ABSTRACT
The fortunes of the Epicurean philosophy during the ten centuries or so between the collapse of the Roman Empire in the west and the end of the Middle Ages are bound up closely with the fortunes of classical culture itself. We have seen that during the early Christian centuries the attitude of the Church Fathers towards pagan learning was an ambivalent one. There were influential Christian spokesmen whose determination to safeguard the integrity of Christian teaching led them to declare all pagan writing a contrivance of the devil designed to thwart God's purpose, and to pronounce against the Greek philosophers in particular as sowers of the seeds of heresy. At the same time, there were others, no less zealous in their promotion of the Christian faith, for whom the classical authors still held a powerful appeal, and who were perceptive enough to recognize that there was much in pagan thought which might be used to advantage in support of Christian teaching, and on their part we witness a quiet approval of certain classical writers and a willingness to grant limited sanction to the study of Greek philosophy in particular as a preparation for the reception of divine truth. 1 Thus, even as the Christian mission enjoyed increasing success throughout the Roman Empire, pagan letters continued to hold their place.
