Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and Cases 22nd Edition Thompson Test Bank

Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and
Cases 22nd Edition Thompson Test Bank download
https://testbankfan.com/product/crafting-and-executing-strategy-
concepts-and-cases-22nd-edition-thompson-test-bank/
Visit testbankfan.com today to download the complete set of
test bank or solution manual

We believe these products will be a great fit for you. Click
the link to download now, or visit testbankfan.com
to discover even more!
Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and Cases 22nd
Edition Thompson Solutions Manual
concepts-and-cases-22nd-edition-thompson-solutions-manual/
Crafting and Executing Strategy 19th Edition Thompson Test
Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/crafting-and-executing-strategy-19th-
edition-thompson-test-bank/
Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and Cases The
Quest for Competitive Advantage 20th Edition Thompson Test
Bank
concepts-and-cases-the-quest-for-competitive-advantage-20th-edition-
thompson-test-bank/
Introducing Physical Geography 5th Edition Strahler Test
Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/introducing-physical-geography-5th-
edition-strahler-test-bank/

Communication Matters 2nd Edition Kory Floyd Solutions
Manual
https://testbankfan.com/product/communication-matters-2nd-edition-
kory-floyd-solutions-manual/
M Organizational Behavior 3rd Edition McShane Test Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/m-organizational-behavior-3rd-edition-
mcshane-test-bank/
Sociology Pop Culture to Social Structure 3rd Edition Brym
Test Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/sociology-pop-culture-to-social-
structure-3rd-edition-brym-test-bank/
Basic College Mathematics through Applications 5th Edition
Akst Test Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/basic-college-mathematics-through-
applications-5th-edition-akst-test-bank/
Business and Society Ethics and Stakeholder Management
Canadian 1st Edition Karakowsky Test Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/business-and-society-ethics-and-
stakeholder-management-canadian-1st-edition-karakowsky-test-bank/

Nutrition Through the Life Cycle 6th Edition Brown Test
Bank
https://testbankfan.com/product/nutrition-through-the-life-cycle-6th-
edition-brown-test-bank/

1
Copyright © 2020 McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved.
No reproduction or distribution without the prior written onsent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Crafting and Executing Strategy, 22e (Thompson)
Chapter 6 Strengthening a Company's Competitive Position
1) Bonobos's Guideshop store concept allows men to have a personalized shopping experience,
where they can try on clothing in any size or color, and then have it delivered the next day to
their home or office. This fashion retail concept is a good example of
A) an offensive strategy to leapfrog competitors by being the first adopter of next-generation
technologies or being first to market with next-generation products.
B) an offensive strategy to offer an equally good or better product at a lower price.
C) an offensive strategy to seek uncharted waters and compete in blue oceans.
D) a defensive strategy to minimize the competitive advantages of rivals.
E) a defensive strategy to capture occupied territory by maneuvering around rivals.
Answer: C
Explanation: See Illustration Capsule 6.1. The principal offensive strategy options include: (1)
offering an equally good or better product at a lower price; (2) leapfrogging competitors by being
the first to market with next-generation technology or products; (3) pursuing continuous product
innovation to draw sales and market share away from less innovative rivals; (4) pursuing
disruptive product innovations to create new markets; (5) adopting and improving on the good
ideas of other companies; (6) using hit-and-run or guerrilla warfare tactics to grab sales and
market share from complacent or distracted rivals; and (7) launching a preemptive strike to
capture a rare opportunity or secure an industry's limited resources. Blocking the avenues open to
challengers is considered a defensive strategy.
Difficulty: 2 Medium
Topic: Strategic Approaches to Winning a Sustainable Competitive Advantage
Learning Objective: 06-01 How and when to deploy offensive or defensive strategic moves.
Bloom's: Understand
AACSB: Knowledge Application
Accessibility: Keyboard Navigation

2
2) A hit-and-run or guerrilla warfare type offensive strategy
A) involves random offensive attacks used by a market leader to steal customers away from
unsuspecting smaller rivals.
B) involves undertaking surprise moves to secure an advantageous position in a fast-growing and
profitable market segment; usually the guerrilla signals rivals that it will use deep price cuts to
defend its newly won position.
C) works best if the guerrilla is the industry's low-cost leader.
D) involves pitting a small company's own competitive strengths head-on against the strengths of
much larger rivals.
E) involves unexpected attacks (usually by a small-to-medium size competitor) to grab sales and
market share from complacent or distracted rivals.
Answer: E
Explanation: Guerrilla offensives are surprising moves that are particularly well suited to small-
to-medium size challengers that have neither the resources nor the market visibility to mount a
full-fledged attack on industry leaders.
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Bloom's: Remember
3) Sometimes it makes sense for a company to go on the offensive to improve its market position
and business performance. The best offensives tend to incorporate the following EXCEPT
A) focusing relentlessly on building a competitive advantage.
B) applying resources where rivals are least able to defend themselves.
C) using a strategic offensive to allow the company to leverage its weaknesses to strengthen
operating vulnerabilities.
D) employing the elements of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect and are prepared
for.
E) displaying a strong bias for swift, decisive, and overwhelming actions to overpower rivals.
Answer: C
Explanation: The best offensives tend to incorporate several principles: (1) focusing relentlessly
on building competitive advantage and then striving to convert it into a sustainable advantage,
(2) applying resources where rivals are least able to defend themselves, (3) employing the
element of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect and are prepared for, and (4)
displaying a capacity for swift and decisive actions to overwhelm rivals.
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Bloom's: Remember

3
4) Once a company has decided to employ a particular generic competitive strategy, then it must
make the following additional strategic choices, except whether to
A) focus on building competitive advantages.
B) employ the element of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect and are prepared for.
C) display a strong bias for swift, decisive, and overwhelming actions to overpower rivals.
D) create and deploy company resources to cause rivals to defend themselves.
E) pay special attention to buyer segments that a rival is already serving.
Answer: E
Explanation: The best offensives tend to incorporate several principles: (1) focusing relentlessly
on building competitive advantage and then striving to convert it into a sustainable advantage,
(2) applying resources where rivals are least able to defend themselves, (3) employing the
element of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect and are prepared for, and (4)
displaying a capacity for swift and decisive actions to overwhelm rivals.
Bloom's: Understand
AACSB: Analytical Thinking
5) Companies like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Google employ all but ONE of the following
offensive actions to complement and supplement the choice of one of the five generic
competitive strategies. Which is not an example of an offensive move?
A) focusing on building competitive advantages
B) employing the element of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect and are prepared for
C) pursuing a market share leadership strategy
D) displaying a strong bias for swift, decisive, and overwhelming actions to overpower
E) creating and deploying company resources to cause rivals to defend themselves
Answer: C
Explanation: The offensive moves that these four companies pursue incorporate: (1) focusing
relentlessly on building competitive advantage and then striving to convert it into a sustainable
advantage, (2) applying resources where rivals are least able to defend themselves, (3)
employing the element of surprise as opposed to doing what rivals expect and are prepared for,
and (4) displaying a capacity for swift and decisive actions to overwhelm rivals. Pursuing a
market share leadership strategy is not among those moves.
Bloom's: Understand

4
6) Strategic offensives should, as a general rule, be based on
A) exploiting a company's strongest competitive assets—its most valuable resources and
capabilities.
B) instigating and executing the chosen strategy efficiently and effectively.
C) scoping and scaling an organization's internal and external situation.
D) molding an organization's character and identity.
E) satisfying the buyer's needs that the company seeks to meet.
Answer: A
Explanation: Strategic offensives should, as a general rule, be grounded in a company's
strategic assets and employ a company's strengths to attack rivals in the competitive areas where
they are weakest.
Bloom's: Understand
7) The principal offensive strategy options include all of the following except
A) offering an equally good or better product at a lower price.
B) using hit-and-run or guerrilla warfare tactics to grab sales and market share from complacent
or distracted rivals.
C) launching a preemptive strike to secure an advantageous position that rivals are prevented or
discouraged from duplicating.
D) pursuing continuous product innovation to draw sales and market share away from less
innovative rivals.
E) initiating a market threat and counterattack simultaneously to effect a distraction.
Answer: E
Explanation: The principal offensive strategy options include: (1) offering an equally good or
better product at a lower price; (2) leapfrogging competitors by being first to market with next-
generation products; (3) pursuing continuous product innovation to draw sales and market share
away from less innovative rivals; (4) pursuing disruptive product innovations to create new
markets; (5) adopting and improving on the good ideas of other companies; (6) using hit-and-run
or guerrilla warfare tactics to grab market share from complacent or distracted rivals; and (7)
launching a preemptive strike to secure an industry's limited resources or capture a rare
opportunity.
Bloom's: Understand

