Of all the conflicts which Christianity passed through in the early stages of its history, that with philosophy seems to have been the most severe and the most far-reaching in its effects. Judaism was firm and self-reliant, because it was in a sense supernatural; Gentilism was pliable, because it was ignorant and weary of itself; but philosophy was obstinate, because, regarding religions as superstitions, it recognized no special merit in Christianity, and attempted to ridicule it out of existence when its unprepared defenders first announced it. With the representatives of the Epicurean, Stoic and New Academic schools, or with the cultured classes throughout the Roman Empire, Paul came into contact, and was required to defend his religion, not by an appeal to prophecy, as was his wont among the Jews, nor by merely showing the worthlessness of prevailing religions and the adequacy of the new religion, as he did to the Gentiles, but by a rational exposition of the truth, and a demonstration of the facts on which his religion rested. For such a conflict Paul was prepared; for he was familiar with the philosophical thought of the times, and was the man to preach to Epicureans, Stoics, Platonists, or others wherever he found them
