Leadership in this union arose in Alexandria at the so-called catechetical school led by Clement and Origen. They were the first of a succession of Christian scholars thoroughly familiar with the wisdom of Greece and enthusiastic for its philosophy, yet loyal to the teaching of Christ. They tried to blend into Christianity all that was best in the culture of the Hellenic world, especially in the Platonic and Stoic philosophers. “The way of truth,” Clement said, “is one. But into it as into a perennial river, streams flow from all sides.”