5
8) Offensive strategic moves involve all of the following except
A) leapfrogging competitors by being first to market with next-generation products.
B) using hit-and-run or guerrilla warfare tactics to grab sales and market share.
C) launching a preemptive strike to secure an advantageous position that rivals are prevented or
discouraged from duplicating.
D) pursuing continuous product innovation to draw sales and market share away from rivals.
E) blocking the avenues open to challengers.
Answer: E
Explanation: The principal offensive strategy options include: (1) offering an equally good or
better product at a lower price; (2) leapfrogging competitors by being first to market with next-
generation products; (3) pursuing continuous product innovation to draw sales and market share
away from less innovative rivals; (4) pursuing disruptive product innovations to create new
markets; (5) adopting and improving on the good ideas of other companies; (6) using hit-and-run
or guerrilla warfare tactics to grab market share from complacent or distracted rivals; and (7)
launching a preemptive strike to secure an industry's limited resources or capture a rare
opportunity. Blocking the avenues open to challengers is a defensive strategy.
Bloom's: Understand
9) An offensive to yield good results can be short if
A) buyers respond immediately (to a dramatic cost-based price cut or imaginative ad campaign).
B) competition creates an appealing new product.
C) the technology needs debugging.
D) new production capacity needs to be installed.
E) consumer acceptance of an innovative product takes time.
Answer: A
Explanation: How long it takes for an offensive to yield good results varies with the
competitive circumstances. It can be short if buyers respond immediately (as can occur with a
dramatic cost-based price cut, an imaginative ad campaign, or a disruptive innovation).
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Bloom's: Understand

6
10) Bumble, a digital dating site where women make the first move, specifically uses which
strategic weapon in its offensive arsenal?
A) pursuing disruptive product innovations to create new markets
B) adopting and improving on the good ideas of other companies or rival firms
C) using hit-and-run guerilla warfare tactics to grab market share from distracted or complacent
rivals
D) launching a preemptive strike to capture an industry's limited resources or capture a rare
opportunity
E) offering an equally good or better product at a lower price than rivals
Answer: A
Explanation: Disruptive innovation to create new markets involves perfecting a new product
with a few trial users and then quickly rolling it out to the whole market in an attempt to get
many buyers to embrace an altogether new and better value proposition quickly. While this
strategy can be riskier and more costly than a strategy of continuous innovation, it can be a game
changer if successful. Examples include online universities, Bumble (dating site where women
make the first move), Venmo (digital wallet), Apple Music, CampusBookRentals, and Waymo
(Alphabet's self-driving tech company).
Bloom's: Analyze
11) The worst targets for an offensive-minded company to target are
A) market leaders that are strong.
B) runner-up firms with strengths in areas where the offensive-minded challenger is weaker.
C) large multinational companies with vast capabilities and resources.
D) runner-up firms that have amassed sufficient resources and capabilities to place them on the
verge of becoming market leaders.
E) other offensive-minded companies that possess a sizable war chest of cash and marketable
securities.
Answer: E
Explanation: The following are the best targets for offensive attacks: (1) market leaders that are
vulnerable; (2) runner-up firms that possess weaknesses in areas where the challenger is strong;
(3) struggling enterprises that are on the verge of going under; and (4) small local and regional
firms that possess limited capabilities and resources.
Bloom's: Analyze

7
12) Launching a preemptive strike type of offensive strategy entails
A) sapping the rival's financial strength and competitive position.
B) weakening the rival's resolve.
C) moving first to secure advantageous competitive assets that rivals can't readily match or
duplicate.
D) threatening the rival's overall survival in the market.
E) using hit-and-run tactics to grab sales and market share away from complacent or distracted
rivals.
Answer: C
Explanation: By definition, a preemptive strike by a challenger means moving first to secure
advantageous competitive assets that rivals cannot readily match or duplicate.
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Bloom's: Understand
13) A blue-ocean strategy
A) is an offensive strike employed by a market leader that is directed at pilfering customers away
from unsuspecting rivals to boost profitability.
B) involves an unexpected (out-of-the-blue) preemptive strike to secure an advantageous
position in a fast-growing market segment.
C) works best when a company is the industry's low-cost leader.
D) involves abandoning efforts to beat out competitors in existing markets and instead invent a
new industry or new market segment that renders existing competitors largely irrelevant and
allows a company to create and capture altogether new demand.
E) involves the use of highly creative, never-used-before strategic moves to attack the
competitive weaknesses of rivals.
Answer: D
Explanation: A blue-ocean strategy seeks to gain a dramatic and durable competitive advantage
by abandoning efforts to beat out competitors in existing markets and, instead, inventing a new
market segment that renders existing competitors irrelevant and allows a company to create and
capture altogether new demand.
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Bloom's: Remember

8
14) A good example of blue-ocean type of offensive strategy is
A) a company like EERO that leapfrogged rivals in innovation in the home Wi-Fi market.
B) a company like EasyJet that developed a cost advantage to undercut its rivals in passenger
airlines
C) a company like Home Depot that adopted and improved on the good ideas of other
companies.
D) a company like Australian winemaker Casella Wines that created a Yellow Tail brand
designed to appeal to a wider market, one that also includes consumers of other alcoholic
beverages.
E) a company like Google that plays hardball, aggressively pursuing competitive advantage and
trying to reap the benefits a competitive edge offers—a leading market share, excellent profit
margins, and rapid growth.
Answer: D
Explanation: Casella Wines' Yellow Tail is prominently mentioned in the chapter as an
exemplar of using a blue-ocean strategy, one that seeks to gain a dramatic and durable
competitive advantage by inventing a new industry or distinctive market segment that renders
existing competitors largely irrelevant and allows a company to create and capture altogether
new demand. All of the other companies mentioned have deployed offensive strategies of one
kind or another, but none use a blue-ocean strategy.
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Bloom's: Analyze
15) An example of a company that does not use blue-ocean market strategy is
A) eBay in the online auction industry
B) Tune Hotels in the lodging industry
C) Uber and Lyft in the ridesharing industry
D) Cirque du Soleil in the live entertainment industry
E) Walmart's logistics and distribution in the retail industry
Answer: E
Explanation: A notable example of such blue-ocean market space is the online auction industry
that eBay created and now dominates. Other companies that have created and continue to
dominate blue-ocean market spaces include Cirque du Soleil, Drybar, Netjets, Uber and Lyft,
and Tune Hotels.
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Bloom's: Analyze

9
16) As general manager of a local restaurant chain, you have been asked to develop defensive
moves to protect your company's market position and restrict any challenger's options for
initiating a competitive attack. You would present all but ONE of the following strategic options
to your executive team.
A) Challenge struggling runner-up restaurants that are on the verge of going under.
B) Grant volume discounts or better financing terms to dealers/distributors and provide discount
coupons to customers to help discourage them from frequenting other local restaurants.
C) Signal to challengers and new entrants in the local restaurant industry that retaliation is likely
in the event they launch an attack.
D) Publicly commit your restaurant chain to a policy of matching a competitor's terms or prices
or breadth of menu items.
E) Maintain a war chest of cash and/or marketable securities.
Answer: A
Explanation: Challenging struggling runner-up restaurants that are on the verge of going under
is instead an example of an offensive strategy. In the fiercely competitive local restaurant market,
all firms are subject to offensive challenges from rivals. The purposes of defensive strategies are
to lower the risk of being attacked, weaken the impact of any attack that occurs, and induce
challengers to aim their efforts at other rivals.
Difficulty: 3 Hard
Bloom's: Apply
17) The purposes of a defensive strategy do not include
A) increasing the risk of having to defend an attack.
B) weakening the impact of any attack that occurs.
C) pressuring challengers to aim their efforts at other rivals.
D) helping protect a competitive advantage.
E) decreasing the risk of being attacked.
Answer: A
Explanation: In a competitive market, all firms are subject to offensive challenges from rivals.
The purposes of defensive strategies are to lower the risk of being attacked, weaken the impact
of any attack that occurs, and induce challengers to aim their efforts at other rivals. While
defensive strategies usually don't enhance a firm's competitive advantage, they can definitely
help fortify the firm's competitive position, protect its most valuable resources and capabilities
from imitation, and defend whatever competitive advantage it might have.
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Bloom's: Remember

