e utters the truth which the times demand--that
which satisfies the conditions. Thus with Professor Erdmann[92] the
patristic writers would say that each statement of philosophical truth
is "the final truth only for that time." It is the phase or aspect or
particular statement of the truth which the times demand, which the
situation calls forth, and which appeals most strongly to the minds that
make up part of that situation. Changed conditions demand a different
statement of the truth to satisfy them, and furnish the data upon which
such a statement is based. Philosophy, like science, "does not really
accumulate, but is entirely transformed by each fresh hypothesis. It is
only the data that accumulate; and when we say that a new hypothesis is
'truer' than that which preceded it, we mean merely that it enables us
to co-ordinate a larger number of these data."[93] And this
transformation takes place, in reality, not only by addition, but by
subtraction of data. For it is a phenomenon common to the thought of all
ages, that each school not only calls attention to new data, ignored by
its predecessor, but also shuts its eyes to more or less of the valid
data set forth by the earlier system. In no period of the history of
thought were men more commonly led into abstractions by being dazzled by
the brilliancy and novelty of the latest idea than in the pioneer age
represented by Greek philosophy, when men had not yet attained to a
clear perspective, and the foot-hills often hid the lofty mountain peak.

It is this trait, so evident in the naive thought of the Greeks, that
makes it possible for the early Christian thinkers to take the attitude,
at once appreciative and critical with regard to the Hellenic theology.
They borrowed much, not only from the form, but also from the results of
the speculations of the philosophers, but always with a deep sense of
the limitations which the conditions imposed upon them. Socrates, Plato,
Aristotle and the rest had spoken the truth, but each only from one
point of view, and on the basis of only one method of approach. The
conclusions of each were the result of a process of more or less
complete abstraction, and in abstractions the Fathers, true to the
genius of Christian thought, could never rest content, but could only
accord to them the appreciation which belongs to a temporary and
preliminary stage in the search for the final unity.

To this partial, temporary, "relatively final," and