ARISTOTLE EAST AND WEST,
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loginWhat has Athens to do with Jerusalem? That is a question that no stu-dent of western culture can avoid. Tertullian, who first posed it, did soin the course of accusing philosophy of engendering heresy. The implica-tion behind his question was that Athens and Jerusalem are two differentworlds, and therefore categories deriving from Greek thought should haveno place within the Christian faith. Yet even Tertullian found it impossiblein practice to maintain such a strict division. The Church as a whole tendedinstead to follow the lead of the Greek apologists, who had drawn freelyon Greek philosophy in interpreting the Christian message. Ultimately themany forms of Christian thought that vied for pre-eminence throughoutthe Middle Ages and Renaissance, and into the early modern era, almostinvariably owed much to both of Tertullian’s opposing worlds. The result isthat Athens and Jerusalem have been deeply and inextricably intertwinedin the formation of western culture.
