94. Division. -- We may divide Patristic philosophy on the basis of the religious controversies which produced it. The history of those struggles naturally falls into two periods, following the doctrinal questions which originated them and the results to which they led.

The first period comprises the controversies of the first three centuries, from the foundation of the Church to the Council of Nice (325): the period of fixation of the fundamental dogmas. The second embraces the struggles of the fourth to the seventh centuries, from the Council of Nice to that of Trullo (692) : the period of the development of Christian dogma.