The influence of Greek ideas and usages upon the Christian church

by Edwin Hatch

The book is an admirable illustration of his method; in order to be judged aright, it ought to be judged within the limits he himself has drawn. It is a study in historical development, an analysis of some of the formal factors that conditioned a given process and determined a given result; but it deals throughout solely with these formal factors and the historical conditions under which they operated. He never intended to discover or discuss the transcendental causes of the process on the one hand, or to pronounce on the value or validity of the result on the other. His purpose, like his method, was scientific; and as an attempt at the scientific treatment of the growth and formulation of ideas, of the evolution and establishment of usages within the Christian Church, it ought to be studied and criticised. Behind and beneath his analytical method was a constructive intellect, and beyond his conclusions was a positive and co-ordinating conception of the largest and noblest order. To his mind every species of mechanical Deism was alien; and if his method bears hardly upon the traditions and assumptions by which such a Deism still lives in the region of early ecclesiastical history, it was only that he might prepare the way for the coming of a faith and a society that should be worthier of the Master he loved and the Church he served.

A. M. Fairbairn.

Oxford, July, 1890.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.

	PAGE
[Lecture I.] INTRODUCTORY.
The Problem:
How the Church passed from the Sermon on the Mount to the Nicene Creed; the change in spirit coincident with a change in soil	[1, 2]
The need of caution: two preliminary considerations	[2]
1. A religion relative to the whole mental attitude of an age: hence need to estimate the general attitude of the Greek mind during the first three centuries A.D.	[3, 4]
2. Every permanent change in religious belief and usage rooted in historical conditions: roots of the Gospel in Judaism, but of fourth century Christianity—the key to historical—in Hellenism	[4, 5]
The Method:
Evidence as to process of change scanty, but ample and representative as to ante-Nicene Greek thought and post-Nicene Christian thought. Respects in which evidence defective	[5-10]
Two resulting tendencies:
1. To overrate the value of the surviving evidence.
2. To under-estimate opinions no longer accessible or known only through opponents	[10]
Hence method, the correlation of antecedents and consequents	[11-13]
Antecedents: sketch of the phenomena of Hellenism	[13, 14]
Consequents: changes in original Christian ideas and usages	[14]
Attitude of mind required	[15]
1. Demand upon attention and imagination	[15, 16]
2. Personal prepossessions to be allowed for	[17, 18]
3. Need to observe under-currents, e.g.
(a) The dualistic hypothesis, its bearing on baptism and exorcism	[19, 20]
(b) The nature of religion, e.g. its relation to conscience	[21]
History as a scientific study: the true apologia in religion	[21-24]
[Lecture II.] GREEK EDUCATION.
The first step a study of environment, particularly as literary. The contemporary Greek world an educated world in a special literary sense	[25-27]
I. Its forms varied, but all literary:
Grammar	[28-30]
Rhetoric	[30-32]
A “lecture-room” Philosophy	[32-35]
II. Its influence shown by:
1. Direct literary evidence	[35-37]
2. Recognized and lucrative position of the teaching profession	[37-40]
3. Social position of its professors	[40-42]
4. Its persistent survival up to to-day in general education, in special terms and usages	[42-48]
Into such an artificial habit of mind Christianity came	[48, 49]
[Lecture III.] GREEK AND CHRISTIAN EXEGESIS.
To the Greek the mystery of writing, the reverence for antiquity, the belief in inspiration, gave the ancient poets a unique value	[50, 51]
Homer, his place in moral education; used by the Sophists in ethics, physics, metaphysics, &c.	[52-57]
Apologies for this use culminate in allegory, especially among the Stoics	[57-64]
The Allegoric temper widespread, particularly in things religious.
Adopted by Hellenistic Jews, especially at Alexandria; Philo	[65-69]
Continued by early Christian exegesis in varied schools, chiefly as regards the Prophets, in harmony with Greek thought, and as a main line of apologetic	[69-74]
Application to the New Testament writings by the Gnostics and the Alexandrines	[75, 76]
Its aid as solution of the Old Testament problem, especially in Origen	[77-79]
Reactions both Hellenic and Christian: viz. in
1. The Apologists’ polemic against Greek mythology	[79, 80]
2. The Philosophers’ polemic against Christianity	[80]
3. Certain Christian Schools, especially the Antiochene	[81, 82]
Here hampered by dogmatic complications	[82]
Use and abuse of allegory—the poetry of life	[82, 83]
