granted that the pagan poets and philosophers had known the truth in
part;[339] their errors had been due to their dependence on themselves.
The full truth then was to be found in revelation, which gave the
Apologists the sole and sufficient warrant of their faith and the
complete rule of life.
But, as I have said, the Apologists represented Christianity as the one
valid philosophy. We must now examine briefly its principles.
First as to the nature of God. In dealing with this subject the
Apologists used a method of thought and of expression very much like
that employed by Philo and the later Platonists. They contrasted
God and the world: the latter they said was created, temporal, and
conditioned; the former, unconditioned, eternal, and self-existent;
the material world was apprehended by the senses, God by the mind and
reason alone.[340] God, therefore, to them was the One, pure spirit,
unchanging, requiring nothing. It followed from this idea of God that
he must be regarded as supramundane, if not transcendent. As a matter
of fact, these writers were perhaps unconsciously trying to reconcile
the personal attributes of God the Father, which the common Christian
faith ascribed to the Godhead, and the current concept of God as
a transcendent and ineffable being. A variety of expressions, too
numerous to be quoted here, was employed to suggest God’s exalted and
perfect nature. Furthermore God was not regarded as a passive, but as a
living and active spirit, who must express himself in creations; he was
therefore the First Cause, the Lord, Father, and Creator of all. The
perfection of his nature made him also the source of moral good.
The complete contrast between the perfect, supramundane God and the
imperfect, transient world required the Apologists, like the later
pagan philosophers, to postulate some agent connecting the two, and
they, like Philo and others, found this in the Logos, which to them
was the operative reason of God, regarded as a person. But there is
this significant fact to be noted, that the Apologists reached their
views with regard to God and the Logos from a contemplation of the
world itself in which they saw reason and order, and detected spiritual
forces working toward good ends. Therefore they believed that the world
was created and directed by God’s reason. Reflection on the chain of
rational causation had led them to their conclusions. But Philo and
the later Platonists we might say conceived of the Logos as a remedial
being, for through his mediation they saved the perfection of God from
contamination with evil matter. To the Apologists, however, matter was
only an indifferent finite substance.
The Logos, as the reason of God, was identical with God in essence; but
as a projection by God from himself, made for the purpose of creation
and revelation, the Logos had a being distinct from God, not in essence
but in number, so that he was a second God; yet at the same time the
Logos, being a mode of God, God’s operative reason, was included in
God; therefore no polytheistic ideas were admitted here.[341]
The Logos then was regarded as a creature and a servant of God, but he
was held to be above all other creatures, being one in essence with
the Divine. Moreover being created and therefore finite from the point
of view of time, the Logos could enter into the finite and thus do the
work of creation and revelation; by the Logos the world was made out of
finite matter, and man was endowed with reason and freedom of the will.
It is a striking fact, however, that with the exception of Justin, the
Apologists betray comparatively little interest in the incarnation
of the Logos in Jesus Christ. Their efforts were directed rather to
establishing against the pagan world their claim that God is One and
that the Logos is the operative reason of God which exercises his
powers. Furthermore they had little or nothing to say about the Holy
Spirit as a separate person, but for the most part they identified the
Logos and the Spirit.[342]
The problem of evil the Apologists solved by connecting it with a
belief in the freedom of choice given spirits or angels who chose to
depart from righteousness, and, thus becoming evil demons, have from
the first beset man and still do beset him with temptations which cause
him to sin. They regarded man, by virtue of his endowments of reason
and of freedom of the will, as capable of immortal life or of complete
death. The conditions of immortality were first, the maintenance of the
knowledge of God and of his relation through the Logos to the created
world, and secondly, persistence in a life aimed at moral perfection,
a life which followed after the Spirit and did not yield to the bodily
passions. In Tatian especially there is a distinct ascetic strain.[343]
The best exposition of man’s moral obligations the Apologists believed
to be found in the words of Jesus, but at the same time they agreed
in holding that the essential element in a life of virtue was a clear
knowledge of divine things through which man was at once raised above
the things of this world into a pure and noble existence. Thus man was
assured now of salvation, and in the future life was destined to enjoy
immortality and the perfection of knowledge which would come with the
direct vision of God.[344]
But such a doctrine presupposes a revelation of God. This, as I have
already pointed out, the Apologists said had been made in the beginning
by the Logos who disclosed himself in the created universe and in man
as a part thereof. Man, however, by yielding to sin, had lost that
divine knowledge which had been his through the original revelation,
with the result that repeated revelations had been necessary. The
agents of these had been the inspired prophets of the Old Testament
and to a slight degree the philosophers of Greece. The revelation of
the Logos in Jesus Christ was simply an attestation and guarantee of
the truths and predictions of the prophets, the highest stage in the
history of revelation, confirming that revelation without changing its
content in any way.
