The Role of Hellenization of Early Christianity in the Formation of Philosophical and Theological Thought

Abstract

Modern Christian culture was built on a double foundation (Hebraism and Hellenism), and it was the refraction of Greek culture in the spirit of certain religious and philosophical ideas that made it possible. The final development of Greek culture did not proceed from religion to rationalism. It was aimed at an even more intense search for the Almighty God. The focus of the Hellenic culture was wisdom, and the Christian faith was the exaltation of God according to the Holy Scriptures. Greek civilization had a significant impact on Christian thought and determined the final form of the Christian religious tradition. Our purpose in writing this article is not only to prove the influence of Hellenism on the formation of the views of the first Christian thinkers, but also to demonstrate how apostolic orthodoxy prevailed over Platonism and Hellenistic thought in general. Thus, this article is devoted to the study of the Hellenization of Christianity, which occurred in the period up to the 3rd century AD. e. It examines the influence of the early Greek religion on Christianity, the manifestations of the Hellenization of Christianity in the apostolic age, as well as the teachings of the philosophers of the Alexandrian theological school and its important representatives – Clement and Origen. Thanks to the analysis, the author concludes that Christianity in its current state was formed, among other things, under the influence of Greek culture. Moreover, the Greek cultural tradition eventually became an integral part of it, because of such interaction there was a gradual transition from “Jewish” to “Hellenistic” Christianity, which first became the main state religion of the Roman Empire, and then one of the world religions.