This story is classically told in a way that has not been done since Bertrand Russell"s History of Western Philosophy in the mid 20th century. The classic tale holds that in pagan antiquity it was the Stoics versus the Epicureans with the Skeptics unable to decide between the two. Christianity then subsumes the Rational moral theistic Stoics who are in the tradition of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. The Christians continue to oppose the atheist, hedonistic Epicureans, who are in the humanist tradition of the Greek Sophists. The Christians also oppose a new player in the early centuries of the Church, namely, Neo-Platonism, which attempts to construct an amoral, spiritual-humanism to oppose Christianity.