02 — The Christian Philosopher
After his conversion Justin did not lay aside the philosopher’s cloak but wore it as a Christian, presenting the faith as “the true philosophy” — the wisdom the schools had sought and missed. He came to Rome and opened a school of Christian instruction above a bathhouse, taught the rhetorician Tatian among others, and clashed with the Cynic Crescens, whose enmity, Justin believed, would bring about his death. These files treat the vocation and the school.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Church Father)
Justin is the first Christian we know of to make a deliberate program of meeting the Greco-Roman intellectual world on its own ground and in its own dress. He claimed the name “philosopher” for the Christian, argued that the fragments of truth scattered through the schools belonged by right to Christ, and set up at Rome a school where the faith was taught as a coherent body of wisdom. That school produced disciples and enemies alike — Tatian the Assyrian among the first, Crescens the Cynic among the second — and stands as the seed of the later Christian intellectual tradition. This section’s two files divide the vocation from the institution.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| Philosophy as the True Faith | Keeping the philosopher’s cloak; Christianity presented as “the true philosophy”; the claim that whatever was rightly said among all teachers belongs to the Christians. |
| The School at Rome | Justin’s teaching school above the baths of Myrtinus; Tatian the Assyrian his pupil; the rivalry with Crescens the Cynic and Justin’s foreboding of death. |
See Also
- The Conversion — the turning that made philosophy Christian
- The Logos Spermatikos — the theology underwriting the claim on Greek truth
- The Trial Before Rusticus — the death Crescens’ enmity foreshadowed
- The Church Fathers — Justin among the apologists
References
- Justin, First Apology and Second Apology. In Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1.
- Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History IV.11, IV.16–18. Trans. NPNF II/1.
- Barnard, L. W. Justin Martyr: His Life and Thought. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967.
- Minns, Denis, and Paul Parvis. Justin, Philosopher and Martyr: Apologies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.