Early Christianity as learning process taken from Hellenistic tradition
Review of Early Christianity and Greek Paideia by Werner Jaeger
Though I was taken aback at how slim this text is, it offers a crucially important point of view: the Christians not only adopted a methodology of inquiry from the Greeks and selectively incorporated concepts from Plato, the Stoics, and even sophists into their early theology.
In the early stages, that of enthusiastic evangelism, Jaeger emphasizes that Christians were then a Jewish sect who were living in a Hellenized context. Serving an international, multi-ethnic group of mini-empires, paideia represented the core of this Hellenization, an educational system that relied on the reading of classical Greek texts from Homer to Plato and beyond. Its purpose was to create the ideal citizen, first for the polis in the classical age and later for the subjects of the Macedonian generals who inherited portions of Alexander's vast empire. Paideia led to a mastery of rhetoric and classical references, necessary for all civil professions and hence a kind of stamp of pedigree, creating a guild-like barrier to the non-educated.
The paideia method relied on the critical exegesis of the individual texts as well as a comprehensive mastery of the entire corpus of literature, philosophy, and later even art. What the earliest Christians did, according to Jaeger, was absorb a number of Greek ideas, such as "logos" from the stoics as well as Plato's ideal forms as thoughts in the mind of God as well as Plato’s notions of philosophical education as a way towards comprehension of ultimate truth.
Once Christians began to face persecution, its leaders and intellectuals recognized the need to become more systematic in their defense, acting not just as a state would have done, but to create an intellectual edifice and refined method of education. This was the time of Origen, who turned Christian theology into philosophy explicitly using the methods and concepts contained in paideia. Origen did this by 1) turning to the Bible as a principal source of philosophical ideas for what made a good Christian, 2) employing exegesis of the Bible as his method and 3) arguing that Christianity was the one true mystery religion that should replace all pagan practices.
After Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire under Constantine and Theodosius, Christian theologians began to produce their own innovations. Unlike the Greeks, who were focused exclusively on their cultural legacy as superior to all others, Christianity offered a universal philosophy of history that applied to all people; it was an eschatology as well as a promise of salvation. In addition, Christians added a new twist to the notion of free will: men had to be taught to make the right choice in a gradual, lifelong process of striving; a large part of this was education along the lines of paideia, i.e. seeking the divine logos (or "word") in the Bible as a way to connect to God and harmonize with the good in nature. In a way, Christianity reinvigorated paideia, offering a new source (the Bible) but also genuinely new concepts. Clement wanted to establish Christianity as of equal or superior intellectual caliber to the pagan versions.
A final step in late antiquity came with the Cappadocians. Unlike the aristocrats in the major urban areas, they were rougher, often seen as provincial barbarians. What they did was provide more accessible, popular writings – the creation of a true Christian literature that pulled the ideas of Origen out of esoteric and scholarly texts. This popularization was taken to the rural masses, who were often pagan.
These ideas represent a fundamental addition to my understanding of early Christianity. Indeed, in creating a theology based on learning rather than law, the Christian fathers had created a new synthesis, arguably the reason that Christianity spread in a different way than the other mystery cults of the time, such as Manichaeism. However, what Jaeger fails to answer is why only Christianity was able to accomplish this. It remains a great mystery to me. Moreover, after mentioning the Jews in the beginning of the book, he neglects to explain their contributions, if any, to paideia or vice versa for their own methods of textual exegesis.
I recommend this to readers interested in the history of Christianity. It is very scholarly and advanced as a text.