10
18) To fend off a competitive attack, defensive-minded companies
A) remain steadfast to current product features and models to ensure resources are not diverted
toward unproductive efforts.
B) avoid giving suppliers volume discounts or providing them with better financing terms from
the strategic response in order to maintain current profitability levels.
C) use innovation and intellectual property protection to obtain product line exclusivity to force
competitors to use other distributors.
D) void all lengthy warranties to save money.
E) avoid competitor's clients since their loyalty will not allow them to switch.
Answer: C
Explanation: The most frequently employed approach to defending a company's present
position involves actions that restrict a challenger's options for initiating a competitive attack.
Any number of obstacles can be placed in the path of would-be challengers. A defender can
introduce new features, add new models, or broaden its product line to close off gaps and vacant
niches to opportunity-seeking challengers. It can thwart rivals' efforts to attack with a lower price
by maintaining its own lineup of economy-priced options. It can discourage buyers from trying
competitors' brands by lengthening warranties, making early announcements about impending
new products or price changes, offering free training and support services, or providing coupons
and sample giveaways to buyers most prone to experiment. It can induce potential buyers to
reconsider switching. It can challenge the quality or safety of rivals' products. Finally, a defender
can grant volume discounts or better financing terms to dealers and distributors to discourage
them from experimenting with other suppliers, or it can convince them to handle its product line
exclusively and force competitors to use other distribution outlets.
Bloom's: Understand

11
19) What is the goal of signaling a challenger that strong retaliation is likely in the event of an
attack?
A) to alleviate their fears by committing to reduce the costs of value chain activities
B) to cause the challenger to begin the attack instead of waiting
C) to dissuade challengers from attacking or diverting them into using less-threatening options
D) to create collaborative relationships with challengers
E) to insulate other firms from adverse impacts resulting from the challenge
Answer: C
Explanation: The goal of signaling challengers that strong retaliation is likely in the event of an
attack is either to dissuade challengers from attacking at all or to divert them to less-threatening
options. Either goal can be achieved by letting challengers know the battle will cost more than it
is worth.
Bloom's: Understand
20) A signal that would not warn challengers that strong retaliation is likely is
A) publicly announcing management's commitment to maintain market share.
B) publicly committing to a company policy of matching competitors' terms or pricing.
C) maintaining a war chest of cash and marketable securities.
D) making a strong counter-response to the moves of weak competitors.
E) publicly announcing strong quarterly earnings potential to financial analysts.
Answer: E
Explanation: Signals to would-be challengers can be given by: publicly announcing
management's commitment to maintaining the firm's present market share; publicly committing
the company to a policy of matching competitors' terms or prices; maintaining a war chest of
cash and marketable securities; making an occasional strong counter response to the moves of
weak competitors to enhance the firm's image as a tough defender.
Difficulty: 1 Easy
Bloom's: Remember

12
21) Tinder's first-mover strategic thrust into the online dating industry resulted in a high payoff
in all of the following except
A) pioneering rollout of the dating app on college campuses helped build up the firm's image and
reputation and created strong brand loyalty.
B) users remained strongly loyal to Tinder because of incentives and switching cost barriers.
C) learning how to use Tinder was kept proprietary.
D) moving first constituted a preemptive strike, making competitive imitation very difficult or
unlikely for rivals.
E) market uncertainties made it difficult for Tinder's founding team to ascertain whether or not
the dating app would eventually succeed.
Answer: E
Explanation: See Illustration Capsule 6.2. There are five conditions in which first-mover
advantages are most likely to arise: (1) when pioneering helps build a firm's reputation and
creates strong brand loyalty; (2) when a first mover's customers will thereafter face significant
switching costs; (3) when property rights protections thwart rapid imitation of the initial move;
(4) when an early lead enables the first mover to move down the learning curve ahead of rivals;
and (5) when a first mover can set the technical standard for the industry.
Learning Objective: 06-02 When being a first mover, fast follower, or a late mover is most
advantageous.
Bloom's: Understand

Other documents randomly have
different content

higher natures. Aristotle alone among the Greeks had had a clear
conception of spirituality, but he had conceived spirituality as applied
solely to God. He had not conceived God to be a person. But the
Stoic antithesis of reason and what is contrary to reason, and the
Platonic antithesis of the supersensuous and the sensuous, had
marked off in man the inner personal nature of man as withdrawn
into itself and set over against his sensuous nature. The more this
ethical dualism became a religious dualism, the more the conception
of spiritual personality was extended to all human beings. Its most
refined expression was in the Christian conception of the soul.
The Revival of Platonism. The Platonism of the Academy had
had little influence in the Ethical Period and its tradition had been
barely kept alive. The Middle Academy had been skeptical and the
New Academy eclectic. The Religious Period, on the other hand, was
thoroughly Platonic, and Plato from this time until the Crusades
became the ruling philosophical power. For three hundred years his
influence had been nothing; for the next twelve hundred he
dominated men’s minds, so far as any philosopher could in religious
times. When the Wise Man vanished from philosophy, and the
expectation of spiritual blessedness took its place, when Skepticism
drove men from ethics, first to eclecticism and then to theology,
when philosophy passed to mysticism—then did Platonism, with its
antithesis between the sensible and the supersensible, come to its
own. Of all the historical philosophies it could best amalgamate all
religions. Platonism (1) absorbed Oriental religions, (2) furnished a
didactic form for Christianity, (3) recreated itself into the mystic neo-
Platonism. The world-longing for the supernatural found its best
medium in Platonism. When the Wise Man vanished, the mystic
priest appeared.
The Divisions of the Religious Period. Out of the seething
religious times at the beginning of this era, there emerged two
distinct currents of thought that extended through the entire length
of the Religious Period, and carried down into the Middle Ages all the
culture that the mediæval possessed. The two movements were

(1) the religious philosophies of the still persistent Hellenic
civilization, and (2) the new-born Christian religion, which was
destined to determine the future of the western people. If we
scrutinize these two movements we shall find that each has its
introductory and its development stages, and at the point of division
in each stands a great leader who was instrumental in bringing
about the transition. The great neo-Platonist, Plotinus (204–269),
marks the division line in the Hellenic movement; the Christian,
Origen (185–254), marks the division line in theological Christianity.
While these men were contemporaries, we shall take, for various
reasons, the year 200 as the date of division of the Christian
movement, and the year 250 as the date of division of the Hellenic
movement. The first stage of each movement we shall call its
Introductory Period, and the second its Development Period.
During their Introductory Periods the two movements tried to
draw together under the influence of the philosophical eclecticism
which colors this time. In their Development Periods the two
movements draw apart, become closed and mutually repellent. The
historical developments of the two movements from beginning to
end are very different. The tide of Hellenism floods with Plotinus, its
greatest representative, and after him there is a gradual ebb. On the
other hand, Christianity shows a continuous growth, both internally
and externally, and the mighty Origen only points to the mightier
Augustine. Both movements finally merge in Augustine.
I. Hellenic Religious
Philosophy.
II. Christianity.
1. Introductory Period
(100 B. C.–250 A. D.).
Introductory Period (31 A. D.–
200 A. D.).
(1) Greek-Jewish
philosophy of
Alexandria.
Philo (25 B. C.–50
A. D.).
(1) Period of simple faith
(until the 2d century
A. D.).

(2) Neo-Pythagoreanism
(100 B. C.–150 A. D.).
(2) Period of Earlier
Formulation of Doctrine.
Apologists (2d century).
Gnostics (2d century).
Old Catholic Theologians
(2d and 3d centuries).
2. Development Period (250–
476).
Development Period (200–
476).
Neo-Platonism.
Plotinus (204–269).
Jamblichus (d. 330 about).
Proclus (410–485).
(1) Period of Actual
Formulation of Doctrine.
The School of Catechists.
Origen (185–254).
(2) The Œcumenical Councils
and the establishment of
dogma.
The Hellenic Religious Philosophies. Alexandria and not
Athens was now the intellectual centre of Hellenism. The position
and history of the city, as well as the character of its population,
were most favorable for the mingling of religions and philosophies.
In the “university” of this great commercial metropolis the treasures
of Greek culture were concentrated and scholastic work was
vigorously pursued. Here all philosophies met, and all religions and
cults were tolerated. Exhausted Greek philosophy here came in
contact with those fresh Oriental ideas which previously, at a
distance, had excited the imagination of the Greeks as something
mysterious. The result was a new phase of philosophy,—theosophy,
comparative religion, or eclecticism of philosophy and religion.
In no instance were the authors of these religious philosophies
Greeks. The philosophy of Philo was a Hellenism, but the Hellenism
of a Jew. Neo-Pythagoreanism seems to have had representatives
from every country except the motherland of Greece. The author of
neo-Platonism was born in Egypt. Of the two introductory
movements, the Greek-Jewish philosophy accorded more with

