What I find provocative is the idea of Christianity as an organic response to the encounter of Hellenized Judaism with Greco-Roman culture rather than the still dominant “invasion from outer space” view that portrays Christianity as preserving a “pure” Judaism only later corrupted by Greco-Roman influences.

There is a popular book that sorely needs to be written demonstrating how essential pagan philosophy was to the development of Christianity. Many of the core beliefs of Christianity are unthinkable without pagan philosophy. Lots of books touch on this issue but there needs to be one focused precisely on this issue.