CHRISTIANITY AND THE CLASSIC CULTURE: OPOSITION OR INTEGRATION?

Abstract

The aim of this work is to discuss the doctrinal and pedagogical presuppositions of the primitive Christianity, having as a frame of reference the dialogue established between Christianity and the classic culture. Worthy of mention is the fact that either the valuation as well as the incorporation of Greacoroman concepts/categories/elements were realized under the new conception of deity defended by Christianity. Christ was the base, the mediator of the referred dialogue, once His teachings and His own person were respectively conceived as the “path” to be taken and the “model” to be emulated by the Christian body.  It was Paul of Tarsus who initially divulged Jesus’ “new” proposal as a pedagogical fact that crossed the Palestinian boundaries.  In this sense, the earliest Christian thinkers acted upon  the Pauline pedagogy, once to those religion education was thought as a process which goal was the quest for human and supernatural plenitude. That process would be conducted based on sacred Christian writing and Christ imitation.