DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.14564#0215
CITIES OF EGYPT.
" thinkers the world has known. He is of the school of
Alexandria, yet one of ourselves, as the greatest men
have no time or country, but are the true brethren of
all mankind. He is of the Alexandrians, for by race
an Egyptian, by training a Greek, by choice a Christian,
he, the most learned man of the early Church, always
remained Egyptian and Greek as well as Christian. He
is one of us, and so the most interesting figure of his time,
because he alone looked at the problems of theology
with modern as well as with ancient eyes. He accepts
the doctrines of Christianity, and uses philosophy for
their definition ; so far he is ancient. Suddenly we see
him calling on his reason and his moral sense to explain
that which in its current form neither is willing to receive.
Then he betakes himself to Hebrew criticism, and trans-
lates afresh every passage of Scripture bearing on his
difficulty ; now he is modern. Thus it is with his
famous argument in favour of the restitution of all
things, which, be it remembered, he never advanced but
as a theory, with modesty and reverence. But the argu-
ment, if it deal with that which is beyond man's reason, is
well worth reading for its imaginative force and that finer
tenderness which exalts him above his modern successors.
" thinkers the world has known. He is of the school of
Alexandria, yet one of ourselves, as the greatest men
have no time or country, but are the true brethren of
all mankind. He is of the Alexandrians, for by race
an Egyptian, by training a Greek, by choice a Christian,
he, the most learned man of the early Church, always
remained Egyptian and Greek as well as Christian. He
is one of us, and so the most interesting figure of his time,
because he alone looked at the problems of theology
with modern as well as with ancient eyes. He accepts
the doctrines of Christianity, and uses philosophy for
their definition ; so far he is ancient. Suddenly we see
him calling on his reason and his moral sense to explain
that which in its current form neither is willing to receive.
Then he betakes himself to Hebrew criticism, and trans-
lates afresh every passage of Scripture bearing on his
difficulty ; now he is modern. Thus it is with his
famous argument in favour of the restitution of all
things, which, be it remembered, he never advanced but
as a theory, with modesty and reverence. But the argu-
ment, if it deal with that which is beyond man's reason, is
well worth reading for its imaginative force and that finer
tenderness which exalts him above his modern successors.