Oriental life, neo-Pythagoreanism with Greek life. Both go back to
the principles that were fundamental in the Pythagorean mysteries.
The Introductory Period of Hellenic Religious Philosophy
(100 B. C.–250 A. D.). The Turning to the Past for Spiritual
Authority.
1. The Greek-Jewish Philosophy of Philo. The Jews lived in
great numbers in Alexandria, and many of them were wealthy and
influential. In Alexandria the Old Testament had been translated into
Greek, and through it the Greeks had become acquainted with the
religion of the Jews. While the Old Testament contained the
philosophy of the Jews, these Alexandrian Jews had learned in
Alexandria to admire greatly the philosophy of the Greeks. So great
was their admiration that they soon conceived Plato to be in their
Law and their Law in Plato. They argued that since the Old
Testament was their revelation, all the best Greek philosophy must
be in the Old Testament. The Alexandrian Jews used Greek
conceptions wherever they found them; and this tendency toward
eclecticism appeared as early as 160 B. C. in Aristobulus and
Aristeas. At that time these Jews used Greek philosophy in
interpreting the Old Testament and employed the “allegorical
method of interpretation.” This eclectic tendency was brought to
completion by Philo (25 B. C.–50 A. D.), who was the most notable
philosopher of this time. Philo was guided in his eclecticism by some
such rules as these: (1) Revelation is the highest possible authority
and includes the best of Greek thought; (2) Greek philosophy is
derived from the fundamental principles of the Old Testament;
(3) Jewish revelation is expressed in symbols, while Greek
philosophy is expressed in concepts.
Philo’s teaching contains, in unsymmetrical form, both Stoicism
and Platonism, and in it can be found the seeds of all that grew up
in Christian soil. His philosophy was a bridge from the philosophy of
Judaism to Christian theology. It has been called a “buffer”
philosophy.

God is the ultimate cause of the world, but He is so transcendent
that He can be described only in negative terms. This method of
defining God got the name in later times of “negative theology.” It
was the common method in these Alexandrian days. God is
absolutely inconceivable and inexpressible to man; to Himself He is
“I am who am.” The goodness of God impelled Him, and His power
enabled Him, to create the world. From this point of view Philo is a
monist. But in man reason and sense meet. Man’s soul is from God,
but his sense-body is from matter, and from this point of view Philo
is a dualist. Matter is outside God. God is so transcendent that He
cannot come in contact with matter, and so He created the world
and rules the world through mediators or “potencies.” These
“potencies” are the same as the Ideas of Plato, the “reasons” of the
Stoics, the numbers of the Pythagoreans, the angels of the Old
Testament, or the dæmons of popular mythology. The sum-total of
God’s activity in the world was called by Philo the Logos. Philo
speaks of the Logos in two ways: sometimes as the plural number of
teleological forces in the world; sometimes as the unity of these
forces, “the first begotten of God,” “the second God,” “the son of
God.” The Logos represents the first attempt to overcome the
dualism between matter and God. The Logos is the high priest
standing between God and the world. It is the everlasting revelation
of God’s presence. Philo’s world is made by God and not by others,
and is the expression of God’s thought in infinite forms and forces.
God is not defiled by coming into contact with matter. God gives
orders, the Logos obeys. Philo believed in transmigration of souls,
and to him the most important problem is, How the spirit can
become like God. The answer is (1) by the acquirement of the Stoic
apathy, (2) by possessing the Aristotelian dianoetic virtues, (3) by
complete absorption in God.
2. Neo-Pythagoreanism. The history of Pythagoreanism is
extremely varied. Its body of doctrine from epoch to epoch was
continually changing. The only characteristic common to its entire
history was its practical tendency toward asceticism and its affiliation
with the Mysteries. Let us review the history of Pythagoreanism

down to the time of neo-Pythagoreanism. In 510 B. C., at the battle
of Crotona, the early band of Pythagoreans was dispersed, and
about 504 B. C. Pythagoras died. His scattered followers formed a
school centring at Thebes around the philosophy of numbers, and
this school lasted until 350 B. C. In 350 B. C. Pythagoreanism no
longer existed as a school, for its members had either joined the
Academy or formed one of the Mysteries. In 100 B. C.
Pythagoreanism again emerged under the name of neo-
Pythagoreanism, and this is the body which we meet in the
introductory stage of the Religious Period. Alexandria was its centre,
but it drew its disciples from every part of the earth. Among them
Apollonius alone rises as a distinct figure. He was widely known, for
he traveled everywhere as a religious teacher and wonder-worker.
Other neo-Pythagoreans were P. Nigidius Figulus, a friend of Cicero,
Sotion, a friend of the Sextians, Moderatus of Gades, and in later
times Nicomachus of Gerasa and Numenius of Apamea. Another, and
rather numerous group, allied to the neo-Pythagoreans, should be
mentioned here. These were the so-called Eclectic Platonists, the
representatives of whom were Plutarch (50–125 A. D.), and Celsus
(about 200 A. D.), the opponent of Christianity. The only important
difference between the neo-Pythagoreans and the Eclectic Platonists
was that the former referred to Pythagoras as their religious model,
and the latter to Plato. Both were mystical, ascetic, and eclectic.
Neo-Pythagoreanism first became noticeable in the first century
B. C., on account of the great number of writings appearing under
the names of Pythagoras and Philolaus. About these there arose a
large neo-Pythagorean literature,—about ninety treatises by fifty
authors. The writings under the name of Pythagoras were, for many
centuries, the cause of the misconception of the true teaching of the
original Pythagoras. The advent of the neo-Pythagorean literature
marks the return at Alexandria to the older systems of thought, and
is coincident with the learned literary investigations in the University
of Alexandria. The particular revival of Pythagoreanism in the form
of neo-Pythagoreanism came at the same time with the renewal of
the Homeric form of poetry.

Neo-Pythagoreanism, as its history shows, is the philosophy of a
half-religious sect with ascetic tendencies. Its transcendental
philosophy was better suited to a people under an autocratic
government, and ruled by Oriental traditions, than was the ethical
teaching of the four Schools. The system of the ethical Schools arose
out of the needs of the individual; but at this time the cry was for an
absolute object which transcends both the individual and nature.
The demand was for a god who could be served not by sacrifice, but
by silent prayer, wisdom, and virtue. There are many points of
similarity between the doctrine of Philo and neo-Pythagoreanism.
The neo-Pythagoreans were monotheistic, but at the same time they
accepted within their monotheism the hierarchy of the gods. They
held to the commonly accepted doctrines of their time, viz., the
transmigration of the soul, the dualism of the mind and body, the
mediation of a graded series of celestial beings between man and
God. They interpreted God in a spiritual way, but they conceived the
ideas in God’s mind to be the Pythagorean numbers—just as Philo
conceived them to be the Old Testament angels.
The Development Period of Hellenic Religious Philosophy
(250–476 A. D.). The Turning to the Present for Spiritual
Authority. Platonism and Neo-Platonism. Neo-Platonism is the
final statement of Hellenic culture, and the question may be asked,
In what form did it present Hellenism? The answer is, It sets forth
the Hellenic feeling as mysticism. The contribution of Plotinus was
the destruction of the classic Greek ideal with its definiteness of
form, and was the substitution of a new ideal of soaring spiritual
exaltation. One has only to look back to the art, science, and
philosophy of the Periclean Age to appreciate how far this last
survival of Greek culture had drifted from its original moorings.
Nevertheless, neo-Platonism is not so very far distant from that
powerful ascetic principle in the Greek mysteries which is one aspect
of the doctrine of Plato himself. Neo-Platonism was Platonism
exaggerated on this mystic and ascetic side. Plotinus said that he
was ashamed that he had a body; that the soul looks on and weeps
at the sinfulness of the body; that it is not enough to regulate the

body, but that the body must be exterminated. As the voice of
Hellenism, neo-Platonism is speaking in an age when consciousness
is weighed down with the sense of the enormity of evil and the need
of salvation. Neo-Platonism feels that the moral conflict in the
human soul is repeated in the universe; that the eternal struggle
between matter and spirit goes on in the macrocosm as well as the
microcosm. Plotinus held to the ancient Greek conception of the
personification of the powers of nature, of the derivation of
happiness from activity, of the supremacy of the intellect over the
other faculties. But in accepting the ancient Greek doctrine of the
subordination of man to the universe, he conceived man to be
absorbed by the universe.
Neo-Platonism and the Two Introductory Philosophies.
Neo-Platonism, therefore, shares in the mysticism of the
philosophies of Philo and the neo-Pythagoreans. All three teach the
transcendence of God; all three were metaphysically monistic and
ethically dualistic; all three conceive the existence of intermediaries
between God and man. The introductory philosophies sought to
build eclectic doctrines, while neo-Platonism became eclectic only in
its last phases. Plotinus constructed a positive and original
philosophy, and among the three systems the teaching of Plotinus is
carefully worked out. Indeed, Plotinus is by far the greatest thinker
of this religious period. In the philosophy of Plotinus the relations
between man and God are given a more æsthetic character, and the
doctrine of immediate experience is more carefully discussed and
has greater importance than in neo-Pythagoreanism and the
teaching of Philo.
Neo-Platonism and Christianity. Neo-Platonism and
Christianity have one thing at least in common. They have the same
problem,—how to spiritualize the universe. This was the problem
that both Plotinus and Origen attempted to work out. With the
development of the consciousness of spiritual personality and the
need of a revelation, the Divine seemed to both to be
correspondingly farther away. God is unknown and