But all this is something very different from the teachings of Jesus,
or of Paul, or of the Fourth Gospel; indeed the relations of the
Apologists to Stoicism, to Philo and the later Platonists, seem fully
as close as to the New Testament. Of the writers in question Justin
alone—and he somewhat unsuccessfully—tried to set forth Jesus as the
redeemer in the strict sense of the word and to see in him a unique
revelation of the Logos.[345] Side by side with the tendency to seek
religious satisfaction in mysticism there existed even more strongly
in intellectual circles a desire to find the principles of right
conduct in a correct theory of the world. Such was, for example, the
aim of the Stoic. In attempting to satisfy this desire the Apologists
probably represented the views of the majority of educated Christians
of their day who felt that the noble morality of Christianity was its
most edifying characteristic; at any rate they knew that it was the
strongest argument for the validity of their religion.
* * * * *
We have already seen many times that the idea that supreme knowledge
was conferred by direct revelation and that such knowledge led to
perfection was widespread not only among later Greek thinkers and
Hellenized Jews like Philo, but also among the devotees of the oriental
mysteries. Lucius, the hero of Apuleius’ Metamorphoses, believed that
through the rites of initiation into the mysteries of Isis he had
been allowed to see the gods face to face and to acquire a knowledge
which only such revelation could convey.[346] Magical papyri describe
their contents as knowledge (γνῶσις), meaning thereby the supernatural
knowledge which they impart. From the other extreme we can cite the
case of the Apostle Paul, who claimed that his knowledge and the gospel
which he preached had come to him not from man, but “by the revelation
of Jesus Christ.”[347] It was then a common belief of the day that
through direct revelation one might obtain a secret knowledge (γνῶσις)
of divine things which no teaching could give. Such a revelation,
however gained, was recognized as an act of grace toward men, whereby
they attained salvation.
It was this idea of a secret revealed knowledge which gave the name of
Gnostic to a series of movements in the early Christian centuries to
which we must now turn.
The Gnostics never formed any single community or school, but they
comprised groups which exhibited the greatest diversity and range of
beliefs and of morals; the most famous and influential individuals
were Basilides, who taught at Alexandria in the time of Hadrian, and
Valentinus, who was active at Rome in the middle of the second century
(c. 140-c. 165). Gnosticism did not originate within Christianity,
but rather antedated it. All its forms arose from some combination of
oriental religions and mythologies with Greek modes of philosophic
thought, which in many ways remind one of later Neoplatonism. When
Christianity was taken into the Gnostic systems, it was inevitable
that it should be modified, reshaped, and stated in forms which might
contain gross error. Yet it would be a mistake to regard the Gnostics
as fundamentally foes of Christianity. Even if we cannot go so far
as Harnack and call them “the theologians of the first century,”
and attribute to them the first place in the early formation of a
Christian theology,[348] we must recognize that they did a great, and
in some ways a permanent, service to the new faith. They were seekers
after a philosophy of history; they interpreted Christianity as the
religion which replaced both paganism and Judaism, and they held that
the appearance of the redeemer had completed the development of the
human race and had consummated the history of the universe. Such a
view, which in itself was quite in accord with the views of Christians
generally, led the Gnostics to reject the Old Testament because it was
supplanted by the new revelation; the Apostolic writings they believed
to contain first of all the rule of faith when taken at their face
value, and secondly to hold a secret and deeper meaning, which could
be obtained only by allegorical, that is, by esoteric interpretation.
But thus far the Gnostics and the mass of Christians were still in
essential agreement, although the latter held to faith (πίστις) as the
basic element in their religion, while the former exalted knowledge
(γνῶσις) above it.
