Through its entire history the Church has held the Old Testa-
202 CHRISTIANITY AND OTHER FAITHS
is remarkable that there is actually.so little evidence of influence from Greek sources in the New Testament. Yet there is some and it is important. The Stoic poet Aratus is quoted with approval in Acts 17:28. Only dogmatic prejudging of the issue can fail to find Hellenistic thought in the prologue of John.4* The frequent occurrences of the symbols "light" and "darkness" in John and elsewhere tell us emphatically of Persian influence, whether direct or —more probably—indirect.
The acceptance of the Eucharist as a rite of purification, of
identification with the life of the Saviour, and of admission to life after death show similarities to some rites of the Mysteries too close for mere coincidence. The Mysteries certainly included such
rites earlier, so may be presumed to have influenced Christian interpretation of the Lord's Supper. Some of the references to Christian "mysteries" in the New Testament 3° and in patristic literature confirm this view.
2. In Subsequent Church History
Through its entire history the Church has held the Old Testament to be an integral part of its sacred Scriptures. This doctrine, with the consequent practice, has guaranteed that Old Testament religion would continue to exert a powerful influence on the Christian faith. At times it has even tended to submerge more distinctive aspects of the Gospel—as in the crusades, the various Calvinistic attempts to establish a legalistic theocracy, and some recent trends of African sectarianism.
It is the practice in some theological circles to deprecate the Christian apologetics of the second century as a betrayal, or at least a serious dilution, of the New Testament faith. But without such men as Justin, Clement of Alexandria, and then Origen there
_would have-been no such formulations of Christian doctrine as appear in the ecumenical creeds, now usually regarded as the very
___ symbols and norms of orthodoxy.
Justin and Clement used the Stoic doctrine of the logos sper-
__ matikos as the instrument for interpreting the relation between _ Christ and the best of pagan thought and life. The Logos which was incarnate in Jesus, they said, had implanted the seed of divine ©
™Cf. A. C. Bouquet, The Christian Faith and the Non-Christian Religions (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), pp. 146-49; cf. p. 158. _ ™E.g., see 1 Cor. 4:1.
Christianity and the Non-Christian Religions 203
truth in such men as Heraclitus and Socrates. All that was true and admirable, wherever found, the Apologists viewed as the work of Christ the eternal Word of God, and hence, they believed, should be welcomed with joy by the Church, but supplemented and fulfilled by the knowledge of Christ himself in all his fullness.
In the early Christian centuries, not only the works of Greek philosophers, but also such Greco-Roman religious literature as the Sibylline Oracles were sometimes recommended by the Fathers
for edifying Christian reading."
The early Christians found so much in paganism which was similar to elements of Christian doctrine and worship that they could not be content to regard the similarities as mere coincidence. When they did not explain them by reference to the wider activity of the Logos, they attributed them to devils who deliberately imitated the truth—sometimes even before it was revealed to men— in order to confuse and tempt men. This doctrine is highly significant, not because it commends itself as true—for certainly it does not—but because it testifies so emphatically to the presence of common elements in the paganism and the Christianity of those early centuries.
Much of the actual religious life of Europe remained a complex amalgam of Christian and pagan elements long after evangelization. Most of the European countries were "converted" as peoples, not individual by individual. Many old religious customs continued, with new names and interpretations. Often the names of saints—some of them probably not historical—took the place of the pagan deities and the familiar celebrations continued.
Of course the penetration has not been all from one side. ProbZ ably most Christian influence on orthodox Judaism has been nega- — tive. Modern orthodox Judaism is especially characterized by the rejection of Jesus Christ. This rejection encourages some interpretations of the Old Testament which are contrary to Christian doctrine, _ and it discourages other interpretations—especially of the later Prophets—which might lead some readers or hearers nearer to an eee acceptance of Christ. In the liberal Jewish community, on the other hand, there has been much infiltration of Christian thought and one may even hear, occasionally, favorable references to passages in the Gospels in Sabbath services. Liberal Judaism and
* See, e.g., Justin, First Apology, Chapter 44.