Origen And Greek Patristic Theology

nes of the faith in a form adapted to the spirit of the times. Men like Justin and Clement had themselves passed over from heathen philosophy, and naturally carried with them much of its influence; but they had nevertheless an ardent desire to see Christian truth in its right place. It would be as unwarrantable to seek the main source of their theology in the philosophical speculation of the period as it would be to say that the Hebrew religion was essentially altered in the post-exilic period because it embellished itself somewhat with Persian angelology. After all, the Alexandrian Fathers " did not exchange the gospel for Ncoplatonism."1 They resolutely maintained the supreme authority of Holy Scripture; and with whatever distortions and incongruities it may have been associated, the assertion of this principle of an objective rule of faith was in itself of the utmost value in combating a philosophy of which the only standard lay in the subjective notions of its advocates. The moulding of Christian theology according to the Greek type is specially identified with the Catechetical School of Alexandria. The origin of this famous school appears to have been as spontaneous as its growth was marked. It arose out of the necessities of the Alexandrian Church, but of its first beginnings we 1 Eedepenning, i. p. 98. have no historical account. Owing, probably, to this circumstance it has been variously described as a school for catechumens, as a theological seminary, and...