Even as a Christian Justin always remained a philosopher. By his
conscious recognition of the Greek philosophy as a preparation for the
truths of the Christian religion, he appears as the first and most
distinguished in the long list of those who have endeavoured to
reconcile Christian with non-Christian culture. Christianity consists
for him in the doctrines, guaranteed by the manifestation of the Logos
in the person of Christ, of God, righteousness and immortality, truths
which have been to a certain extent foreshadowed in the monotheistic
religious philosophies. In this process the conviction of the
reconciliation of the sinner with God, of the salvation of the world and
the individual through Christ, fell into the background before the
vindication of supernatural truths intellectually conceived. Thus Justin
may give the impression of having rationalized Christianity, and of not
having given it its full value as a religion of salvation. It must not,
however, be forgotten that Justin is here speaking as the apologist of
Christianity to an educated Pagan public, on whose philosophical view of
life he had to base his arguments, and from whom he could not expect an
intimate comprehension of the religious position of Christians. That he
himself had a thorough comprehension of it he showed in the _Dialogue_
with the Jew Trypho. Here, where he had to deal with the Judaism that
believed in a Messiah, he was far better able to do justice to
Christianity as a revelation; and so we find that the arguments of this
work are much more completely in harmony with primitive Christian
theology than those of the _Apology_. He also displays in this work a
considerable knowledge of the Rabbinical writings and a skilful
polemical method which was surpassed by none of the later anti-Jewish
writers.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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