Episode 19 (after a hiatus with 18): Did St. Paul Betray Jesus: Hellenization You Say?

This week’s episode is found here.

Today we look at the question of Hellenization, that is, did the Gospel’s encounter with Greek thought alter the content of the Gospels?

St. Paul preaching on Mars Hill, Raphael

This opinion, as we will see, has been championed mostly by Protestants with an axe to grind with Roman Catholicism, liberal Protestants (the great historian of Theology, Adolph von Harnack) with axe’s to grind against supernatural religion, and even some Catholics (Petavius) who sought thereby to defend the absolute prerogative of the Popes in determining and establishing Doctrine.

Several book as are mentioned in this episode, and all are worth a look, but the top three are the first ones listed in this bibliography.

At the very top of the list is Jaroslav Pelikan’s Christianity and Classical Culture: The Metamorphosis of Natural Theology in the Christian Encounter with Hellenism. The value of Pelikan’s study cannot be minimized, and this book is well worth the time it takes to master it.

Next on the list is the three-volume work of Fr. Jean Daniélou, History of Early Christian Doctrine Before the Council of Nicaea. Vol I, The Theology of Jewish Christianity, is hard to find, as the link will lead you to copies in the hundreds. Not much better prices can be found at Bookfinder. Better prices are found for Vol. II (Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture), and the same is not true of Vol. III, The Origins of Latin Christianity.

Next on the list is Charles Norris Cochrane’s old, but still valuable Christianity and Classical Culture (Pelikan was paying homage to Cochrane by the use of this title for his own work).

Certainly dom Gregory Dix’s The Shape of the Liturgy should be mentioned as well as the first volume of Pelikan’s history of dogma, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, Vol. 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600)

I hope you all enjoy this episode. If you did, please share with your mates on Facebook and Twitter.

In Christ, Cyril