t only in its effects upon the
intellectual life of the times, but also in the influence of the current
philosophical conceptions on the statement of its doctrine. The
significance of this early period lies in the fact that, in the
positive, definite system of Christianity, systematic thought, which was
fast becoming disorganized and sceptical, found a center about which it
might rally and focus itself, and the scattered fragments of philosophy
were all collected together, by either friends or foes, about the new
religion. The new point of view and the new relations would be most
significant, too, in that department of thought with which the contact
of this new central system had most to do, and thus the treatment of the
theistic problem exhibits in a special degree the alteration in the
standpoint and method of philosophy. It threw into bold relief the old
basis of belief in the divine, and aroused a comparison and discussion
of the validity of the various arguments hitherto used by speculative
thought, and set them over in sharp contrast to the claims of the new
revelation. In the early period when this contrast was most clearly
felt, and time had not yet permitted a complete fusion and blending of
the two points of view, we find a simplicity of situation which will aid
analysis and facilitate the study of the relation of the old arguments
for the existence of a God to the Christian doctrine, and which will
help in determining the elements due to each and in interpreting the
reasons for the direction of thought on this subject, which
characterized the whole of the Mediaeval period.

In the representations of early Christian thought, however, we find
great differences in the emphasis laid upon the speculative side of the
theistic problem. Christian philosophy is no exception to the rule that
the thought of the race develops through the needs, temperaments and
tendencies with which it comes into contact, and unfolds itself
naturally in response to internal or external stimuli--the doubts,
intellectual needs and growing consciousness and experience of the
believer, and the cavils, objections and attacks of his opponent. The
first Christian teachers had to meet simple problems, and the mission of
the Apostolic and sub-Apostolic Church was to "the people." Its first
task, determined by the conditions in which the Christians found
themselves, as well as by the command of their Master, was to convert
the Jews, who, by their