The Christians, however, commonly believed the world to be the creation
of God and wholly subject to him, as we just now saw when examining
the position of the Apologists. The Gnostics on the other hand almost
universally adopted some form of dualism which set off God and matter
against each other as more or less independent entities. In matter
they saw the basis of evil; at the other pole was the perfect supreme
Being who was wholly transcendent, above all thought; from this Being,
according to Basilides, proceeded a series of emanations, no less
than three hundred and sixty-five in number, the lowest of which were
the angels who occupy the visible heaven; they were the creators and
rulers of all things on earth. The chief of these angels was the God
of the Jews, as he was made known in the Old Testament.[349] Valentinus,
too, described a series of thirty Eons, descended from the perfect,
pre-existent Eon and his feminine counterpart, Ennoea, in which appear
fantastic combinations of abstract ideas, mathematical concepts, and
conjugal relations, betraying the manifold origin of this bizarre
system.[350] Yet such doctrines represent only extravagant efforts to
bridge the gap between a transcendent God and the world, a task which
Philo and the later Platonists accomplished in a more restrained manner.
The common Gnostic explanation of the origin of the universe was
that the cosmos arose from the descent into matter of some sparks of
the divine. The Creator of the cosmos, the Demiurge, was regarded as
an intermediate creature, sometimes as an evil one; but he is never
identical with the supreme Being.[351]
Man, also, in their views, was a dual creature, made up of corruptible
flesh and divine spirit. Some Gnostics also divided mankind into two
classes: the spiritual who were capable of salvation, and the material
who were doomed to perish. The Valentinians, however, conceived of
three kinds, corresponding to the three forms of existence found
throughout the world: the spiritual, the animal, and the material. Of
these the material men were predestined to destruction; the animal by
right choice might find rest in an “intermediate space”; but the
spiritual were to attain perfection and become “as brides to the angels
of the Saviour.”[352] The Gnostics of course were spiritual and destined
for the supreme bliss.
As regards their views concerning the person of Christ we may not
now go into detail. We can simply state the views of the two chief
Gnostics. Basilides identified Christ with the first-born of the
Father, the emanation Mind (Νοῦς), who came to destroy the God of the
Jews and all evil men, but to save those who believed on him.[353]
Valentinus made Christ one of the Eons, forming a conjugal pair of
Christ and the Holy Spirit; but Jesus who appeared on earth was
another, the perfect product of the whole pleroma of Eons.[354] We
may say that generally Christ was regarded by the Gnostics as one of
the emanations of the supreme Being, by which the divine principle
entered the visible world and made God known, whereas he had been
hidden hitherto. Christ, therefore, was a power, a heavenly Eon, which
was to be distinguished from his earthly appearance as the man Jesus.
This view was in accord with other beliefs that Christ had not actually
appeared and suffered in the flesh, to which is given the name docetism.
The Gnostic ethics were based on the dual concept of man, with the
natural result that in many groups a marked asceticism was practised.
On the other hand the belief that the revelation brought by Christ had
freed men from law—an exaggeration of Paul’s position, unchecked by
Paul’s good-sense—led to the extremes of libertinism.
The Gnostics laid much stress also on the magic value of the
sacraments of baptism, the Lord’s supper, and anointing with oil. They
treated them as the means of initiation into the holy mysteries of
Christianity, whereby the initiate obtained, as in pagan mysteries,
the higher knowledge (γνῶσις), which was salvation. Beyond this they
resorted to the crassest magic, playing with names and numbers,
employing images, incantations, invocations, and many kinds of curious
arts.[355] But in this respect they were hardly in disaccord with their
contemporaries.
From the foregoing it will appear that the Gnostic movement represented
in general exaggerations of the normal Christian tenets, produced by an
attempt to combine Christianity with many Greek and oriental elements.
The results varied from a doctrine which differed from that, for
example, of the Johannine writings chiefly in denying the actual human
existence of Christ, to the most extravagant perversions of Christian
belief. Many Gnostics remained within the Church undisturbed, others
were bitterly attacked.
