ce their whole
philosophy and mysticism. He preached the foolishness of Christ
crucified, and yet in doing so, proclaimed the wisdom of the
nature-vanquishing Spirit, the heavenly Christ. From this moment was
established a development which might indeed assume very different
forms, but in which all the forces and ideas of Hellenism must gradually
pass over to the Gospel. But even with this the last word has not been
said; on the contrary, we must remember that the Gospel itself belonged
to the fulness of the times, which is indicated by the inter-action of
the Old Testament and the Hellenic religions (see above, pp. 41, 56).

The documents which have been preserved from the first century of the
Gentile Church are, in their relation to the history of Dogma, very
diverse. In the Didache we have a Catechism for Christian life,
dependent on a Jewish Greek Catechism, and giving expression to what was
specifically Christian in the prayers, and in the order of the Church.
The Epistle of Barnabas, probably of Alexandrian origin, teaches the
correct, Christian, interpretation of the Old Testament, rejects the
literal interpretation and Judaism as of the devil, and in Christology
essentially follows Paul. The Romish first Epistle of Clement, which
also contains other Pauline reminiscences (reconciliation and
justification) represents the same Christology, but it set it in a
moralistic mode of thought. This is a most typical writing in which the
spirit of tradition, order, stability, and the universal ecclesiastical
guardianship of Rome is already expressed. The moralistic mode of
thought is classically represented by the Shepherd of Hermas, and the
second Epistle of Clement, in which, besides, the eschatological element
is very prominent. We have in the Shepherd the most important document
for the Church Christianity of the age, reflected in the mirror of a
prophet who, however, takes into account the concrete relations. The
theology of Ignatius is the most advanced, in so far as he, opposing the
Gnostics, brings the facts of salvation into the foreground, and directs
his Gnosis not so much to the Old Testament as to the history of Christ.
He attempts to make Christ [Greek: kata pneuma] and [Greek: kata sarka]
the central point of Christianity. In this sense his theology and speech
is Christocentric, related to that of Paul and the fourth Evangelist,
(specially striking is the relationship with Ephesians), and is strongly
contras