incomprehensible, and so pure that He cannot come in contact with
earthly existence. What, then, is the bond between the heavenly and
the earthly? From the point of view of cosmology and of ethics,
neither succeeded in overcoming the dualism. The sensuous was
regarded as alien to God, and as a thing from which the spirit must
free itself. Metaphysically their efforts to construct a spiritual monism
were more successful, but their efforts were along different lines.
The Christian conceived the universe of God and matter to be bound
together by the principle of love; the neo-Platonist, by a series of
countless grades of beings in diminishing perfections from the All-
perfect. Then again, to the neo-Platonist the question of the return
of man to God was a question of the personal inner experience of
the individual; to the Christian theologian it was included in the
larger problem of the historical process by which the whole human
race is redeemed. Thus the metaphysical solution of each works out
differently and with different factors.
Both neo-Platonic and Christian theology tried to prove that their
respective religious convictions were the only true source of
salvation. Both originated in the Alexandrian School. Christian
theology was preceded by the fantastic system of the Gnostics, as
Plotinus was preceded by the Pythagoreans and Philo. In their
development the differences between the two appear. Christianity
was supported by a church organization which had an internal
vitality and a regulative power; neo-Platonism was supported and
regulated by individuals, without organization, who had assimilated
every faith. Christian theology was founded on a faith that had
already expanded, while neo-Platonism was at the beginning an
erudite religion that tried to develop an extended faith and,
incidentally, later to assimilate other cults. Outwardly neo-Platonism,
as the final stand of the pagan world to save itself from destruction,
was unsuccessful in that it failed to perpetuate itself as an
organization. Really it achieved a marked success. Not only did it live
a long life of two hundred and fifty years, but it also lived in the
development of its antagonist, Christianity. For neo-Platonism, by the
irony of fate, was one of the important factors that entered into the

building up and strengthening of Christianity. In its lingering death-
struggle Hellenism was creating the conceptions that the Christian,
Augustine, later employed in shaping Christian theology for the
Middle Ages.
The Periods of Neo-Platonism.
(1) The Alexandrian School—about 240.
Neo-Platonism presented as a Scientific Theory.
The leader was Plotinus (204–269).
(2) The Syrian School—about 310.
The Attempt to Systematize all Polytheisms.
The leader was Jamblichus (d. about 330).
(3) The Athenian School—about 450.
The Recapitulation of Greek Philosophy.
The leader was Proclus (410–485).
The Alexandrian School. The Scientific Theory of Neo-
Platonism. The Life and Writings of Plotinus (204–269 A. D.).
Plotinus was born in Lycopolis in Egypt, and received his education in
Alexandria, under Ammonius Saccas, who was Origen’s teacher. He
campaigned with the emperor, Gordian, against the Persians, in
order to pursue scientific studies in the East. He was especially
interested in the Persian religion. In this way Plotinus became
acquainted at first hand with the mysticism of the Orient. In 244 he
appeared at Rome as a teacher, and was received with great éclat by
the people, and in the highest circles he gained the most reverent
recognition. His school contained representatives from all nations
and from almost every calling,—physicians, rhetoricians, poets,

senators, an emperor and empress. Plotinus lived in a country estate
in Campania, and he almost succeeded in inducing the emperor to
found a city of philosophers in Campania. It was to be called
Platonopolis and, with Plato’s Republic as a model, it was to be an
Hellenic cloister for religious contemplation. The literary activity of
Plotinus occurred in his old age, and he wrote nothing until after he
was fifty. His works consisted of fifty-four Corpuscles which his pupil,
Porphyry, combined into six Enneads. For the next three hundred
years his school became the centre of the Hellenic movement—the
centre of science, philosophy, and literature. The literature of neo-
Platonism was enormous, on account of the many commentaries on
the philosophy of Plato within the neo-Platonic circle.
The General Character of the Teaching of Plotinus. There
is a great division of opinion about the value of the teaching of
Plotinus, for he drew his philosophy only in the broadest outlines,
and he made no attempt to advance from a general view of the
world to exact knowledge of it. Intellectually his philosophy is an
abstraction; and yet emotionally, in an intimate way, it touched
deeply an age weary with culture. Thus one can see how the actual
achievement of Plotinus was small, but how at the same time its
force and influence was very great. It was a religious teaching which
rose to magnificent heights of contemplation from miserable
intellectual surroundings. Nevertheless, the philosophy of Plotinus
was an extreme form of intellectualism—it was an intellectual
ennobling and transforming of religion. The earlier philosophy had
supported the happiness of the individual by offers of infinitude; but
Plotinus thought of the individual as never isolated from the Infinite,
but as always longing for the Infinite. Fellowship with God is
knowledge of Him, but it is knowledge of a peculiar kind. It is
enthusiasm, intuition, ecstasy. There is a chasm between man and
God, which Plotinus would bridge by placing reality so deeply within
consciousness as to annihilate all antitheses and contradictions. Thus
this deep reality below consciousness is cosmic and not human; and
the religion of Plotinus is cosmocentric and not anthropocentric.
Plotinus intensifies and summarizes Greek culture in order to

consolidate and defend it. But in thus thinking out the Greek
conceptions to their logical completeness, those conceptions
collapse.
The Mystic God. There are two characteristics that distinguish
the mystic God of Plotinus.
1. The first characteristic is the supra-consciousness of God. God
is the indefinable, original Being who is above all antitheses. He is
supra-everything, even supra-conscious. Nothing can be attributed
to Him, not even thought or will, for these imply two elements and
God is a unity. Any description of Him must be in negative terms
(“negative theology”). If we speak of Him as the One, the First, the
Cosmic Cause, Goodness, or as Light, we are only relatively and not
really describing Him. God is present in all, yet He is not divided; He
is the source of all, and yet He himself is perfectly finished. In his
conception of God as compared to the world, Plotinus added the
realm of the supra-conscious and the sub-conscious to the
conscious.
2. In the second place Plotinus conceived God in His relation to
the world in the terms of dynamic pantheism. This is a pantheism of
a peculiar type. God does not create the world; the world is not the
act of His will; nor is the world the result of a transference of part of
His nature. In ordinary pantheism the world is a diffusion of the
substance of God and the whole is static. Not so in the teaching of
Plotinus! God permeates the world by His activity, and the world is
dynamic through and through. But this dynamic activity of God must
not be conceived as an historical or time process. The process is
timeless. It is a process of essence or worth. The grades in the
process are those of significance or value. All are within the all-
embracing unity of God and each particular draws its life from Him.
This is called the theory of emanations. Plotinus used the figure
which mystics have always employed in this connection,—the figure
of the sun and its rays of light in the darkness. The rays become less
and less intense with the increasing distance from the Godhead,

until they end in darkness. The process is an overflowing from the
Godhead in which the Godhead remains unchanged.
The Two Problems of Plotinus. Starting with this conception
of the Godhead as a dynamic contentless Being, Plotinus is bound to
explain the world of sense-phenomena. His problem is twofold: he
must explain the sequence of phenomena from the Godhead, which
is the metaphysical problem; he must explain how man, living in the
world of sense, can rise to communion with the Godhead, which is
the ethical problem. Metaphysics and ethics are to Plotinus in
inverted parallelism.
The World of Emanations.—The Metaphysical Problem of
Plotinus. The aim of Plotinus in this is to construct a metaphysical
monism out of the dualistic factors which had so long been present
in Greek thought. The two fundamental principles upon which he
raised his structure were (1) his dynamic series of emanations, and
(2) his conception of matter as entirely negative. The highest Being,
God, by an excess of energy or goodness, has the natural impulse to
create something similar to himself. This creative impulse exists in
each creature in turn and the movement propagates itself. Stage is
added to stage in a descending series, until the impulse dies out in
non-Being as the limit. The ordinary pantheism of co-existence of
phenomena is transformed into a succession of stages of values, and
all make up a harmony of more or less distinct copies of God. There
are three steps in which the process of emanation proceeds,—spirit,
soul, and matter.
The Spirit or Nous is the first emanation from the One in point of
significance. It is the image of the One sent forth by its overflow of
energy. This image involuntarily turns toward its original, the One,
and in beholding it becomes Spirit, Nous, or intellectual
consciousness. It turns to the One and recognizes itself as the image
of the One. Thus, in the first degree away from God, the duality of
thinker as subject, and of the thing thought as object, appears. The
unconsciousness of the One is thus contrasted with consciousness,

