subsequently incorporated with it. Its introduction into the creed of
Christendom, which was, strictly speaking, the setting up _of the first
dogma in the Church_, meant the future conversion of the rule of faith
into a philosophic system. But in yet another respect Irenaeus and
Hippolytus denote an immense advance beyond the Apologists, which,
paradoxically enough, results both from the progress of Christian
Hellenism and from a deeper study of the Pauline theology, that is,
emanates from the controversy with Gnosticism. In them a religious and
realistic idea takes the place of the moralism of the Apologists,
namely, the deifying of the human race through the incarnation of the
Son of God. The apotheosis of mortal man through his acquisition of
immortality (divine life) is the idea of salvation which was taught in
the ancient mysteries. It is here adopted as a Christian one, supported
by the Pauline theology (especially as contained in the Epistle to the
Ephesians), and brought into the closest connection with the historical
Christ, the Son of God and Son of man (filius dei et filius hominis).
What the heathen faintly hoped for as a possibility was here announced
as certain, and indeed as having already taken place. What a message!
This conception was to become the central Christian idea of the future.
A long time, however, elapsed before it made its way into the dogmatic
system of the Church.[9]

But meanwhile the huge gulf which existed between both Testaments and
the rule of faith on the one hand, and the current ideas of the time on
the other, had been recognized in Alexandria. It was not indeed felt as
a gulf, for then either the one or the other would have had to be given
up, but as a _problem_. If the Church tradition contained the assurance,
not to be obtained elsewhere, of all that Greek culture knew, hoped for,
and prized, and if for that very reason it was regarded as in every
respect inviolable, then the absolutely indissoluble union of Christian
tradition with the Greek philosophy of religion was placed beyond all
doubt. But an immense number of problems were at the same time raised,
especially when, as in the case of the Alexandrians, heathen syncretism
in the entire breadth of its development was united with the doctrine of
the Church. The task, which had been begun by Philo and carried on by
Valentinus and his school, was now undertaken in the Church. Clement led
the way in attempting a solution of the