The Gospel of Hellas - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

introduction
their stories that they grasped this idea. One sees it in their characterization of
the Persians, so different from the Hellenes, and in Herodotus’ tales of Egypt.
The rise of the writing of history in the fifth century bc is itself one of the
foremost phenomena of the change in human consciousness.
In this volume the focus of our historical view is the human consciousness.
Its special application is to the history of Hellas.
The reader will find the words Hellas and Hellenes almost exclusively used
in preference to Greece and Greeks. The latter words, derived from the Latin
Graecia and Graeci, apply as well to a living country and nation, while the
purely Greek words Hellas and Hellenic refer only to the heritage of classical
antiquity.
The aim of our book concerning the mission of Greek civilization can be
best expressed by calling it, figuratively speaking, The Gospel of Hellas. The two
columns on which our Christian civilization of the Western world is built are
the heritage of the Old Testament and that of Hellas. This has been known
since the days of Clement of Alexandria, a Greek by descent and a Christian by
faith, and the founder of the first Christian philosophy in the second century
ad. He evaluated the dialectic of Plato and the metaphysics of Aristotle as of
equal significance with the Genesis of Moses and the books of the prophets
and he concluded: “Philosophy is God’s special covenant with the Greeks as a
basis for philosophy according to Christ.” 5 In placing the message of the Greeks
on level with the revelation of the Old Testament, he laid the cornerstone for
the building of a true history of the mission of Hellas. In fact, it will appear as
an integral part of the task of this book to show that besides the events in the
lives of the Hebrews there was nothing that more immediately prepared for
the coming of Christ than the spirit of Hellas. Hence the story of the heathen
heritage becomes the Gospel of Hellas.