d, his active agent at work in events.
It is not going too far to assert that, without the speculations of
Philo, the Fourth Gospel could not have been written. And yet Philo
was merely developing and applying to the Old Testament the writings of
the stoic philosophy and the {91} teaching of Plato. Does it not
follow that, in the Fourth Gospel, we have the more theosophic portions
of ancient philosophy attached externally to the life of the Prophet of
Nazareth? Under such conditions of origin, how can we begin to
separate reason and revelation? Gnosticism, stoicism, platonism, the
Old Testament, the stories of the life of Jesus, the broadening of
Christianity, all went together to make possible the mystic theology of
this gospel.

But the more Jesus was transformed into a god, the more he lost his
human characteristics. The figure of Jesus becomes elusive and
shadowy; he lives among men but is not of them. To make God a man or
man a second God was an impossible task. When all is said, the Fourth
Gospel performs this task about as well as it could be done, yet Jesus
is no longer a Galilean peasant but a mystic being who speaks in
riddles.

This vital interplay of Christianity and Hellenistic thought led to the
passing away of the older Messianic idea with its distinct limitations.
A noble monotheism was the result, while the concrete, human element
which the historical origins of Christianity had contributed to it
prevented this monotheism from losing sight of human problems. The
value of Christianity lies in its ethics but it is doubtful whether the
ethics could have become effective unless it had been carried by the
more chaotic beliefs which we usually call religious. There can be
little doubt that some religious system would have conquered the Roman
empire; the educational level was too low to enable the better type of
philosophy to dominate the life of the mass of the people. Magic and
other-worldism were rampant because the social and political
organization was unsatisfactory and mental discipline {92} was not
wide-spread. In brief, the world was still at the mythological level
and was not yet prepared for a higher plane. _This being so, the
success of Christianity was the best thing which could have happened_.

Later phases of the evolution of Christianity force us to qualify this
position that its success was the best thing which could have happened.
In order to escape the dangers which free theoso