Culture
Christians, faced with the proud history of philosophical Hellenism and the threat of persecution, said that the action of God is not limited to the Christian message or the Jewish tradition. They attached themselves to a Neoplatonic idea of a hypostatised logos, articulated by Philo of Alexandria (c20 BC-c50 AD)) and connected this with the Fourth Gospel to say that Jesus was the incarnate, hypostatised Logos. Everything came from the Logos. Tertullian (c160-c220) famously countered: "what indeed has Athens to do with Jerusalem? What concord is there between the academy and the church? What between heretics and Christians?" but Justin Martyr's openness to the notion of the Logos prevailed.
But there has always been a paradox of Christians living in an alien culture, forcing us, if we are not careful, to lead dual lives.
Logos theory (surprisingly) was never confirmed as Christian doctrine although it emphasises that:
Synthesis: The creator and redeemer are the same; Jesus is the goal to whom all are called; and Christians must look at the whole world through what they know of Jesus.
The Church in familiar culture loses the ability to self-critique. The 5th Century Graeco-Roman Church became enslaved to Imperial ends; the 20th Century German Church, weakened by liberalism, lost its ability to oppose Hitler.
Protestantism was the forerunner and epitome of modernity: Schleiermacher (1768-1834) Christianity is above philosophy as a "feeling of absolute dependence before God"; Hegel (1770-1831) on thesis, antithesis and synthesis; Harnack (1851-1930) on the historical Jesus. They disagreed except to say that the best way to understand Christianity was through the new Germany. They were so enmeshed in the culture that it dragged them down (arguably, like Justin Martyr). Protestantism recovered with Barth (1886-1968) and the Barmen Declaration (1934).
Synthesis: On its own, Logos is too rational a doctrine when creation includes the good and the beautiful; and Christians need to look at themselves in this way, notably focusing on justice as part of ordered creation.
Synthesis: Christianity faces two cultural issues: the demographic shift from white and North Western to non-white and 'developing country' and the de-Christianisation of the North and West.
(Gonzalez does not deal with the issue of salvation and non Christians - KC).