In addition to the classical theory-practice antagonism in ancient philosophy, there exists a specifically Old Testament-Jewish and New Testament-early Christian understanding of theory and practice that perichoretically connects faith and love as well as grace and action. The initial incorporation of the philosophical categories of action and contemplation into the biblical world by Philo did not signify a break with the theory-practice unity of Yahweh belief and law practice, as Philo aimed to lead his already Hellenized Jewish compatriots back to Torah practice. When the early Christian fathers had to engage with the philosophical ideal of contemplation and the theoretical ideology of Gnosticism, they were able to assert the biblical-Christian theory-practice unity against a practice-forgetting vita contemplativa.