Is the role of faith to criticize culture or to sanctify it?

The scholar Origen says that Christianity does not criticize societal cultures, but sanctifies them. He says, “For why is it an evil to have been educated, and to have studied the best opinions, and to have both the reality and appearance of wisdom? … And it is no hindrance to the knowledge of God.”⁸⁷¹ Also, “The blame then must remain with those who rest in their own ignorance.”⁸⁷² Further, “for true wisdom does not mislead, but ignorance does, while of existing things knowledge alone is permanent, and the truth which is derived from wisdom.”⁸⁷³

Origen prefers that those with the most prudent and intelligent minds be the ones to draw out the mysteries of the Holy Bible and deeply explore the enigmas of faith.⁸⁷⁴ St. Gregory the Wonderworker of Neocaesarea (213–270), who was a pupil of Origen, learned that

869 “Epistle to Diognetus,” in Staniforth, Maxwell, and Andrew Louth, eds. Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics, 1987) 5: p. 144.

870 “Epistle to Diognetus,” in Staniforth, Maxwell, and Andrew Louth, eds. Early Christian Writings (Penguin Classics, 1987) 6: p. 145.

871 Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 3.49 (ANF 4:484).

872 Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 3.44 (ANF 4:482).

873 Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 3.72 (ANF 4:492).

874 Cf. Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 3.74 (ANF 4:493).

knowledge leads to faith and ignorance leads to blindness, and one cannot be pious without studying philosophy.⁸⁷⁵

St. Gregory the Wonderworker and his brother Athenodorus were both converted to Christianity through the cultured education and intellectual ability of their teacher, Origen. Their teacher instructed his students to study the ideas of the Greek philosophers, whoever they might be, excepting the atheists. He did not allow his disciples to be ignorant of human thought, and he trained them to distinguish truth from falsehood within these thick forests full of thorns.⁸⁷⁶

In his homilies on the Book of Exodus, Origen preaches that Christians can use philosophy to construct the edifice of faith, just as the Hebrews used the gold of the Egyptians to make the items in the tabernacle of meeting.⁸⁷⁷

In his exhortation to the youth, St. Basil the Great does not ban reading the poets, historians, and orators, so long as they are useful. He goes on to say, “We ourselves too, if we are wise, having appropriated from this literature what is suitable to us and akin to the truth, will pass over the remainder … Now if there is some affinity between the two bodies of teachings, knowledge of them should be useful to us; but if not, at least the fact that by setting them side by side we can discover the difference between them, is of no small importance for strengthening the position of the better.”⁸⁷⁸