SPOGBOLT   |   Location: Newfoundland, Canada

June 02, 2007

The Hellenic moment in ancient Christianity (2)

Together, the primitive and monastic phases of Christianity can be defined to cover virtually the whole lifespan of the Western Roman Empire; the first monastic community of St. Pachomius in 320, for example, was founded within a few years of the legalization of Christianity. Wedged between these two periods, however, and to some extent overlapping with them, was a "Hellenic" (or Hellenic conversion) phase, dated by Peter Brown at 300–363 A.D. During this period, Christianity seemed to become reconciled with the pre-existing Greco-Roman civilization, and absorbed aspects of that civilization. The resulting changes that Christianity went through continued to have an effect on the religion later on as well. To a great extent, though, Christianity (especially in the West) soon renounced those Hellenic influences, so that "Hellenic Christianity" has quite a different flavour from the familiar traditional kind—for example, in its willingness to appeal to unaided human reason . . . . CONTINUE

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