 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
|
 |
IV
RESURRECTED SELF
By the middle of the second century ©.E, most of the scriptural documents that would
later in the century be collected to form the New Testament were well known to
Christian thinkers. Attention turned increasingly to the task of interpreting what
was novel and puzzling in these scriptures. This task was bequeathed to a group of
classically educated pagans, called
apologists , who had converted to
Christianity.
Their response was to rationalize Christianity using the resources of Greek
philosophy. One of their major preoccupations was the problem of evil. Dealing
with it tended to focus their attention on the freedom of the will. However,
most in need of rationalization were the deeply puzzling dogmas of the Trinity,
the divinity of Christ, and, of course, both the Resurrection of Christ and the
resurrection of ordinary humans, each of which concerned the nature of self or
person. Their discussion of all of these contributed to the Western conception
of a person. But it was their discussion of the resurrection of humans that left
a decisive and indelible mark on subsequent attempts to understand the self
and personal identity.
The apologists tried to emulate the work of Philo, who had recently harmo-
nized the Hebrew Scriptures and Greek philosophy. As we have seen, Philo’s
work not only served as a model, but through the Gospel of John may even have
influenced the actual content of Christian Scripture. Ironically, Philo had a big-
ger influence on Christian philosophy than he did on Jewish thought, due to his
having been from Alexandria, far removed from the center of Jewish culture,
and to his having recently completed for Judaism a task that so closely paralleled
the one the apologists felt a pressing need to undertake for Christianity.
 |