and the dual nature of consciousness is thus brought out; and for
the first time an exact formulation of the psychological conception of
consciousness is given.
The Nous is a unitary function of the One, like the Logos of Philo.
At the same time the Nous contains within itself, as content, the
Platonic Ideas or arch-types of individuals. These Ideas are not mere
thoughts, but have their own existence. The Nous is their unity,
however, just as a unity exists for the theorems of a science. These
Ideas are pure intellectual potencies and the final causes of the
world of nature.
The Soul is the second degree removed from the One. It stands
in the same relation to the Nous as the Nous to the Godhead. The
Soul belongs to the world of light, but it stands just on the
boundaries of the world of darkness. It is the image of an image and
therefore doubly dual,—it consists of a higher or world-soul and the
lesser souls. The world-soul is divided into two forces,—the
formative power of the world, and the body of the world. Individual
souls are divided into the supersensible or intellectual soul (the part
that has pre-existence and undergoes metamorphosis), and the
sensible part which has built up the body as an instrument of its
working power. The soul is present in all parts of its body. The
individual souls are called plastic forces.
Matter is the emanation which is most distant from the One. The
Nous is the emanation of the One, the world-soul is the emanation
from the Nous, individual souls are a kind of intermediate emanation
from the world-soul, and matter is the emanation of the individual
souls. That is to say, the world-soul, with the forces that are native
to it, generates matter and then, by uniting itself through its forces
with matter, produces the world of corporeal things. What is the
character of matter with which the world-soul forms this union? It is
space. Space conditions all earthly existence. It is the same as
Plato’s conception of the absolutely negative non-Being and the
merely possible. It is absolute sterility, entirely evil and devoid of

good. Matter has no dualistic independence of the One. What is the
character of the nature world? It has the same character and quality
as the formative forces that unite with this negative matter—it is no
more and no less eternal. The world of nature to Plotinus is one of
magic, and not merely teleological. He says that the heavens are the
union of a perfect soul with matter; the stars are the visible gods
united with matter; the powers of the air and sky are dæmons,
which mediate between the stars and the souls of men, united with
matter; the body of man is the human soul united with matter;
inorganic nature is the lowest of the plastic forces united with
matter. Wherever there is matter (space), there is found
imperfection and limitation and evil. Man as an individual is
sympathetically and mysteriously bound to all parts of the universe.
Scientific investigation of nature is entirely ruled out by this neo-
Platonic teaching. It never could be the instrument for penetrating a
magical universe. Faith and superstition take the place of science,
and prophecy alone undertakes to solve nature’s riddle.
The world of nature is thus broken in two. In one sense it is bad,
ugly, and irrational. In another sense it is good, beautiful, and
rational, because it is formed by the souls that enter into it. In
opposition to the Gnostics Plotinus praised the harmony and beauty
of the world, and promulgated his metaphysics of the beautiful as a
last farewell of Hellenic civilization. Beauty is not composite, but the
simple Idea of worth shining through the world of sense. Beauty is
from the inner and for the inner. Art does not imitate nature, but
expresses the reason; it supplements the defects of nature and
creates something new. Yet the world of nature is beautiful, because
down to the lowest deeps it is permeated by the divine.
The Return of the Soul to God.—The Ethical Problem of
Plotinus. In his discussion of moral conduct Plotinus started from
the point opposite to that of his metaphysics. He looked from the
point of view of man up the series which descended from the
Godhead. Men immersed in matter have nevertheless a share in the
divine life, and their goal is independence of the world. They must

free themselves from sense. Man’s ethical task is to separate the two
worlds and to turn away from the material, not only in its
abnormalities but in every way. The practical virtues have little value
in such a sublimation of the soul, for these only bind the soul more
closely to the world of matter. The political virtues are only a
preparation by which the soul learns how to be free from sense. The
intellectual virtues are necessary, but the goal of salvation is not
reached by knowledge alone. “The wizard king builds his tower of
speculation by the hands of human workmen till he reaches the top
story, and then he summons his genii to fashion the battlements of
adamant and crown them with starry fire.” Out of the mental
condition of contemplation the soul will rise on the wings of ecstasy
to the God from whom it came. The call of Plotinus is to the ascetic
life. The development required is that of spirituality. Ethically
Plotinus’ doctrine is dualistic, because it requires the rejection of
matter as evil. The return is not an evolution nor an innovation in
which reform of the old world is demanded. There is no individual
progress, but a penetration into the foundation of things. But what
incentive has man to undertake this return? What arouses him from
his sleep? Not sense-perception nor reflection, but his love for the
beautiful. The innate impulse of Platonic love turns the soul away
from matter to the illuminating Idea. He who has an immediate
recognition of the pure Idea is gaining the higher perfection. Only
when man is in ecstasy—an ecstasy which transcends every
subjective state—does he get complete contact and union with God.
In such a moment of consecration he forgets himself and becomes
God. This final step never comes unless God himself illuminates the
soul by a special light so that it can see God. This final state comes
only to few souls, and to those but seldom.
The Syrian School.—The Systematizing of Polytheisms.—
Jamblichus. This school existed about a generation after the death
of Plotinus. Its founder was Jamblichus (d. about 330), whose
teacher was Porphyry, the pupil of Plotinus. Jamblichus was a Syrian,
who got his instruction from Porphyry at Rome, and then went back
to his native country to set up for himself a school of neo-Platonism.

He soon became reverenced as teacher, religious reformer, and
worker of miracles. He wrote commentaries on Plato, Aristotle, and
the theological works of the Orphics, Chaldeans, and the
Pythagoreans. Among the crowd of his enthusiastic disciples, one
notes the names of the Emperor Julian and Hypatia.43
The neo-Platonism of Jamblichus contained no new point of view.
Metaphysically and ethically his teaching was identical with that of
Plotinus. He tried to complete the religious movement by
coördinating all cults, excepting Christianity, into a unity. This was an
eclecticism by which Jamblichus came naturally, for Syria was a land
where eclecticism thrived. It was here that Gnosticism had its
stronghold. With free eclectic hand Jamblichus filled in all the
intermediary grades between the Godhead and man with the
multitude of gods of all religions. In his system he placed 10 supra-
terrestrial gods, 365 celestial beings, 72 orders of sub-celestial
beings, and 42 orders of natural gods. To find places for them all, he
had to increase the number of intermediaries; and to systematize
this complex polytheism, he employed the Pythagorean numbers.
His theory shows how persistent was the Hellenic civilization.
The Athenian School.—Recapitulation.—Proclus. The
Syrian school failed to restore the old religions, and we find neo-
Platonism, after revivals here and there, again at Athens. The city
that had been the original sanctuary of Greek culture was the last
stronghold of Hellenism.
The Athenian school made its appearance about 410, and its
leading representatives were Plutarch, Syrianus, and Proclus. Proclus
(410–485), the pupil of Syrianus, was the most important
representative of the Athenian school, and he may be said to have
uttered the last word of dying Hellenism. Born at Constantinople, of
a Lycian family, he received his education at Alexandria; and when
he became leader of the school at Athens, he received the
extravagant worship of his pupils. Connected with the Athenian
school were the great commentators, Philoponus and Simplicius,

whose works on Aristotle became of great value to later times. Their
erudite compilations stand out sharply against the imaginative
speculations of their age. In connection with this school Boëthius
must not be overlooked. He was a neo-Platonist who called himself a
Christian, and he was an important figure in the history of education.
His translations and expositions of Aristotle’s logic and of the
Isagoge of Porphyry were very influential in the Middle Ages.
Proclus was a theologian like Jamblichus, excepting that he tried
to put theology upon a philosophical basis. By means of the dialectic
he sought to systematize the entire philosophical thought of the
Greeks. His insatiable desire for faith was accompanied by wonderful
dialectical ability, with the result that his teaching was an intricate
formalism united with mythology. He carried out his dialectical plans
to the minutest detail. He drew the materials of his system from
both barbarians and Greeks, and he himself had been initiated into
all the Mysteries. Every superstition of the past and present
influenced him, and in framing a universal system he did not feel
satisfied until every transmitted doctrine had found a place in that
system. He was the systematizer of paganism and its scholastic. He
conceived that the fundamental problem was that of the One and
the Many, and that the One is related to the Many in three stages,—
permanence, going-forth, and return. The Many as a manifold effect
is similar to the unity of the original cause and yet different from it.
Development is the striving of the effect to return to the original
cause, and this strife for a return to God was illustrated by Proclus in
every realm of life, and he repeated it again and again in application
to every detail. He conceived that the development of the world
from the Godhead was continually going through this triad system of
change. His philosophy, however, shows no originality other than
being an ingenious formal classification in which every polytheism
found a place.

