The Hellenization thesis and the over-reaction to it

So let us hear no more nonsense about the supposed imposition of Greek metaphysics on the Bible by the fourth-century fathers! (Craig A. Carter, Contemplating God with the Great Tradition: Recovering Trinitarian Classical Theism, 216)

The Hellenization thesis is the theory that periods of church history, be it the Church Fathers or even up to the Reformation era, have been so influenced by Greek philosophy that we need to recover the "true biblical truths" that have been distorted by those "Hellenizers" in church history. Be it those who reject the Church Fathers and attempt to read the Bible by oneself, or those who pit John Calvin against the Calvinists and those "dead" Reformed Scholastics, the Hellenization thesis has wrecked havoc on the Church's ability to be the one catholic and apostolic church, the Church of all ages. The demolishing of the Helleization thesis has been a welcome development in academia and in the Church broadly speaking. Unfortunately, the pendulum seems to be swinging to the opposite extreme, as can be seen in the recent "retreival" of classical theism, spearheaded by those who are trying to retreive the "Great Tradition," something that any Reformed Christian who holds to Sola Scriptura ought to be skeptical of.

The Hellenization thesis asserts that certain periods of Church History have seen great distortion of biblical truths by Greek philosophy. In opposition to this, the modern ressourcement movement asserts the total opposite: that the church has always been fully biblical and that there was never any compromise of biblical truth due to the use of Greek philosophy. In the eyes of the leaders in this ressourcement, the Church Fathers took Greek philosophical concepts, hammered them "on the anvil of Scripture" (Carter, p. 216), and "reforg[ed] them in the flame of truth until they were bent into a usable shape for proclaiming the gospel" (pp. 216-7). There was never any "Greek captivity," but rather everything that comes out of the Church Fathers is biblical and not tainted by Greek philosophy at all, not even an iota!

As it can be seen, the two are mirror images and exact opposites of each other. The Hellenization thesis asserts the full captivity of the Church to Greek philosophy, while the modern ressourcement asserts the full "captivity" of Greek philosophy to true theology in the Church. The reality is that both are wrong. The Church Fathers indeed are trying to be biblical, and their use of Greek philosophy is not unreflective and Greek philosophical thought has been altered and pressed into service of the Church's theology. At the same time, Greek philosophy has influenced the Church Fathers in ways thot are not always in line with biblical truth. The clearest example of such an unbiblical influence is in the Medieval Church's embrace of realism unto the denial of forensic justification, seeing justification as something that must be actually true for a believer before God can proclaim the believer just, a teaching that continues on as the Roman Catholic teaching on justification. If Greek philosophical thought as mediated through the Medival Church is wrong, why must we think that the supposed "Great Tradition" is neigh infallible in its use and modification of Greek philosophy?

The Hellenization thesis is wrong. But so is the glorification and unreflective adoption of the "Great Tradition." The current ressourcement project is moving in a dangerous direction. If not careful, it would lead to the wholesale rejection of the Reformation. After all, why stop at one's doctrine of God? Why not adopt Aquinas' doctrine of justification, merit, and the saints, as part of the teaching of the "Great Tradition"?