Introduction.

Added to this was an immense erudition, from which they had drawn the most detailed knowledge of all the most precious and oldest records concerning the customs and divine worshiporiginal: Gottesdienst — refers to the structured practice of religious devotion or liturgy. of the first humans, and everything that was contained within the writings of the most ancient antiquity.

2. They had precisely tracked down what still remained among humanity of the inherited doctrineoriginal: Erblehre — the traditional or primordial religious teachings passed down through generations. of the original religion and the manner of its gradual decay.

3. They were intimately familiar with the origins and the progression of the debauched licentiousness of idolatryoriginal: Abgötterey — the worship of idols or false gods, a central theme in early Christian polemics., as well as all the manifold forms it had taken among various nations, including all its eras, facts, and occurrences that had given rise to its customs and ceremonies. Through such immense erudition, these learned defendersoriginal: Schutzredner — refers to the early Christian Apologists who wrote scholarly defenses of their faith. became the admiration of the pagan world; through it, they began to disperse the wretched darkness in which that world lay sunken. In this way, they directed attention to the voice of nature and prepared the way for the precious gift of faith.

This extensive knowledge, this all-encompassing erudition, is primarily discovered in the collections, or Stromataoriginal: Strommaten — from the Greek word for "miscellanies" or "tapestries," referring to the Stromata of Clement of Alexandria (c. 150–215 AD), a work that weaves together Greek philosophy and Christian theology., of Clement of Alexandria; in the account of the Christian religion given by Theophilus of AntiochA 2nd-century Bishop of Antioch whose surviving work, To Autolycus, is a defense of Christianity addressed to a pagan friend. in his three books to Autolycus; in the learned treatise by TatianA 2nd-century Christian writer; his Address to the Greeks is a fierce critique of Greek culture and a defense of the "barbarian" (Christian) religion. regarding the reasons that moved him to abandon idolatry; in the eight books in which Origenc. 184 – c. 253 AD; a monumental scholar of the early Church. His work Contra Celsum is considered the most influential defense of Christianity against ancient Greek philosophy. answers the philosopher Celsus; and in the seven books in which the eloquent and fiery ArnobiusArnobius of Sicca (d. c. 330 AD), an African apologist who wrote Adversus Nationes (Against the Pagans) shortly after his conversion. [exposed] the falseness and absurd-