Tertullian would have applauded a theological paradigm that sharply distinguished darkness from light, truth from error, grace from wrath.
Saint Jerome, who gave us the Vulgate, would also have praised this approach and would have resisted the notion that the pagan writers could teach Christians anything of spiritual value. Even Augustine himself-who, before his conversion, was a follower of the dualistic Manicheans-would most likely have positioned himself closer to Luther than Aquinas-despite the fact that he, like Luther, was an accomplished classicist and for several years a Neoplatonist.
