ABSTRACT
Socrates, the teacher of Plato, is often commended by Christians as a martyr to paganism, but it was through the Middle Platonic tradition, which favoured the systematic rather than the obstetric approach to philosophy, that the teachings of Plato were first assimilated by the church. Where some of the early apologists are either hostile (like Tatian) or arguably superficial in their befriending of Plato, Clement of Alexandria is the most enthusiastic exponent of Platonism in a Christian dress. The alleged dependence of Plato on Moses is a widespread motif in attempts to explain convergences between Platonic and Christian thought. Origen and Gregory of Nyssa are examples of a serious struggle to reconcile fundamental Platonic thought forms with the exigencies of revelation and dogma.
