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Another way in which the great Greek philosophers served Christianity was to call the attention of the Greeks of their day to a reality that was greater than what they experienced everyday. Both Socrates and Plato in the fifth century B. C. Taught that this present world of the senses is only a shadow of something else, and where the highest ideals are such intellectual abstractions as the good, the beautiful, and the true. They insisted that reality was not temporal and material but spiritual and eternal. Christianity offered to those who accepted Socrates' and Plato's philosophy the historical revelation of the good, the beautiful, and the true in the personification of a God-man, Jesus Christ.
Greek literature and history also show that Greeks were concerned about questions of right and wrong and man's eternal future, though they saw sin as more of a contractual matter, not a personal failure that affronted God and injured others. The Greek people also contributed in a religious way to making the world ready to accept the new Christian religion as it appeared. The advent of materialistic Greek philosophy in the sixth century B. C. Destroyed the faith of the Greek peoples in the old pagan worship that is described in Homer's Iliad.
Even though elements of this worship lived on in the mechanical state of worship, it had lost its vitality. After then, the people turned to philosophy, but it also lost its attractiveness. Both Greek and Roman systems of philosophy and religion thus made a contribution to the coming of Christianity by destroying the old polytheistic pagan religions and by showing the inability of human reason to obtain God. The mystery religions to which many people then turned helped to accustom people to think in terms of sin and redemption so that as Christianity appeared, people within the Roman Empire were especially receptive to a religion that seemed to offer a spiritual approach to life (Lietzmann). As Christianity sprang forth from Judaism, it is important to note the interaction of Christianity in its early stages with that religion.
The Jews offered to the world the hope of a coming Messiah who would bring righteousness to the earth. This messianic hope was in sharp contrast with the nationalistic aspiration that Virgin depicted in the poem in which he described an ideal Roman ruler who was to come, the son to be born to Augustus. The hope of a Messiah had been popularized in the Roman world by its steady proclamation by the Jews. Even the disciples after the death and resurrection of Christ were still looking for a messianic kingdon on earth.
The Jewish people still further prepared the way for the coming of Christianity by providing the infant church with its message, the Old Testament. Even a casual study of th e New Testament will reveal Christ's and the apostles' deep indebtedness to the Old Testament and their reference for it as the Word of God to man.
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Research essay sample on Century B C Coming Of Christianity Greek
