an be no doubt about the character of Christian dogmas.
_They are the rational truths, revealed by the prophets in the Holy
Scriptures, and summarised in Christ_ ([Greek: christos logos kai
nomos]), _which in their unity represent the divine wisdom, and the
recognition of which leads to virtue and eternal life._ The Apologists
considered it their chief task to set forth these doctrines, and hence
they can be reproduced with all desirable clearness. The dogmatic scheme
of the Apologists may therefore be divided into three component parts.
These are: (A) Christianity viewed as monotheistic cosmology (God as the
Father of the world); (B) Christianity as the highest morality and
righteousness (God as the judge who rewards goodness and punishes
wickedness); (C) Christianity regarded as redemption (God as the Good
One who assists man and rescues him from the power of the demons).[419]
Whilst the first two ideas are expressed in a clear and precise manner,
it is equally true that the third is not worked out in a lucid fashion.
This, as will afterwards be seen, is, on the one hand, the result of the
Apologists' doctrine of freedom, and, on the other, of their inability
to discover a specific significance for the _person_ of Christ within
the sphere of revelation. Both facts again are ultimately to be
explained from their moralism.

The essential content of revealed philosophy is viewed by the Apologists
(see A, B) as comprised in three doctrines.[420] First, there is one
spiritual and inexpressibly exalted God, who is Lord and Father of the
world. Secondly, he requires a holy life. Thirdly, he will at last sit
in judgment, and will reward the good with immortality and punish the
wicked with death. The teaching concerning God, virtue, and eternal
reward is traced to the prophets and Christ; but the bringing about of a
virtuous life (of righteousness) has been necessarily left by God to men
themselves; for God has created man free, and virtue can only be
acquired by man's own efforts. The prophets and Christ are therefore a
source of righteousness in so far as they are teachers. But as God, that
is, the divine Word (which we need not here discuss) has spoken in them,
Christianity is to be defined as the Knowledge of God, mediated by the
Deity himself, and as a virtuous walk in the longing after eternal and
perfect life with God, as well as in the sure hope of this imperishable
reward. By knowing what is true and doing what is good