The strong religious bent, characteristic of Justin's mature age, is still rooted in his youth. He, who was a pagan, raised in a Greek cultural environment, naturally looked to philosophy for the satisfaction of his spiritual yearnings. He was among several philosophical schools, among which are the Stoic, the Pythagorean, the Peripatetic and the Platonic. The latter satisfied, temporarily and partially, his yearnings, by providing him with the understanding of existence of immaterial, incorporeal things, philosophy being the science of truth, that is, that which leads us to God, invariable and cause of other beings.
So far Justino seemed to be satisfied; however, when he faced the question of what God is, he once again realized the insufficiency of philosophical knowledge in knowing the intangible. It remained for him, then, to convert to Christianity, in which faith leads to an absolute truth, since it is, in part, in each individual.
In this way, Justino reformulated the concept of philosophy, no longer seen as a speculative exercise of the spirit, but as exercise of the partial truth existing in every soul that would bring us closer to God and that needs the Revealed truth, that is, the help of faith. This, delimiting reason, would lead us to salvation and grace. For Justin, therefore, the true philosophy is Christianity.
Christ represents the truth, is the total truth. Those who, before him, made good use of logos, partially participated in the truth; those who did later participate fully. So there is a Christian community, even in ancient times, as those philosophers shared the fate of Christ, dying for the truth. As an apologist, and having these considerations about ancient philosophers, Justin implanted philosophy in bosom of Christianity, which allowed to understand the temporality and finitude of man, characterizing the notion in History.
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However, the synthesis between Justin's conversion to Christianity and his connection with Greek philosophy (especially Platonic) led to innovations in the philosophical-theological debate at the time. For example, the Platonic-Pythagorean philosophy believed in the successive reincarnation of souls that atoned for their sins in an evolutionary cycle. This idea, however, was inadmissible for the Christianity of the time, since the resurrection of Christ and his promise of eternal life gave the understand that each individual has only one soul that will be judged at the final judgment, while cyclic reincarnation would not allow the idea of judgment. However, they had in common that it is through the soul that one seeks and reaches God.
Therefore, despite the differences of thought, Justin remained a convinced Christian, ready to defend the idea of the dead God who will return to judge men. This is attested to by his death as an apologist for the good news.
By João Francisco P. Cabral
Brazil School Collaborator
Graduated in Philosophy from the Federal University of Uberlândia - UFU
Master's student in Philosophy at the State University of Campinas - UNICAMP
Philosophy - Brazil School
