Now we step over the bridge from the pre-Christian world to the Christian era. Remarkably, both banks of the river look very much alike, especially at first.

Alexandria (founded by its namesake Alexander the Great in 333 B.C.) had become the leading commercial and intellectual city of the world by this time. Its library of 700,000 volumes attracted scholars from all over the world. The Septuagint (the Hebrew Bible into Greek) was translated here. And "Christian Wisdom" got its start here as well.

The first Christian philosophers wanted to do three important things: (1) explain their faith to the Greek world; (2) bring pagans to Christ; and (3) encourage Christians to think well about their beliefs. They are known to us as "apologists," from the Greek word for "defense" (see 1 Peter 3:15: "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have"). The first apologists defended Christianity against philosophical attacks, and made their faith systematic for the sake of the Church. They did us all an enormous service.

The most important of these early apologists was Justin Martyr. Justin (his last name derives from his death for Christ) based his doctrine on divine revelation, and denied that we can know God apart from that revelation. However, he also believed that God has planted "seeds" of knowledge of himself in all people. This is the "seminal Logos," a Stoic term used by Justin in a very un-Stoic sense.

In this view the great philosophers have all lived and taught to some degree according to the Logos, and everything true in their teaching comes from God. But Christians have not merely seeds or fragmentary portions of the truth, but the Logos himself, the Lord Jesus. Therefore, the Christian revelation transcends the teaching of the philosophical schools.

This was a brilliant attempt to bring Christianity and Greek philosophy together, and has much to commend itself to us. However, Justin's own use of his method sometimes went astray. For instance, he developed a subordinationist theology regarding the Trinity (ranking the Father above the Son, who is above the Spirit), so as to make his theology more consistent with Neo-Platonism. But while we can fault some of his method, we cannot question the piety of his faith or the passion of his love for Jesus.

We will meet with those who undertake this apologetic task across the rest of our survey.