This study exposes the nature and meaning of the phrase "Christian Hellenism" as it was developed by the Russian patristic scholar V. Georges Florovsky. He has centered his thesis on "new Hellenism", "drastically christened", on three main points: 1) faith is always stated in a "philosophical system"; 2) Semitic thought does not radically oppose Hellenism, since even Judaism in the time of Jesus was hellenized; 3) Greek philosophy was the proper environment, even providential, in which Christianity was able to formulate and reveal his own experience. The result is a philosophia perennis, "something eternal and absolute in the Church thinking". Finally we make some brief reflections on the actuality, as well as the possibilities and limits that the notion of "Christian Hellenism" implies today.

Keywords: Christian Hellenism, Patristic Tradition, the mission of the Church, Georges V. Florovsky

CIPRIAN IULIAN TOROCZKAI