The entire movement which we have been considering is instructive, for
it illustrates in a striking way the danger which the growing Church
ran of being swamped in the confused floods of Hellenic and oriental
thought and mysticism. The conflict with such foes as the Gnostics
was one of the chief causes which led to the formation of a body of
accepted catholic doctrine, for in dogma lay in part the protection
of Christianity. Although the Church was able to free itself of most
Gnostic heresies, she could not wholly escape their influence, as we
shall presently see.
* * * * *
The heir of both the Gnostics and the Apologists was the catechetical
school at Alexandria under the leadership of Clement and Origen (c.
200-231). The early history of this school is unknown, but it became
important at the close of the second century. In it both the Greek
sciences and the holy Scriptures were studied, so that it was a natural
place for the fusion of secular learning and Christian theology.
Clement, who was first a pupil, then a teacher in this school, and at
last its head for three years (200-203), was the first to attempt an
exposition of Christianity with all the aid that heretical speculation
and Greek learning alike could give. We possess from his hand three
works of systematic edification. The Protrepticus is addressed to
converts, and in it he employs arguments similar to those of the
Apologists, Justin and Athenagoras; the Paedagogus gives practical
directions for the Christian life; and the Stromateis, “Miscellanies,”
is intended to present and establish Christianity as the true
philosophy, and so to lead the reader to supreme knowledge (γνῶσις),
as its full title announces.[356] From this it is at once evident that
the Gnostic movements had had their influence on Clement; and indeed,
after combatting Gnostic errors frequently, especially in the third
book, he devotes a considerable part of his sixth book and the whole
of his seventh to a presentation of the true Gnostic.[357] His view as
to the service done mankind by the Greek intellect is summed up in the
often-quoted words: “Philosophy was a tutor to bring the Greeks, as the
law was to bring the Hebrews, to Christ.”[358]
But since it was Clement’s great pupil and successor, Origen,
who actually founded Christian theology as a philosophy, and who
established his views so firmly that although the Church has rejected
much in detail, its dogmas still bear the stamp of his system, we shall
pass at once to him and endeavor to set forth in summary the most
important elements of his doctrine.
Origen held fast to the traditional teaching of the Apostles and to the
Old Testament which he felt contained the sum of Christian truth,[359]
and at the same time he worked freely as a speculative thinker. For
the greater part of the period during which he was the head of the
Alexandrian School, (c. 203-231) he was undisturbed by persecution and
could work in the clear atmosphere of scientific study. His theology
was built on the secular theology of his day.[360]
God he regarded as wholly transcendent, but potentially everywhere
present, incomprehensible to man save in so far as man could behold
the revelation of him in nature and in Christ. He predicated justice,
goodness, and omnipotence of God, not simply as potentialities, but
as attributes exercised fully and eternally in the universe. Still to
leave man a free agent, Origen was obliged to hold that God limited his
own omnipotence. The belief in the eternal exercise of God’s attributes
required him to regard creation as eternal, so that he held that God
and his creatures had eternally existed; God therefore, he said, had
never existed apart from his creation, but the two were coëternal.
This does not mean that Origen regarded the present world as existing
in visible form from eternity, for he taught quite the contrary: this
present world did begin and will end in time, but it is only one in an
infinite series of worlds, a single expression of the eternal creative
activity of God.[361]
The Logos in Origen’s system stands midway between God and the world.
In opposition to those who claimed that the Logos had been begotten
in time and was therefore a temporal creature, he insisted that the
Logos was without beginning, but was eternally generated by God.
In attempting to make his view clear he employed familiar figures,
saying that the Logos, the eternal Son, was related to the Father, as
the gleam to the source of light, or the will to the mind of man. He
was the wisdom, the consciousness, and the activity of God; and he
likewise was God’s perfect image, a second God. Yet in essence he was
not independent, but rather one with the Father by whose will he was
eternally created. Being created, however, he was one stage removed
from God toward the multiple creation; being the medium of the Divine,
he was the Creator of the world.[362]
It will be observed that in this philosophical system there is no
necessity for the redeemer, and indeed Origen made somewhat less
use of this concept of Christ than most other writers. On Christ’s
incarnation he insisted, but the essential work of the human Christ was
revelation.[363]
Nor did Origen’s system require the Holy Spirit, but to comply with
the Christian belief he gave the Spirit a place with God the Father,
and Christ the Son, and made him the inspirer of the prophets and
apostles. The functions of the three persons in one, so far as man is
concerned, he defined by saying that God gave man existence, the Son
supplied reason, and the Spirit holiness. Although he held the Spirit
to be of the eternal essence of God, he made him subordinate to the
Son, being the first creation through the Logos. Thus Origen in reality
established two stages of creation: the Logos and the Holy Spirit.[364]
Below these he placed an infinite number of lesser spirits, endowed
with freedom and bound for a time with matter: angels, men, and demons.
