Summarizing the Greek influence, both Hellenic and Graeco-oriental, upon
Christian hymnology, it is difficult, if not impossible, to trace any
connection between the classic Greek hymns or the hymns of mystery cults,
and those of the new faith. If more sources were available, a valid
conclusion might be reached. At present, a tentative conclusion involves
the recognition of the vigorous protest and revolt against pagan ideas
revealed in contemporary prose writings, in turn evoked by the actual
pressure which was exerted upon Christianity by alien cults. The
twentieth century has produced an impressive literature centered about
the mystery religions and the problem of their influence upon
Christianity; but in the field of hymnology there have been discovered
only the faintest of traces. These are wholly stylistic. Christian hymns
which reveal the characteristics of the repetition of direct address, or
of relative clauses or predicates, previously mentioned, illustrate
poetic forms which are, in the final analysis, oriental rather than
Greek.[53]
It is a satisfaction to the classicist, who is interested in the history
of this subject, that the classical meters, ignored at this period, were
destined to be revived at a later date. They were used to some extent
from the fourth century. It was reserved for the court poets of the
Carolingian circle of the ninth century to restore the old lyric meters.
The Sapphic meter in its Horatian form not only was a favorite among
medieval Latin hymn writers, but also it has found an occasional imitator
in the course of the centuries even to modern times.[54]
While hymn sources derived from oriental cults are extremely scanty,
those originating in Gnosticism are much more numerous and suggestive in
their relation to Christian hymnology. Gnosticism is not so much the name
of a particular philosophy or definite system of belief, as it is a point
of view, which sought to harmonize the speculative achievement of Greek
thought with the oriental myths and with Christian teachings. The
philosophical interpretation of pagan mythology was extended to Hebrew
and Christian tradition. Thus, in accordance with the tenets of
Neoplatonism, the primeval being has produced the universal mind and, in
turn, mind has produced the soul which in contact with evil phases of
matter has lost its original purity. Therefore, the soul must retrace its
steps until it reaches the final stage of reunion with the origin of all
being. It is easy to understand how a variety of meanings may be read
into a simple statement like the above. It is also easy to understand
that the possibilities of confusion arising in the first three centuries
of Christian history were matters of the utmost concern to contemporary
Christian writers and dogmatists. The period abounded in heresies and
misunderstandings, to the discussion of which the ablest minds of the
Church were devoted. Quotations from these authors furnish many of the
extant hymns composed by Gnostics, either within or without the Christian
fold. The range of literary excellence, of spiritual connotation and of
intelligibility of subject matter in the so-called Gnostic hymns is so
wide that it is difficult to evaluate them. To the modern reader they
vary from the mere rigmarole to the genuinely inspiring hymn.
Perhaps the best known and certainly one of the loftiest expressions of
Gnostic ideas is the _Hymn of the Soul_, which is found in the Apocryphal
_Acts of Thomas_. Dating from the first half of the third century, the
_Acts of Thomas_ recounts the missionary preaching of the Apostle Thomas
in India. While in prison, he chants this hymn, beginning,