CHAPTER XIV
PATRISTICS.—THE
HELLENIZING OF THE
GOSPEL
The Early Situation of Christianity. The Orient was the
source of the Gospel, as of the other religions of this time. The
power of Christianity lay in the spontaneous force of its pure
religious feeling, with which it entered the lists for the conquest of
the world. Christianity was not a philosophy, but a religion. It
appealed to a different class than did the Alexandrian schools. The
lower class received it first, and so the questions of science and
philosophy occupied the early Christians but little. They were neither
the friends nor the foes of Hellenism, and they took no interest in
political theories. The Christian society was a spiritual
cosmopolitanism, which was inspired and united by belief in God,
faith in Christ, and in immediate communion with Christ. Conviction
of the Second Coming of the Lord determined the conduct of the
early Christians. Indeed, that moral reformation and moral conduct
were the dominating aims of the Christian communities is proved by

the following facts: the documents dealing with Christian life of that
time are almost wholly moral; the discipline upon the members was
for moral and not doctrinal reasons. Still these early Christians had
some simple doctrines, which were seemingly taken for granted; and
the danger is, to conceive the early Christians as either (1) too
simple or (2) too ignorant. They believed that there is one God, that
man has personal relations to God, that history has a dramatic
course, that right was God’s command and absolutely different from
wrong, that the Last Judgment would surely come.
But about the middle of the second century Christianity was
obliged to change its attitude towards both science and the State.
Between 150 and 250 a great change took place among the
Christians. The documentary records are full of doctrinal struggles,
so that little room was left for recording the struggles for moral
purity. Morality became subordinated to belief, and the intellectual
side of Christianity was emphasized at the expense of the ethical.
The Second Coming of our Lord was less emphasized. This doctrine
was either pushed into the background or its realization was looked
upon as not immediate. Furthermore, the Christian sect had spread
over the empire and had come into positive relations both with
circles of culture and with political affairs. Various statistics of the
numerical growth of the Christians are given; among them is the
following statement: in 30 A. D. they numbered 500, in 100 A. D.
500,000, in 311 A. D. 30,000,000. In the second century the self-
justification of Christianity could no longer be put upon the basis of
the feelings and inner convictions. It must justify itself to the world
without, and to its own cultured communicants as well. It was being
attacked by philosophy, and, unless its own further growth were to
be thwarted, it found that it must use the weapons of philosophy. Its
increase of power antagonized both the Roman state and Hellenistic
culture, and from 150 to 300 the fight between Christianity and the
old world of things was to the death. Christianity eventually
conquered Rome and Hellenism; but this would have been
impossible if it had maintained its original attitude of indifference to
culture. Its success was due to the wisdom that it has since so often

shown. It adapted itself to its new situation by taking over and
making its own the culture of the old world, and by fighting the old
world with that culture. Christianity thereby shaped its own
constitution into such strength that it could obtain possession of the
state with Constantine in 300. From this impregnable political
position, it was able to deal with its rivals on an entirely different
footing. When old Rome fell in 476, the church did not fall with it,
but on the contrary it came into possession of the city.
But this political success was the result and not the cause of the
growth of Christianity. It could never have conquered so intrenched
a government as Rome, if it had not first been victorious over the
more persistent civilization of Greece. It made itself inherently strong
by Hellenizing itself—strong both for polemical and for constructive
purposes. But it is obvious that little philosophical originality may be
expected during this period. When the church fathers began to
employ Hellenistic philosophy, they took it on the whole as they
found it. They varied it only to suit their own legitimate purposes.
Christianity entered the religious controversies of the time when
victory would belong to the sect which could use Greek civilization
most effectively in defending itself against the hostility of other
religions, and in constantly renewing the confidence of its devotees.
But in the adoption of Hellenistic culture the church created a
new danger to itself. It must guard its own conceptions lest they be
smothered by this same Hellenism. It must keep its fundamental
beliefs in their integrity. Greek philosophy must be a servant so
constrained as to bring out only the implicit meaning of the
fundamental Christian doctrines. Philosophy must not corrupt these
doctrines and transmute them into Hellenism. The simple faith of the
first century and its doctrines must be so formulated by Hellenic
wisdom that it would be stated for all time. The church needed a
dogmatic system, a creed that could forestall any future innovations.
The long series of œcumenical councils of the church, beginning
with the Council of Nicæa in 325, were united efforts in this
direction. After that first council, dogma became more gradually

fixed and, from time to time, this and that group of men were
separated from the church as heretical.
Patristics is this philosophical secularizing of the Gospel which
accompanied the internal and external development of the church
body during the two or three centuries after the year 150 A. D.
The Philosophies influencing Christian Thought. The Greek
philosophies most influential upon the development of Christian
doctrine were Stoicism and neo-Platonism. The philosophy of Philo
was also influential, but it was really only a bridge from philosophical
Judaism to Christian theology. It contained both Stoicism and
Platonism in an unsymmetrical form, and Philo’s writings “contain
the seeds of nearly all that afterwards grew up on Christian soil.”44
Greek philosophical influence upon the early Christian world was felt
in two ways: in ethical theory and practice; in the construction of
theology. During the fourth century Stoic ethics of a Cynic type
replaced the early Christian ethics. The basis of Christian society was
no longer the ethics of the Sermon on the Mount, but rather that of
Roman Stoicism. This is shown by the character of that book on
morals (De Officiis Ministrorum) by St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan
(340–397). In theology the Christian doctrine had no need to borrow
from the Greeks the conception of the unity of God or that of the
creation of the world by God. But the Greek influence is seen in the
doctrines on subjects allied to these: mainly on the questions of the
mode of creation and the relation of God to the material world. In
the discussion of these questions the influence of the Stoic monism,
tending toward dualism, and the influence of Platonic dualism,
tending toward a threefold conception of God, Matter, and Form, will
appear in the examples which subsequently follow.
The most formidable opponent of Christianity during this time
was neo-Platonism, but neo-Platonism and Christianity were not,
however, long separated. Although neo-Platonism met its fate at the
hands of scholasticism, it influenced in a thousand ways both
orthodox and heretical Christianity. The rivalry of these two bodies

ended—and with it came the ending of the Hellenic-Roman period of
philosophy—in a complete and original theology. This was the
theology of St. Augustine, who marks the end of antiquity and the
beginning of the Middle Ages.
The Periods of Early Christianity (30 A. D.–476 A. D.).
1. Introductory Period, 30–200.
(1) Period of Primitive Faith (during the 1st century A. D.). With
great simplicity of doctrine and ceremonies the Christians were
preparing through faith and the practice of virtue for the Second
Coming of our Lord.
(2) Period of the Earlier Formulation and Defense of Christian
Doctrine (during the 2d century A. D.).
(a) The Apologists (2d century).
(b) The Gnostics (2d century).
(c) The Old Catholic Theologians (2d and 3d centuries).
2. Development Period (200–476).
(1) The Period of Actual Formulation of Doctrine (200–325). The
Catechetical School of Alexandria—Origen (3d century).
(2) The Period of the Establishment of Dogma (325–modern times)
as seen in the Council of Nicæa and other œcumenical councils.
It was a period in which church dogma was developed on the
basis of doctrine already established.
While the origin and development of the Christian church is an
interesting story in itself, only one aspect of it is germane to the
history of philosophy. That is the influence of Hellenism upon the
formation of the theology of the church. The origin and development

of the church organization lies beyond our field. Also the periods
before the influence of Hellenism—the Period of Primitive Faith
during the first century, and the period after dogma had become
well established, the time after the Council of Nicæa in 325—will be
omitted from our discussion here. Only the period of the Earlier
Formulation and that of the Actual Formulation of Doctrine, that is,
the one hundred and seventy-five years (150–325), are of interest to
us. This time is known in history by the name of the period of
Patristics.
The Apologists. Only such Christians as were trained in Greek
philosophy could rally to the first defense of the Christian doctrine.
The new faith was, on the one hand, on the defensive against the
mockery of Greek wisdom, and, on the other hand, it was obliged to
take a positive stand to show that it was the fulfillment of the human
need of salvation. The Apologists tried to make the Christian
teaching as consistent as possible with the results of Greek
philosophy and, at the same time, to read into Greek philosophy
Christian meanings. They did not at all intend to Hellenize the
Gospel, but they wanted to make it seem a rational one to the
cultured world. “Christianity is philosophy and revelation. This is the
thesis of every Apologist from Aristides to Minucius Felix.”45 Their
very act of defense was unintentionally the first step toward the
incorporation of Greek philosophy as a part of Christian teaching.
The most important Apologists were Justin Martyr (100–166),
Athenagoras (d. 180), and among the Romans Minucius Felix (about
200) and Lactantius (d. 320). The life of Justin Martyr is
characteristic. He was born in Sichem, Samaria, but was Greek in
origin and education. Having investigated several systems of
philosophy and religion, he came to the conclusion that the Christian
religion was the only true philosophy, and he died in defense of it at
Rome.
To prove that Christianity is the only true philosophy, the
Apologists asserted that it alone guaranteed correct knowledge and
true holiness here and hereafter. They proclaimed its preëminence

