sting in the churches to be complete and pure and
in itself requiring no scientific revision. In a word, the gulf which
existed between the religious thought of philosophers and the sum of
Christian tradition is still altogether unperceived, because that
tradition was not yet fixed in rigid forms, because no religious
utterance testifying to monotheism, virtue, and reward was as yet
threatened by any control, and finally, because the speech of philosophy
was only understood by a small minority in the Church, though its
interests and aims were not unknown to most. Christian thinkers were
therefore still free to divest of their direct religious value all
realistic and historical elements of the tradition, while still
retaining them as parts of a huge apparatus of proof, which accomplished
what was really the only thing that many sought in Christianity, viz.,
the assurance that the theory of the world obtained from other sources
was the truth. The danger which here threatened Christianity as a
religion was scarcely less serious than that which had been caused to it
by the Gnostics. These remodelled tradition, the Apologists made it to
some extent inoperative without attacking it. The latter were not
disowned, but rather laid the foundation of Church theology, and
determined the circle of interests within which it was to move in the
future.[6]

But the problem which the Apologists solved almost offhand, namely, the
task of showing that Christianity was the perfect and certain
philosophy, because it rested on revelation, and that it was the highest
scientific knowledge of God and the world, was to be rendered more
difficult. To these difficulties all that primitive Christianity has up
to the present transmitted to the Church of succeeding times contributes
its share. The conflict with Gnosticism made it necessary to find some
sort of solution to the question, "What is Christian?" and to fix this
answer. But indeed the Fathers were not able to answer the question
confidently and definitely. They therefore made a selection from
tradition and contented themselves with making it binding on Christians.
Whatever was to lay claim to authority in the Church had henceforth to
be in harmony with the rule of faith and the canon of New Testament
Scriptures. That created an entirely new situation for Christian
thinkers, that is, for those trying to solve the problem of
subordinating Christianity to the Hellenic spirit. That spirit never