By the exercise of their freedom certain spirits have fallen from
perfect holiness and, entering into bodies, have become the souls of
men, aided by those spirits which have held fast to purity and are
God’s angels, and hindered by the demons who have fallen lower than
men and who prefer evil and find pleasure in it.[365] The chief of
the fallen angels is the devil.[366] Yet the world is ruled by divine
providence toward ultimate good; evil therefore will not finally
conquer: men who now choose the good become the sons of God and rise
to the rank of angels. Ultimately, by a process which will go on
imperceptibly through countless ages, even the evil spirits will be
brought back to God and so all wickedness shall be purged away.[367]
Then this course will begin again.
Origen’s human psychology was probably taken from his teacher
Clement; but the views of both, like those of the Gnostics, go back
ultimately to Plato.[368] Accordingly Origen held that the human body
has two souls, the first the animal or the passionate, the second the
reasonable soul or the spirit. The latter is man’s divine essence
which enters him from above; the former becomes his at the time of
his conception.[369] To human spirits, as to all others, God granted
freedom, and through their evil choice they fell, so that all men are
born in a condition of sin. The duty of man is to endeavor to give his
divine soul the mastery in him that he may thereby become like God and
attain eternal happiness; his inherent sin must be overcome by his own
will and determined aspiration. Not that Origen believed that man could
fully accomplish his own salvation; on the contrary he held most firmly
that divine grace was needed; but he maintained that the first step,
an act of faith, did depend on the individual’s free choice.[370] The
historical revelation of the Logos and the redemptive work of Christ,
who by his death dealt the first blow in the struggle to overthrow
the devil, were both made a part of the plan of salvation by Origen,
although, as I have said, redemption is not logically an indispensable
element in his system.[371]
There are three stages of Christian progress, according to Origen. In
the first and lowest man may advance through faith and by a belief in
the redemptive death of the historic Christ to a state of sinlessness
and to fellowship with God. Here the Logos incarnate in Jesus acts
through revelation and redemption as a physician to cure men of
their sins. But beyond is a higher stage in which through love and
knowledge the soul may mount from its view of the phenomenal world
to the “invisible things of God,” that is, to an understanding of
the whole creation; and still further soar from these upward to “the
eternal power of God, in short, to God’s own divinity.” In these higher
stages the Logos is the teacher of the divine mysteries; they make the
contemplative life in which the Christian may obtain perfect knowledge.
To such a Gnostic as the Christian becomes who has been granted the
vision, the historic Christ is no longer significant; the Logos in his
manifold revelations teaches him the supreme truth.[372]
Thus we see that Origen assumed that there were two forms of
Christianity, an exoteric for the mass, who were capable only of faith
and who could not grasp the deeper truths, and an esoteric, reserved
for the few who could understand the mysteries of God and whose souls
could rise to the knowledge of God himself. This double view depended
in part on his Gnostic tendencies, in part on his interpretation of
Scripture, to which we shall presently turn.