because it is a perfect revelation of God through Jesus Christ. Since
man is imprisoned in the world of the senses and ruled by dæmons,
he can never be saved except through a perfect revelation. To be
saved is to become rational, and man can become rational only by
divine aid. Revelation has not been restricted to Christianity, but
God’s inspiration has been at work in all mankind. The truth in
Socrates, Plato, and Pythagoras has not been their own, but has
sprung from this same divine inspiration, for truth never is the
product of man’s unaided reason. Socrates and Plato got their truth
in part from God’s direct revelation to them, in part indirectly from
reading the works of Moses and the prophets. But revelation outside
of Christianity has not been complete nor continuous. The first
perfect revelation was in Jesus Christ, for He is the first to reveal the
divine Logos completely. He is the first in whom the Logos has
become man. He is the Son of God because the complete essence of
the inexpressible Deity is unfolded in Him.
The Apologists thus identified reason and revelation. The Logos
is the same in revelation, nature, or history. The Stoic conception of
the Logos, which Philo had stripped of its materialistic character, was
identified with Christ and revelation. Justin could regard as inspired
what the Greeks had looked upon as natural in their own doctrines.
Christ is the world-reason, in whom the divine has been incarnated,
and the Apologists had the enormous advantage over the neo-
Platonists of being able to point to Jesus as the definite and
historical incarnation of God. The Apologists could summon the
prevailing Platonic dualism of God and matter to their aid in showing
the need of such a revelation; for matter is altogether without
reason and goodness. Thus a summary of their doctrine is as
follows: the world is bad and needs a revelation; the Logos of God
has always been present in history, but has especially appeared in
Jesus Christ, the man, in order to redeem men from their sin and
establish the kingdom of God.
The Gnostics. Gnosticism is the name applied to a movement of
hostile reconstruction of Old Testament tradition instead of a

spiritual interpretation of it. It was a great syncretic movement in
the second and third centuries, which sought to form a world
religion in which men should be rated on the basis of what they
intellectually and morally knew. The Gnostics tried to transform the
Christian faith in a large way into knowledge that would still be
Christian; and their efforts show how strong the philosophical
interest among the Christians was beginning to be. The conditions
for the development of such a doctrine as Gnosticism were
everywhere present in the empire, yet two principal centres are
pointed out: one at Alexandria and the other in Syria. Gnosticism
was a most fanciful mixture of Oriental and Occidental cults and
mythologies, very much more fantastic than either neo-
Pythagoreanism or neo-Platonism. It was a philosophy in which the
essential Christian principles were lost under the weight of esoteric
knowledge. The Gnostics themselves were steeped in Hellenic
culture, and in many localities formed only bands of Mysteries. They
finally lost all sympathy with the Christians, and were classed as
heretics by the church. The leading Gnostics were Saturninus,
Carpocrates (about 130), Basilides, Valentinus (about 160), and
Bardesanes (155–225). Only a few fragments of their many writings
remain, and about all that we know of their doctrines is what their
opponents say of them. Valentinus, the most notable, was born at
Rome and died at Cyprus. Bardesanes was born in Mesopotamia.
Carpocrates lived at Alexandria and was a contemporary of Basilides,
who was a Syrian. The records of their careers are very meagre.
The Gnostics were the first philosophers of history.46 They
undertook to make Christianity a world religion by conquering
Hellenic culture for Christianity and Christianity for Hellenic culture.
The only way they could do this was by dislodging Christianity from
its historical anchorage in the Old Testament. The Gnostics were in
open hostility to Judaism. They transformed every ethical problem
into a cosmological problem, they regarded human history as the
continuation of natural history, they viewed the Redemption as the
last act in the cosmic drama. This shows how closely related their
teaching was to that of Philo and Plotinus and how consistent with

the theoretic spirit of the time. Since the salvation of the world by
Christ stands as the central point of their philosophy of history, their
philosophy of history amounted to a philosophy of Christian history.
The victory of Christianity over paganism and Judaism was
conceived allegorically by the Gnostics as the battle of the gods of
these religions. The Redeemer was then conceived to appear at the
psychological moment and to win the victory; and this appearance of
Christ as Redeemer is not only the highest point in the development
of the human race, but it is the dénouement in the drama of the
universe. Nature was therefore conceived by them to be a battle-
ground of the gods and the strife to be waged between the forces of
good and evil. The good gets the victory by means of Christ. The
battle was conceived in the neo-Pythagorean form of the dualism of
matter and spirit, but was expressed in mythical terms. The heathen
gods and the god of the Old Testament, who took the form of the
Platonic demiurge, were the powers in the world which the highest
God had to overcome.
The dualism of good and evil was conceived to be the same as
between spirit and matter, and was elaborated in a fashion true to
the Alexandrian school. The space between God and matter was
conceived to be filled in by a whole race of dæmons and angels,
arranged according to the Pythagorean numbers. The lowest was so
far from the divine perfectness as to be in touch with matter, and he
is the demiurge who formed the world. The battle then was between
good and evil, light and darkness, until the Logos, the Nous, Christ,
the most perfect of the intermediary beings, came down and by
incarnation released from matter the imprisoned spirits of men and
even of the fallen angels, like the demiurge. This is, in brief, the
Gnostic explanation of history.
This dualism was quite consistent with contemporary Christian
ethics, which had then become Stoic. But this dualism was not
consistent with monotheism, the fundamental Christian principle.
The internal danger in Patristics—of swamping the fundamentals of

Christianity through Hellenizing them—appears thus early. The early
Christian found at the beginning an antagonism between his
fundamental monotheistic metaphysics and Greek dualistic ethics.
The Reaction against Gnosticism.—The Old Catholic
Theologians. We have seen that the original position of the
Christians was one of indifference to both politics and philosophy;
that then came the employment of Hellenism in the defense of the
Gospel. This resulted in the extreme attempt of the Gnostics to
transform Christianity into a factor in a cosmic theosophy. Gnosticism
had tried to capture the new religion by force and make it subserve
the interests of Hellenic and Oriental philosophy. This danger was
averted only after years of controversy. Gnosticism was the gravest
danger that the early church had to meet, and the Gnostics left their
mark upon the church, although they were expelled; for the church
never returned to its original simplicity of doctrine. Gnosticism,
however, produced an extreme reaction, for a time, against the use
of philosophy, and was represented by the “Old Catholic
Theologians,”—Irenæus (140–200), Tertullian (160–220), and
Hippolytus. These theologians stood against turning faith into a
science and tried to limit dogma to the articles of the baptismal
confession interpreted as a rule of faith. Tatian (170) saw in
Hellenism the work of the devil. Irenæus conceived a unity in the
process of creation and redemption,—creation as a divine method of
bringing humanity up into the church by way of redemption.
Tertullian went so far as to affirm that the Gospel is confirmed by its
being in a certain sense contradictory to reason. Credo quia
absurdum. By this he means, not that faith rests in things absurd,
but that faith rests in things so far above reason as to make reason
absurd. This reaction was against Gnosticism and not against
rationalism, for these men used both philosophy and tradition to
support their arguments.
The reaction against a systematic theology failed to establish
itself, for the need of Greek philosophy was found to be necessary.
The result was that a median position was taken by the help of

Welcome to our website – the perfect destination for book lovers and
knowledge seekers. We believe that every book holds a new world,
offering opportunities for learning, discovery, and personal growth.
That’s why we are dedicated to bringing you a diverse collection of
books, ranging from classic literature and specialized publications to
self-development guides and children's books.
More than just a book-buying platform, we strive to be a bridge
connecting you with timeless cultural and intellectual values. With an
elegant, user-friendly interface and a smart search system, you can
quickly find the books that best suit your interests. Additionally,
our special promotions and home delivery services help you save time
and fully enjoy the joy of reading.
Join us on a journey of knowledge exploration, passion nurturing, and
personal growth every day!
testbankfan.com

Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and Cases 22nd Edition Thompson Test Bank

More Related Content

Similar to Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and Cases 22nd Edition Thompson Test Bank (20)

Recently uploaded (20)

Crafting and Executing Strategy Concepts and Cases 22nd Edition Thompson Test Bank