Hellenism and Christianity

This is the latest book in the Doxa & Praxis series co-published by WCC Publications and the Volos Academy for Theological Studies.

In this book, published originally in Greek in 1976 and translated by Fr Gregory Edwards, the late Metropolitan John D. Zizioulas of Pergamon, Ecumenical Patriarchate, provides the reader with a very well-informed and nuanced critical approach to the various issues related to the meeting of Hellenism and Christianity, with a particular focus on what he sees as the first three formative centuries of the early church. In this work, Zizioulas considers the special role played by Judaism in this development, along with how various church intellectuals and fathers of the early church (Ignatius of Antioch, Irenaeus of Lyon, etc.) addressed this new situation, striving to articulate a distinctive Christian worldview while expressing their own faith in the trinitarian God as it was experienced in the eucharistic life of the ecclesial communities. (From the foreword to the English edition)

Doxa & Praxis: Exploring Orthodox Theology

Foreword to the English Edition

Part 1: Hellenism at the Historical Roots of Christianity

Introduction

Chapter 1: Hellenism’s Penetration into the Judaism of Palestine and the Diaspora

The Jewish Element in the Kingdoms of the Diadochi

The Ingress of Greek Education into Judaism

The Influence of Greek Philosophy on the Jews

Jewish Resistance to Greek Influence

Jewish Apocalyptic and Greek Thought

The Jewish Character of Apocalyptic

The Greek Influence on the Hebraic Character of Judaism

Chapter 2: Christianity in Greek-speaking Judaism

The Question of the Historicity of Jesus

The Problem of the “Hellenists” in the New Testament

The Early Christian Communities of Jews and Greeks

The Greek Language and Early Christology

Chapter 3: Christianity in Paganistic Hellenism

The Transmission of Christianity to the “Gentile” World

Paul’s Position on the Issue of the Relationship Between Greeks and Jews

Greeks Assume Leadership of the Church

Paul’s Missionary Journeys

Paul and the Greek Intellectual Tradition

Paul and Greek Categories of Thought

Hellenism in the Gospel of John

The Greek View of the World and the Concept of the Incarnation

Greek Cosmology and Early Christology

Connecting Christ with the Greek Idea of the World

From Greek Cosmology to Christian Creationism

The Mysteries

Ethical and Social Ideals

The Organization of the Church

Part 2: Hellenism at the Beginning of the Patristic Era

Introduction

Chapter 4: Forms and Trends in the Hellenization of Christianity

The Fundamental Hellenization of Christianity

The Heresies

The Moderate Hellenization of Christianity

The Apologists

The First Apologists

Justin

The Emergence of a Christianized Hellenism

The Apostolic Fathers

Clement of Rome

Ignatius of Antioch

Irenaeus

Conclusion: The Birth of a New World

Selected Bibliography

Index

• By (author) John D. Zizioulas
• Edited by Nikolaos Asproulis
• Translated by Gregory Edwards