Pisarze chrześcijańscy wobec kultury klasycznej

Abstrakt

The paper has a very synthetic form. It shows what attitude early Christian writers (till St. Augustin) adopted towards classic culture.

Pageantry was not only a religion which penetrated the customs, laws and institutions, but it was also a stimulus and inspiration for the poets, artist and thinkers. The masterpieces of Greece and Rome were imbued with the knowledge and spirit of pageantry, and constituted the fruit of eight centuries of civilization. The Christian had to adopt an attitude towards them. Among the Christian scholars of those times one may distinguish two groups: some, the moderate ones, were positive towards pagan culture. They noticed precious treasures in classic culture, which could be used in Christianity (e.g. St. Justin, Athenagoras, St. Theophilus Antiochene, or the anonymous author of the treatise De monarchia); others were against (e.g. Tatian, Hermias and Tertullian). All of them took advantage of the values which they had learned in the pagan schools: the beauty of the language and style, the manner of proving and arriving at the truth, and some principles of the moral good. Minutius Felix imitated the language of Cicero, Lactantius accepted his way of thinking. They tried to change the spirit of the humanities, to impose a Christian taint on them and give them to the service of the Gospel (St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory Nazjanzen, Lactantius, St. Ambrose, St. Heronymus and St. Augustine).