Athens and/or Jerusalem?

As Christianity after Constantine started spreading across the Empire and moving up the ladder of society, two emerging lifestyles marked the extremes of experiences that were available to the faithful believer. On one end of the scale, charismatic ascetic figures appealed to an ever-growing number of Christians, despite their anti-social mode of living in the desert and lack of cultivation. ¹ On the other end, the fourth century saw the rise of the well-educated elite bishop who, deeply rooted in Greek polis culture, acted as a benefactor and political leader of his city. ² Both ways of life responded to the new challenges that Christianity faced as its appeal stretched out to all segments of society and its adherents became increasingly entangled in this world here. Christian religion came to embrace a broad spectrum of classes, professions, occupations and habits that did not always differ from those of contemporary pagans. Consequently, it was no longer advisable to address only illiterate fishermen and tentmakers (if early Christianity had ever done so), but it was key to success to reach out to the urban upper class as well. This is why educational matters and the issue of socialisation came to the fore among Christian intellectuals of this period. ³ More generally, the ongoing changes meant that Christian thinkers still had to come to grips with the issue of the relation between faith and classical culture. Now this discussion was continued in more comprehensive fashion and with greater attention to the institutional setting of education than before.