We have now followed the development of Christianity from the simple
teachings of Jesus into a Greek philosophy, as illustrated by the
later writings of the New Testament, the Apologists, the Gnostics, and
Origen. The last of these completed the process which began in Paul
and the Epistle to the Hebrews, for he united successfully and fully,
the religious principles of the Christian religion with the content of
Hellenic philosophy. It must be evident furthermore that Origen and
those who prepared the way for him, were no less debtors to the Greeks
than they were to the Hebrews, to Jesus, and to Paul, since the form
and in no small degree the very matter of their philosophy had been
provided by secular thought. Indeed Porphyry with some reason charged
Origen with being more Greek than Christian.[373]
It will be observed that Origen, and his predecessors also in large
measure, made man’s salvation a part of a philosophy of the entire
universe, each portion of which was to be fully understood only through
a comprehension of the whole. That is to say, the scheme of salvation
was an element in cosmological speculation. The earliest Greek
philosophers had been concerned with a solution of the physical cosmos;
soon thinkers began to search for the causes of change, without,
however, troubling themselves with ethics or religion; but from the end
of the fifth century B.C., the position of man, his obligations
and his happiness, the nature of the Divine and the relation between
God and the world, became dominant themes. In Plato we see first fully
developed a religious philosophy of the cosmos of which man’s salvation
is an inseparable part. The line from Plato to Origen, and we may add
to the present day, is unbroken. Thus we find that Greek philosophy
furnished the general plan for a statement of Christianity which should
not only be intelligible, attractive, and convincing to the learned
and the simple alike, but which should also prove triumphant over the
Gnostics and other aberrant thinkers.
This transformation of the rule of faith into an Hellenic philosophy
was contemporaneous with the growth of the separate churches into one
body politic with an organization fitted for present defense and for
future aggression.
* * * * *
If space allowed, numerous illustrations might be adduced to show how
pagan philosophy and mysticism had influenced Christian theologians in
details. Many examples we have already seen in passing, such as the
view held by both Clement and Origen, as well as by the Gnostics and
perhaps by Paul, that the supreme Christian truth was to be obtained by
direct revelation, by a vision of the Divine. This was a current belief
not only in the later mystic philosophies, like Neopythagoreanism
and Neoplatonism, but also in the mystic religions, and in the Greek
mysteries likewise. Again it would be possible to show that Origen’s
ethical system owed much more to Stoicism and to later Platonism
than to the teachings of Christ, which, however, were easily brought
into accord with the philosophers’ doctrines. Or once more we might
enlarge on the development of the triune nature of God, whereby the
transcendent God and the Logos of pagan theology were united with
a varying concept of the spirit of God, also familiar in Hellenic
thought, to produce the Trinity of Christian dogma.
Thus in examining the ways in which Christianity accommodated itself to
the intellectual world for purposes of defense and conquest, we have
been seeing many examples of the influence which the pagan environment
had on Christianity. Let us now examine a few further illustrations.
The first of these shall be the method of interpretation which was
applied to the sacred writings. As early as the sixth century B.C.,
the Homeric mythology had aroused a protest from Xenophanes and
others;[374] and in defense a new form of interpretation was adopted by
the supporters of Homer who declared that there was a deeper meaning
to the myths than appeared on the surface. Theagenes of Rhegium (c.
525 B.C.) suggested that the Homeric gods expressed either human
faculties or natural elements, and thus he began the long history of
allegorical exegesis.[375] From this time such interpretation of myths
became a common practice; it was adopted by the Stoics; at Alexandria
Jewish scholars took it over and applied it to the writings of the
Old Testament, so that before the beginning of our era the sacred
writings were regularly so explained. Philo shows how universal the
procedure was. By it of course the historical character of the Old
Testament was thrust into the background, and thus many difficulties
of interpretation were avoided which otherwise would vex a man who
regarded every part of the sacred books as perfect. Naturally the
early Christians followed their predecessors, and in fact allegorical
interpretation of the Old Testament has lasted down to our own time.
Origen helped to fix the standard system, so to speak; there were,
according to him, three senses in which the Scriptures were to be
understood, corresponding to the triple nature of man: first, the
literal sense which was for the “flesh,” the simple man; secondly, the
psychic which fitted the moral man; and finally the pneumatic sense,
for the spiritual man.[376]
The development of Christian asceticism will serve as another
illustration of our present theme. It will be remembered that the
Orphics and the Pythagoreans imposed on their followers a mode of
life in which certain things were forbidden. These two sects were
the first to grasp the meaning of the dualism of the flesh and
spirit which we have found significant throughout the course of our
investigation. Plato and the later philosophic schools developed the
higher significance of man’s dual nature until asceticism in greater
or less degree became the normal regimen for the philosopher of almost
every school. In the oriental religions also certain abstentions were
required as preparation for initiation into their mysteries.
