Poseidonios

[...previously experienced in the] moral completing the German word moralischem sphere, creates a longing for a new, stronger foundation for moral ideals; the Oriental perception of an insoluble bond between God and humanity cooperates in leading him back to Plato’s religiously fertile philosophy. A universal knowledge, the likes of which no one in antiquity ever again united after him, seeks its ultimate crowning achievement in mystical vision original German: mystischen Schauen. This refers to a direct, intuitive experience of the divine.; the philosopher becomes a prophet, and the power of his language and the fervor of his imagination influenced both pagan and Christian religious literature until the end of antiquity, carrying a wealth of Platonic ideas and terms over into the Orient.⁴ A transformation of the Greek spirit original: Griechentum has begun, which accelerated wonderfully under the pressure of terrifying times and an increasingly universal sense of sin and guilt; soon we see, in Neopythagoreanism, Oriental belief in magic combining with supposedly ancient Greek wisdom; later, in the gradual transformation of Platonism into Neoplatonism, a purely Oriental form of ecstasy original: Ekstase. In this context, a state of transcending the self to achieve union with the One. becomes the climax and goal of the philosophical life. The following principle always proves true: in Hellenism, only Greek philosophy and Oriental religion (or religiosity) possess the power to win converts and conduct missionary activity.

It is self-evident that both also exert an influence on Christianity; only those capable of doing justice to both components will fully recognize the effect of Hellenism upon it. Now, the influence of philosophy on Christianity is certainly not yet explored deeply enough, but it has been described so often that I can leave it aside here. It is first necessary to consider the second, essentially Oriental part of Hellenistic...