Christian Philosophy in the Early Church

Anthony Meredith SJ was for many years a member of the Faculty of Theology at Oxford and Tutor in Patristics at Campion Hall. He also taught at Heythrop College, University of London. He is the author of The Cappadocians (1998) and Gregory of Nyssa (1999).

• 1. Introduction / 2. St. Paul, the Apostolic Fathers and the Apologists of the Second Century / 3. The Alexandrian School / 4. The Influence of Philosophy on the Language and Thought of the Councils / 5. St. Augustine / 6. Epilogue

Anthony Meredith has poured a lifetime of learning into this extraordinary book. He tells the dramatic, yet subtle and complex story of the Church in its relation to Philosophy, always managing to avoid the two-fold danger, fatal to so many other accounts, of glib and misleading generalities, on the one hand, and a dizzying, excessive display of detailed learning, on the other. Meredith is learned; but he's always a pleasure to read. His prose is relaxed, yet clear and forceful; eloquent, even uplifting when it needs to be, and frequently graced with a wink of puckish humour.This book will surely become a standard source for students seeking to discover just what Athens did in fact have to do with Jerusalem.