On the whole asceticism was foreign to both Judaism and early
Christianity.[377] In the Pauline epistles it is true that we find
passages in which the flesh and the spirit are contrasted; virginity is
moderately approved in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, but the
Epistle to the Colossians contains a direct argument against the errors
of ascetic teachers in Asia Minor, and the non-Pauline First Epistle to
Timothy combats celibacy and vegetarianism.[378] It was indeed somewhat
difficult to find a satisfactory warrant for an ascetic life in the New
Testament. Christianity, however, could not escape its environment.
Presently in the second century certain sects like the Gnostics,
Montanists, and Encratites appeared which laid great stress on ascetic
practice; at the same time the habit of fasting generally increased;
many bound themselves to perpetual virginity; and riches were regarded
as incompatible with the highest Christian character. In the third
century numbers began to withdraw from the world, and by the fifth
century monasticism was established in both the East and the West. But
it was paganism which had given men the ideal of the ascetic saint,
and the Church writers who furnished the warrant for the Christian
practice, drew their arguments from Greek philosophers, and sometimes
found it difficult to meet the criticisms of the Jewish defenders of a
normal human life.
The almost universal rite of baptism as a means of ritual purification
was employed by the early Christians. Jesus had been baptized by John,
but he never made baptism a condition of discipleship. The Apostles
baptized with water immediately after conversion. Confession of sins,
repentance, and the acknowledgment of Jesus as the Christ were the
antecedent requirements; the act itself was believed to mark the
remission of sins and the bestowal of the Holy Spirit. But by the
early second century we find that the convert went through a period of
instruction and was obliged to fast before he could be baptized.[379]
From the middle of this century a new group of ideas drawn from
the mysteries was associated with the rite. It became a mystery
(μυστήριον), the one who conferred it was a mystagogue (μυσταγωγός);
many forms of speech used in pagan initiations were employed; and
the pagan expression “enlightenment” (φωτισμός, φωτίζεσθαι) became
a Christian term. Likewise those who had been initiated into the
Christian mysteries were said to bear a seal (σφραγίς) on their
foreheads.[380] In general it was commonly thought that baptism—the
Christian initiation—had a magic power to secure salvation similar
to that which the pagan initiatory ritual was believed to possess.
Moreover a long period of preparation was required, a sharp distinction
was made between those who had received this Christian initiation and
those who had not; and the Church became a secret association.[381]
Later the Lord’s Prayer and the formula of baptism became a pass word
(σύμβολον), which was kept from the catechumens until shortly before
baptism.
Likewise the Lord’s Supper in time assumed the character of a
mystery. Ignatius, Justin, and Irenaeus, all natives of the East and
familiar with pagan mysteries, ascribe an extraordinary efficacy
to its celebration. The elements were believed to become the flesh
and blood of Christ,[382] or to take on a heavenly nature in addition
to the earthly, whereby the partaker gained the hope of eternal
resurrection.[383] Ignatius early in the century had called the bread
“the medicine of immortality and antidote against death.”[384] As such
it had a magic value.
If time and subject allowed, we might draw further illustrations of the
influence of paganism from the calendar of the Church, which would show
how pagan festivals were supplanted by Christian; or we might examine
the list of accepted saints, some of whom have heathen origins—others
are composites, so to speak; or again we might turn to Christian art
and see how pagan types were adapted to Christian uses. But although
such studies might prove interesting, we may not enter on them now, for
we have already departed somewhat from our proper theme.
Yet great as the influence of the pagan environment was on
Christianity, there is always a possibility that in such a study as
the present we may get a wrong point of view. We should remember that
Christianity was a positive religion, which in being transformed into
a Greek philosophy did not lose its own character; indeed it was not
obscured by the Greek intellectual habit, but it appropriated that
habit and in the end made it its own. Pagan thought and practice
affected Christianity in countless ways, but they did not overwhelm it.
Nor must we underestimate the service which paganism rendered the faith
which was to overthrow it. The philosopher’s long search for a rule of
life, the Greek and oriental mysteries, and the mystic theosophies,
all provided an environment ready and favorable to Christianity. The
rapid spread of this new religion, at first in Syria and Asia Minor,
was not due simply to the propinquity of these countries to Palestine.
