the key factor was its skill in seizing the high ground of Greek thought, especially Plato. Other schools had their role to play. The Stoics had spoken of a brotherhood of man not very different from Paul’s vision of the brotherhood of Christians, as he very well knew.7 Aristotle’s theory of substance would come in handy when Christians had to explain how a spiritually all-powerful God could become flesh and blood and how a holy offering of bread and wine could turn into the real presence of a resurrected Jesus Christ. But Plato was crucial. His works provided a framework for making
...more
