Question 100 · Christians and the world around them
What did they think of Greek philosophy and reason?
What the sources show
Justin Martyrc. 155 · Clement of Alexandriac. 200An ally
Justin and Clement saw philosophy as a preparation: the Word sowed seeds of truth in it, and it was a schoolmaster to Christ for the Greeks. 12
Tertullianc. 203 · Origen of Alexandriac. 238 · Augustine of Hippoc. 397
Tertullian warned "What has Athens to do with Jerusalem?", against philosophy as the root of heresy. Augustine's answer became the common one: take the gold of Egypt, every truth the philosophers found, for the service of Christ. The image was Origen's first, in his letter to his pupil Gregory. 345
The answers given:
ApostolicBefore NicaeaNicaea and afterMiddle AgesReformation to today
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Before Nicaea
150–325
155c. AD
An ally
Justin Martyr c. 100–c. 165 ADSecond Apology 13.4
Whatever has been well said among all people belongs to us Christians. For next to God we worship and love the Word, who is from the unbegotten and inexpressible God, since for our sake he became man, so that, sharing our sufferings, he might also bring healing.
Justin, a philosopher in his cloak, called Christianity "the only sure and useful philosophy" (Dialogue 8).
Full English of this work is being translated
Ὅσα οὖν παρὰ καλῶς εἴρηται, ἡμῶν τᾶν Χριστιανῶν ἐστι· τὸν γὰρ ἀπὸ ἀγεννήτου καὶ ἀῤῥήτου θεοῦ λόγον μετὰ τὸν θεὸν προσκυνοῦμεν καὶ ἀγαπῶμεν, ἐπειδὴ καὶ δι᾿ ἡμᾶς ἄνθρωπος γέγονεν, ὅπως καὶ τῶν παθῶν τῶν ἡμετέρων συμμέτοχος γενόμενος καὶ ἴασιν ποιήσηται.S. Iustini Aplogiae Duae Justin Marytr Gerhard Rauschen P. Hanstein Bonnae 21911 Internet Archive (First1KGreek TEI, urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0645.tlg002) · English: translated for this page from the Greek
200c. AD
An ally
Clement of Alexandria c. 150–c. 215 ADStromata 1.5.28
Philosophy was a schoolmaster to bring the Greek mind to Christ, as the law brought the Hebrews. So philosophy prepares the way for one who is made perfect by Christ.
The Alexandrian view.
Full English of this work is being translated
ἐπαιδαγώγει γὰρ καὶ αὕτη τὸ Ἑλληνικὸν ὡς ὁ νόμος τοὺς Ἑβραίους εἰς Χριστόν. προπαρασκευάζει τοίνυν ἡ φιλοσοφία προοδοποιοῦσα τὸν ὑπὸ Χριστοῦ τελειούμενον.Clement of Alexandria Otto Stählin Clemens Alexandrinus Stromata Hinrichs Leipzig 1906-1909 2-3 Google Books Internet Archive (Perseus TEI, urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0555.tlg004) · English: translated for this page from the Greek
203c. AD
A danger
Tertullian c. 155–c. 220 ADPrescription against Heretics 7.9–13
What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What has the Academy to do with the Church? What have heretics to do with Christians? Our teaching comes from the porch of Solomon, who himself taught that the Lord must be sought in simplicity of heart. Away with those who have produced a Stoic, Platonic and dialectical Christianity! We have no need of curiosity after Christ Jesus, nor of inquiry after the gospel.
Tertullian's target is philosophy as the source of heresy. He himself used Stoic ideas freely.
Full English of this work is being translated
Quid ergo Athenis et Hierosolymis? quid academiae et ecclesiae? quid haereticis et Christianis? Nostra institutio de porticu Solomonis est, qui et ipse tradiderat dominum in simplicitate cordis esse quaerendum. Viderint qui Stoicum et Platonicum et dialecticum Christianismum protulerunt. Nobis curiositate opus non est post Christum Iesum, nec inquisitione post evangelium.Quinti Septimii Florentis Tertulliani Quae Supersunt Omnia Tertullian Franz Oehler T. O. Weigel Leipzig 1854 2 HathiTrust (Perseus canonical-latinLit TEI, urn:cts:latinLit:stoa0275.stoa024) · English: translated for this page from the Latin
238c. AD
An ally
Origen of Alexandria c. 185–c. 254 ADLetter to Gregory (Philocalia 13) 2
And perhaps something like this is hinted at in what is written in Exodus in God's name, that the sons of Israel should be told to ask from their neighbours and fellow lodgers vessels of silver and gold and clothing, so that, by spoiling the Egyptians, they might find material for making the things taken over for the worship of God. For from what the sons of Israel spoiled from the Egyptians were made the things in the Holy of Holies: the ark with its cover, and the cherubim, and the mercy seat, and the golden jar in which the manna, the angels' bread, was kept.
Origen writes to his pupil Gregory, the future Gregory Thaumaturgus, urging him to take from Greek philosophy whatever can serve as general education or preparation for Christianity, as geometry and astronomy serve the reading of Scripture (section 1 of the letter). The Egyptians' gold is his warrant; his warning follows at once (section 3): few take Egypt's useful things and leave, but many, like Hadad the Edomite, end by making a golden calf. The letter is kept as chapter 13 of the Philocalia and printed in Migne PG 11; the text here is the Khazarzar witness, fetched because the library's Philocalia section holds only the letter's opening.
Full English of this work is being translated · Source text
Augustine of Hippo 354–430 ADOn Christian Doctrine 2.40.60
If those who are called philosophers, especially the Platonists, have said anything true and in harmony with our faith, we should not fear it, but claim it for our use from them as from unjust owners. For as the Egyptians had not only idols and heavy burdens, which the people of Israel hated and fled, but also vessels and ornaments of gold and silver and clothing, which that people, leaving Egypt, took for themselves for a better use, by God's command ... so all the teachings of the Gentiles have not only false and superstitious inventions ... but also liberal disciplines more suited to the service of truth.
"Spoiling the Egyptians": the image Origen had used before (Letter to Gregory).
Full English of this work is being translated
Philosophi autem qui vocantur, si qua forte vera et fidei nostrae accomodata dixerunt, maxime Platonici, non solum formidanda non sunt, sed ab eis etiam tamquam ab iniustis possessoribus in usum nostrum vindicanda. Sicut enim Aegyptii non tantum idola habebant et onera gravia, quae populus Israel detestaretur et fugeret, sed etiam vasa atque ornamenta de auro et de argento et vestem, quae ille populus exiens de Aegypto sibi potius tamquam ad usum meliorem clanculo vindicavit, non auctoritate propria, sed praecepto Dei ... sic doctrinae omnes Gentilium non solum simulata et superstitiosa figmenta ... sed etiam liberales disciplinas usui veritatis aptioresLatin Wikisource, De Doctrina Christiana, prologue and books 1-4. Book 2.8.12-13 matches the Migne text in Corpus Corporum. The Wikisource work page calls the edition Migne 1841. · English: translated for this page from the Latin
Witnesses not in the library yet
These writers also matter for this question. Their texts will join the timeline above once they are translated.
370
Basil of Caesarea, Address to Young Men on Greek Literature
How to read the pagan classics with profit.
165
Tatian, Oration to the Greeks
The most hostile early view of Greek culture.
How this page was made
Every early quote was read in its Greek or Latin and translated for this page by Claude (Opus 5.5) on 13 October 2026. Each line names the printed edition it was read from. A quote marked indirect does not state the answer outright; read its note. A writer's silence is never counted as an answer.