They had been for centuries familiar with mystic religions which in a
crude way aimed to give what Christianity promised in nobler fashion.
The same thing was true in a measure of the great centers of the West.
Without an environment already prepared for it Christianity would have
had a very different history from the one we know. Moreover we have
now abundantly seen how Greek rhetoric and philosophy furnished the
forms by which Christianity made itself understood, and how they gave
the intellectual weapons by which in part it gained its victory over
paganism.
* * * * *
Now we may ask what were some of the chief reasons for Christianity’s
triumph. Sometimes it is lightly said that its victory was due to
the fact that it “promised immortality to a hopeless world.” But we
know that there were many contemporaneous religions which promised
immortality and that the world was not without hope. We must try to
look somewhat more deeply, and we cannot limit ourselves wholly to
intellectual causes.
The first, although not the most significant, reason may be found in
the positive and noble monotheism of Christianity. Other religions
by syncretistic processes arrived at a doctrine of the unity of the
Divine, of one God who embraced in himself a multitude of divinities;
but the new faith, supported by its Jewish inheritance, taught that God
was but One and that there was no other.
Yet the most important causes are to be found in the person and
mission of Jesus. He brought a new revelation of God to men; and it
was a revelation which men believed the Old Testament had foretold.
The Jewish Scriptures were the one body of sacred writings known to
the Greco-Roman world, and their authority was enormous wherever
anti-Jewish prejudices were overcome, or when, as in Christian thought,
Jesus was related to its prophecies. This influence had extended to
Greeks, especially in such places as Alexandria, long before Jesus
began his ministry. Therefore it was natural that the Gentiles’ desire
for revelation as well as the Jews’ Messianic hopes should be attached
to the Old Testament, so that Christianity had the support of its
weighty authority.
Again Christianity knew its saviour and redeemer not as some god whose
history was contained in a myth filled with rude, primitive, and even
offensive elements, as were the stories of Attis, of Osiris, and to a
degree of Dionysus. Such myths required violent interpretation to make
them acceptable to enlightened minds. On the contrary the Christian
saviour had lived and associated with men, whose minds and senses
had apprehended his person, acts, and character. These witnesses had
transmitted their knowledge directly, and they had testified that
the life of Jesus corresponded to his teachings. Jesus was then an
historical, not a mythical being. No remote or foul myth obtruded
itself on the Christian believer; his faith was founded on positive,
historical, and acceptable facts.
Christianity showed a superior power of adaptation to every class;
it was a practical guide of life for all, a guide which was soon
recognized by its opponents to be of the highest ethical value. In
spite of the human weaknesses of Christians, their superior morality
was generally recognized from the time of Pliny.[385] Their motives for
righteous living sprang from love and faith rather than from any social
or rational sanctions; and the fruits were “love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance.”
These virtues and the belief that Christ’s revelation and the mystic
union of man with the Divine brought salvation, could be understood
by the most unlettered. The intellectual classes found Christianity
fulfilling the aim of both Greek thought and of Old Testament prophecy;
in it they saw the ultimate philosophy. Christianity therefore proved
itself a religion which satisfied men’s desires and hopes as well
as their philosophic aims in a more complete and spiritual way than
oriental mysticism or Greek rationalism; and it gave a nobler assurance
of salvation.
Finally, experience taught the value of Christianity; already in the
second century the Apologists could make the appeal to common knowledge
of the Christians to show the superiority of their faith.
Yet by the close of the second century Christianity had not won many
adherents outside of Syria and Asia Minor, save in the greater cities.
The third century was the period in which paganism rapidly decayed
and Christianity swiftly advanced toward its triumph; by the year
300 it had filled the Mediterranean world, and the proud claim which
Tertullian had made a century before, began to be justified: “We are of
yesterday, and yet we have filled all your holdings, cities, houses,
castles, towns, councils, your very camps, tribes, wards, the palace,
the senate, the forum—we have left you only your temples.”[386] The
victory over pagan religions and philosophies was indeed certain;
but this success had been secured on the intellectual side by the
transformation of the teachings of Jesus and of the apostles into a
Greek philosophy. It is as such that Christianity has the final place
in a history of Greek religious thought.