Alien to certain drifts of the modern spirit, viz.
1. Historic handling of literature	[84]
2. Recognition of the living voice of God	[84, 85]
[Lecture IV.] GREEK AND CHRISTIAN RHETORIC.
The period one of widely diffused literary culture.
The Rhetorical Schools, old and new	[86-88]
Sophistic largely pursued the old lines of Rhetoric, but also philosophized and preached professionally	[88-94]
Its manner of discourse; its rewards	[94-99]
Objections of earnest men; reaction led by Stoics like Epictetus	[99-105]
Significance for Christianity	[105]
Primitive Christian “prophesying” v. later “preaching.”
Preaching of composite origin: its essence and form, e.g. in fourth century, A.D.: preachers sometimes itinerant	[105-113]
Summary and conclusions	[113-115]
[Lecture V.] CHRISTIANITY AND GREEK PHILOSOPHY.
Abstract ideas among the Greeks, who were hardly aware of the different degrees of precision possible in mathematics and philosophy	[116-118]
Tendency to define strong with them, apart from any criterion; hence dogmas	[118-120]
Dogmatism, amid decay of originality: reaction towards doubt; yet Dogmatism regnant	[120-123]
“Palestinian Philosophy,” a complete contrast	[123, 124]
Fusion of these in the Old Catholic Church achieved through an underlying kinship of ideas	[125, 126]
Explanations of this from both sides	[126-128]
Philosophical Judaism as a bridge, e.g., in allegorism and cosmology	[128, 129]
Christian philosophy partly apologetic, partly speculative.
Alarm of Conservatives: the second century one of transition and conflict	[130-133]
The issue, compromise, and a certain habit of mind	[133, 134]
Summary answer to the main question	[134]
The Greek mind seen in:
1. The tendency to define	[135]
2. The tendency to speculate	[136]
3. The point of emphasis, i.e. Orthodoxy	[137]
Further development in the West. But Greece the source of the true damnosa hereditas	[137, 138]
[Lecture VI.] GREEK AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS.
The average morality of the age: its moral philosophy	[139, 140]
An age of moral reformation	[140-142]
1. Relation of ethics to philosophy and life	[142]
Revived practical bent of Stoicism; Epictetus	[143-147]
A moral gymnastic cultivated	[147]
(1) Askesis (ἄσκησις): Philo, Epictetus, Dio Chrysostom	[148-150]
(2) The “philosopher” or moral reformer	[150-152]
2. The contents of ethical teaching, marked by a religious reference. Epictetus’ two maxims, “Follow Nature,” “Follow God”	[152-155]
Christian ethics show agreement amid difference; based upon the Divine command; idea of sin: agreement most emphasized at first, i.e. the importance of conduct	[158, 159]
1. Tone of earliest Christian writings: the “Two Ways:” Apostolical Constitutions, Bk. i.	[159-162]
2. Place of discipline in Christian life: Puritan ideal v. later corpus permixtum	[162-164]
Further developments due to Greece:
1. A Church within the Church: askesis, Monasticism	[164-168]
2. Resulting deterioration of average ethics: Ambrose of Milan	[168, 169]
Complete victory of Greek ethics seen in the basis of modern society	[169, 170]
[Lecture VII.] GREEK AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. I. The Creator.
The idea of One God, begotten of the unity and order of the world, and connected with the ideas of personality and mind. Three elements in the idea—Creator, Moral Governor, Absolute Being	[171-174]
Growth of idea of a beginning: Monism and Dualism	[174, 175]
1. Monism of the Stoics: natura naturata and naturans: a beginning not necessarily involved	[175-177]
2. Dualism, Platonic: creation recognized	[177-180]
Syncretistic blending of these as to process: Logos idea common. Hence Philo’s significance: God as Creator: Monistic and Dualistic aspects; his terms for the Forces in their plurality and unity: after all, God is Creator, even Father, of the world	[180-188]
Early Christian idea of a single supreme Artificer took permanent root; but questions as to mode emerged, and the first answers were tentative	[188-190]
1. Evolutional type; supplemented by idea of a lapse	[190-194]
2. Creational type accepted	[194]
There remained:
(i.) The ultimate relation of matter to God: Dualistic solutions: Basilides’ Platonic theory the basis of the later doctrine, though not at once recognized	[194-198]
(ii.) The Creator’s contact with matter: Mediation hypothesis: the Logos solution	[198-200]
(iii.) Imperfection and evil: Monistic and Dualistic answers, especially Marcion’s	[200, 201]
But the Divine Unity overcomes all: position of Irenæus, &c., widely accepted: Origen’s cosmogony a theodicy. Prevalence of the simpler view seen in Monarchianism	[202-207]
Results	[207, 208]
[Lecture VIII.] GREEK AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. II. The Moral Governor.
A.—The Greek Idea.
1. Unity of God and Unity of the world: will and order	[209]
