Early Christianity and Greek Paideia

Early Christianity and Greek Paideia by Werner Jaeger, 102 pages

 

A short coda to his masterpiece Paideia, this book is an adaptation of a series of lectures by Jaeger on the subject of the ideals of Greek pedagogy in the writings of the early Church fathers.  With a careful, scholarly approach Jaeger reveals both the continuities and discontinuities between Hellenistic culture and the patristic Christianity which replaced it.  It is Jaeger's central contention that the concept of paideia served as a common denominator between Greek learning and Christian theology.

 

After a brief survey of the first two centuries, Jaeger focuses on two intersections of classicism and Christianity - Origen and Platonic philosophy, and the Cappadocian fathers and Athenian rhetoric.  Unfortunately (but understandably), this lacks the thoroughness with which he covered his topic in Paideia.  Equally unfortunately, Jaeger lacked access to research conducted subsequently on early Christianity, particularly on Gnosticism.

 

Excellent, but not comparable to his other work.