Socrates Christianus – Images of Socrates in Early Greek Christian Literature

Abstract

This article attempts to trace the history of the early Christian appropriation of Socrates.My frame of reference is the corpus of the Greek texts produced during the 2nd and 3rdcenturies CE. Basically, a have concentrated on those Christians writers that played a decisiverole in the reconstruction of the Greek philosopher. Thus, I have not included the works ofClement of Alexandria and Origen, because – despite their quite excessive references toSocrates – they have incorporated him in a natural and positive way, already prepared bysome of the following trends.