system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What inspiration did early christianity have from greek philosophy?

I heard they took some ideas from stoicism and platonism. And apparently aristotle's metaphysics?
gpt
There was an important social and cultural shift that occurred in the Roman empire during the third century.  Prior to this shift, Stoicism was more or less dominant in the philosophical culture of the empire, whereas after this shift, neo-Platonism became dominant.  Christian writings from this period often show significant debts to the dominant philosophical culture of their time, so that the earlier Christian writings often show the influence of Stoicism, while those after the third century often show the influence of neo-Platonism.

Aristotelian metaphysics was a significant influence on neo-Platonism, which was not just a return to Plato but also to a considerable extent a syncretic reflection on the Greek philosophical tradition broadly, so that the early Christians received their Aristotle through the broad tradition of late antique Platonism, which included Aristotle as the second great thinker of the Greek classical period.  But often when people speak about Aristotle's influence on Latin Christianity, they have in mind the particular influence that becomes prominent in the 13th century, much later than the period of early Christianity, following the Latin reception of Islamic Peripateticism.