Order, number, necessity and destiny: intelligent force and law	[209-211]
The Cosmos as a city-state (πόλις)	[211, 212]
2. New conceptions of the Divine Nature: Justice and Goodness in connection with Providence	[213-215]
Thus about the Christian era we find Destiny and Providence, and a tendency to synthesis—through two stages—in the use of the term God	[215-217]
3. The problem of evil emerges: attempts at solution.
(a) Universality of Providence denied (Platonic and Oriental)	[217]
(b) Reality of apparent evils denied (Stoic)	[217-220]
This not pertinent to moral evil, hence:
(c) Theory of human freedom	[220, 221]
Its relation to Universality of Providence: the Stoical theodicy exemplified in Epictetus	[221-223]
B.—The Christian Idea.
Primitive Christianity a contrast: two main conceptions.
1. Wages for work done	[224]
2. Positive Law—God a Lawgiver and Judge	[225]
Difficulties in fusing the two types.
(i.) Forgiveness and Law	[226]
Marcion’s ditheism	[227, 228]
Solution in Irenæus, Tertullian, &c.: result	[228-230]
(ii.) The Moral Governor and Free-will.
Marcion’s dualistic view of moral evil	[230, 231]
Justin Martyr, Tatian, Irenæus	[231, 232]
Tertullian and the Alexandrines	[232]
Origen’s comprehensive theodicy by aid of Stoicism and Neo-Platonism	[233-237]
[Lecture IX.] GREEK AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. III. God as the Supreme Being.
Christian Theology shaped by Greece, though on a Jewish basis	[238, 239]
A.—The Idea and its Development in Greek Philosophy.
Parallel to Christian speculation in three stages.
1. Transcendence of God.
History of the idea before and after Plato	[240-243]
Its two forms, transcendent proper and supra-cosmic	[244]
Blending with religious feeling, e.g. in Philo	[244, 245]
2. Revelation of the Transcendent.
Through intermediaries:
(i.) Mythological	[246]
(ii.) Philosophical, e.g. in Philo	[246, 247]
3. Distinctions in the nature of God.
Philo’s Logos	[247, 248]
Conceived both monistically and dualistically in relation to God	[249]
But especially under metaphor of generation	[250]
B.—The Idea and its Development in Christian Theology.
1. Here the idea of Transcendence is at first absent	[250-252]
Present in the Apologists	[252, 253]
But God as transcendent (v. supra-cosmic) first emphasized by Basilides and the Alexandrines	[254-256]
2. Mediation (= Revelation) of the Transcendent, a vital problem	[256, 257]
Theories of modal manifestation	[257, 258]
Dominant idea that of modal existence:
(i.) As manifold: so among certain Gnostics	[258]
(ii.) As constituting a unity	[259]
Its Gnostic forms	[259, 260]
Relation of the logoi to the Logos, especially in Justin	[260-262]
The issue is the Logos doctrine of Irenæus	[262, 263]
3. Distinctions in the nature of God based on the Logos.
(i.) Theories as to the genesis of the Logos, analogous to those as to the world	[263, 264]
Theories guarding the “sole monarchy,” thus endangered, culminate in Origen’s idea of eternal generation	[265-267]
(ii.) Theories of the nature of the Logos determined by either the supra-cosmic or transcendental idea of God	[267, 268]
Origen marks a stage—and but a stage—in the controversies	[268, 269]
Greek elements in the subsequent developments.
Ousia; its history	[269-272]
Difficulty felt in applying it to God	[273, 274]
As also with homoousios: need of another term	[274, 275]
Hypostasis: its history	[275-277]
Comes to need definition by a third term (πρόσωπον)	[277, 278]
Resumé of the use of these terms; the reign of dogmatism	[278-280]
Three underlying assumptions—a legacy of the Greek spirit	[280, 281]
1. The importance of metaphysical distinctions.
2. Their absolute truth.
3. The nature of God’s perfection.
Conclusion	[282]
[Lecture X.] THE INFLUENCE OF THE MYSTERIES UPON CHRISTIAN USAGES.
A.—The Greek Mysteries and Related Cults.
Mysteries and religious associations side by side with ordinary Greek religion.
1. The Mysteries, e.g. at Eleusis	[283, 284]
(i.) Initial Purification, through confession and lustration (baptism)	[285-287]
(ii.) Sacrifices, with procession, &c.	[287, 288]
(iii.) Mystic Drama, of nature and human life	[288-290]
2. Other religious associations: condition of entrance, sacrifice and common meal	[290, 291]
Wide extent of the above	[291, 292]
B.—The Mysteries and the Church.
Transition to the Christian Sacraments; influence, general and special	[292-294]
1. Baptism:
Its primitive simplicity	[294, 295]
Later period marked by:
(i.) Change of name	[295, 296]
(ii.) Change of time and conception	[296, 297]
Minor confirmations of the parallelism	[298-300]
2. The Lord’s Supper:
Stages of extra-biblical development, e.g. in Didaché, Apost. Const., the “altar,” its offerings as “mysteries”	[300-303]
Culmination of tendency in fifth century in Dionysius	[303-305]
The tendency strongest in the most Hellenic circles, viz. Gnostics	[305, 306]
