The objection which arises from the side of the history of dogma tends to the same result. Those who hold the theory of Greek elements in Paul must, if they are to be consistent, assert that he pioneered a path for the Gospel into the Hellenic world and prepared the way for the early Greek theology. And they do so most emphatically. Pfleiderer explains_(_65_)_ that the Greek Church-theology arose by the expulsion from Paulinism of its specifically Jewish elements, and by the free development of its “universally intelligible Hellenistic side.” The noble Platonic idealism had a place in the doctrinal system of the Apostle of the Gentiles, “and conferred on it its capacity to win the Graeco-Roman world for Christianity.” “The understanding of Paulinism is therefore a fundamental condition for the understanding of the Early Church.” And all the adherents of the theory, whatever their precise shade of opinion, express themselves to the same effect. But the history of dogma holds a different language. It has to record the fact, inconceivable as it may appear, that on the generations in which Greek dogma was taking shape Paul exercised no influence whatever. Even the external literary influence is very slight. If one sets aside the Epistles to the Ephesians and Colossians it is not even possible to speak of a deutero-Pauline literature. The Pastoral Epistles and the second letter to the Thessalonians profess to be written by the Apostle, but contain not a single thought which is characteristic of his teaching. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, in 1 Clement, in the Epistle of Barnabas, in the writings of Ignatius, in the works of Justin, expressions occur which show acquaintance with the Epistles of Paul, and may have [pg 081] been influenced by him in respect to their wording; but beyond that they show no trace of his conceptions or his spirit. The remarkable point, therefore, is that the post-Apostolic writers, though they are acquainted with the works of the Apostle of the Gentiles, make no real use of them. His ideas remain foreign, lifeless, so far as they are concerned. That is also shown by the fact that early Greek Church-theology is quite independent of him. It is concerned with the incarnation and resurrection of Christ and with regeneration; Paul’s speculations deal with the death and resurrection of the Lord, and he never speaks of regeneration. The underlying logic is in the two cases so different that the representatives of Greek theology, even if they wished to do so, could not appeal to the Apostle. No community of thought between him and Justin is to be discovered.