By the second century A.D., Christianity and Hellenism had come into close contact in the eastern Mediterranean. In the early fourth century, the policies of Emperor Constantine the Great institutionalized the connection and lent a lasting Greek influence to the church that emerged.

Although Christianity was initially practiced within Semitic populations of the Roman Empire, by the first century A.D. Greeks also had learned of the teachings of Christ. In that period, the epistles of Paul to the Ephesians and the Corinthians and his preachings to the Athenians were all aimed at a Greek audience. Other early Christian theological writers such as Clement of Alexandria and Origen attempted to fuse Christian belief with Greek philosophy, establishing the Greek world as the home of gentile Christianity.