Secrecy and long catechumenate	[306, 307]
Anointing	[307, 308]
Realistic change of conception	[308, 309]
Conclusion	[309]
[Lecture XI.] THE INCORPORATION OF CHRISTIAN IDEAS, AS MODIFIED BY GREEK, INTO A BODY OF DOCTRINE.
“Faith” in Old Testament = trust—trust in a person.
In Greek philosophy = intellectual conviction	[310, 311]
In Philo, these blend into trust in God—in His veracity, i.e. in the Holy Writings	[311, 312]
Contemporary longing for certainty based on fact	[312]
Here we have the germs of (1) the Creed, (2) the New Testament Canon	[313]
1. At first emphasis on its ethical purpose and revealed basis; then the latent intellectual element emerges, though not uniformly	[315]
The baptismal formula becomes a test.
Expansion by “apostolic teaching”	[316, 317]
The “Apostles’ Creed” and the Bishops	[317-319]
2. Related question as to sources of the Creed and the materials for its interpretation.
Value of written tradition: influence of Old Testament and common idea of prophecy: apostolicity as limit	[319, 320]
Marcion and the idea of a Canon	[320, 321]
“Faith” assumes the sense it had in Philo	[321]
3. But the speculative temper remained active upon the “rule of faith:” γνῶσις alongside πίστις, especially at Alexandria: Origen	[321-323]
Hence tendency to:
(1) Identify a fact with speculations upon it	[323, 324]
(2) Check individual speculations in favour of those of the majority	[324-326]
Results:
(i.) Such speculations formulated and inserted in the Creed, formally as interpretations: belief changed, but not the importance attached to it	[327, 328]
(ii.) Distinction between “majority” and “minority” views at a meeting, on points of metaphysical speculation	[329]
Resumé of the stages of belief	[329, 330]
Underlying conceptions to be noted	[330, 331]
(1) Philosophic regard for exact definition.
(2) Political belief in a majority.
(3) Belief in the finality of the views of an age so ascertained.
Development, if admitted, cannot be arrested	[332]
Place of speculation in Christianity	[332, 333]
[Lecture XII.] THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE BASIS OF CHRISTIAN UNION: DOCTRINE IN THE PLACE OF CONDUCT.
Association at first voluntary, according to the genius of Christianity	[334, 335]
Its basis primarily moral and spiritual: Holiness its characteristic: the “Two Ways,” Apost. Const. (Bk. i.), the Elchasaites	[335-337]
Also a common Hope: its changing form	[337, 338]
Coincident relaxation of bonds of discipline and change in idea of the Church	[338, 339]
Growing stress also upon the intellectual element	[339, 340]
Causes for this, primary and collateral	[340, 341]
(1) Importance given to Baptism realistically conceived: its relation to the ministrant	[341, 342]
(2) Intercommunion: the necessary test at first moral (e.g. Didaché), subsequently a doctrinal formula	[343-345]
This elevation of doctrine due to causes internal to the Christian communities: but an external factor enters with case of Paul of Samosata: its results	[345-347]
Lines of reaction against this transformation:
(1) Puritan or conservative tendency: Novatianism	[347, 348]
(2) Formation of esoteric class with higher moral ideal: Monachism	[348, 349]
Conclusion:
The Greek spirit still lives in Christian Churches: the vital question is its relation to Christianity	[349, 350]
Two theories—permanence of the primitive, assimilative development: no logical third	[350, 351]
On either theory, the Greek element may largely go	[351]
The problem pressing: our study a necessary preliminary and truly conservative	[352]
New ground here broken: a pioneer’s forecast: the Christianity of the future	[352, 353]

Lecture I.
INTRODUCTORY.

It is impossible for any one, whether he be a student of history or no, to fail to notice a difference of both form and content between the Sermon on the Mount and the Nicene Creed. The Sermon on the Mount is the promulgation of a new law of conduct; it assumes beliefs rather than formulates them; the theological conceptions which underlie it belong to the ethical rather than the speculative side of theology; metaphysics are wholly absent. The Nicene Creed is a statement partly of historical facts and partly of dogmatic inferences; the metaphysical terms which it contains would probably have been unintelligible to the first disciples; ethics have no place in it. The one belongs to a world of Syrian peasants, the other to a world of Greek philosophers.

The contrast is patent. If any one thinks that it is sufficiently explained by saying that the one is a sermon and the other a creed, it must be pointed out in reply that the question why an ethical sermon stood in the forefront of the teaching of Jesus Christ, and a metaphysical creed in the forefront of the Christianity of the fourth century, is a problem which claims investigation.