DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4593#0228
THE SHRINES OF ATTICA
205
it is the same. Again and again the apologists, wear-
ing like Justin and Aristides the philosopher's garb,
show that they have not only taken the clothes of
paganism but have put on some of its ideas.1 Thus
we find Justin pointing out pagan analogies to Chris-
tian doctrine and defending the miraculous birth of
Jesus against attack because the Greeks had taught
similar things. He generously admits that there are
seeds of truth among all men, but the false teaching
of Greek mythology he ascribed to the work of
demons, — a doctrine taught earlier by Paul and
which seemed to furnish a common ground for both
religions.2 On the other hand, Celsus, the pagan
critic, inverts the argument and shows that Christian
myths are of essentially the same material as Greek
ones. The moral vigor of Christianity and its new
fraternal socialism furnished a better solvent for de-
generate heathenism than its more feeble intellectual
appeals. In its ethical and social ideals, Christianity
was a new spring-time to the world.
Remembering that we are on the Areopagus, we
may not forget the admirable courtesy of the Christian
preacher who quotes from Aratus, a Greek poet, in
proof of the universal fatherhood of God. Clcanthes
had a similar ascription in his beautiful hymn. One
must be careful not to confound the Greek religion
wholly with the terrible pictures painted by the apol-
ogists, as if such moral degeneracy were its only and
1 All the pagan usages which did not shock the new faith were
continued in Christian society; and it must be owned that the lan-
guage of the first Greek Christians accepts this alliance in a remark-
able manner. — Byzantine Art. By Charles Texier and R. Popplewell
PuIIah. Lond.
2 1 Cor. x. 20.
205
it is the same. Again and again the apologists, wear-
ing like Justin and Aristides the philosopher's garb,
show that they have not only taken the clothes of
paganism but have put on some of its ideas.1 Thus
we find Justin pointing out pagan analogies to Chris-
tian doctrine and defending the miraculous birth of
Jesus against attack because the Greeks had taught
similar things. He generously admits that there are
seeds of truth among all men, but the false teaching
of Greek mythology he ascribed to the work of
demons, — a doctrine taught earlier by Paul and
which seemed to furnish a common ground for both
religions.2 On the other hand, Celsus, the pagan
critic, inverts the argument and shows that Christian
myths are of essentially the same material as Greek
ones. The moral vigor of Christianity and its new
fraternal socialism furnished a better solvent for de-
generate heathenism than its more feeble intellectual
appeals. In its ethical and social ideals, Christianity
was a new spring-time to the world.
Remembering that we are on the Areopagus, we
may not forget the admirable courtesy of the Christian
preacher who quotes from Aratus, a Greek poet, in
proof of the universal fatherhood of God. Clcanthes
had a similar ascription in his beautiful hymn. One
must be careful not to confound the Greek religion
wholly with the terrible pictures painted by the apol-
ogists, as if such moral degeneracy were its only and
1 All the pagan usages which did not shock the new faith were
continued in Christian society; and it must be owned that the lan-
guage of the first Greek Christians accepts this alliance in a remark-
able manner. — Byzantine Art. By Charles Texier and R. Popplewell
PuIIah. Lond.
2 1 Cor. x. 20.