The First Christian Centuries: Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria, famous Father of the Church, is known chiefly from his own works. He was born, perhaps at Athens, about 150 CE, son of non-Christian parents; he converted to Christianity probably in early manhood. He became a presbyter in the Church at Alexandria and there succeeded Pantaenus in the catechetical school; his students included Origen and Bishop Alexander. He may have left Alexandria in 202, was known at Antioch, was alive in 211, and was dead before 220. This volume contains Clement's Exhortation to the Greeks to give up gods for God and Christ; "Who Is the Man Who Is Saved?" (an exposition of Mark 10:17–31, concerning the rich man's salvation); and an exhortation To the Newly Baptized. Clement was an eclectic philosopher of a neo-Platonic kind who later found a new philosophy in Christianity, and studied not only the Bible but the beliefs of Christian heretics.

Clement of Alexandria (150-215) lived and taught in the most lively intellectual centre of his day. This book offers a comprehensive account of how he joined the ideas of the New Testament to those of Plato and other classical thinkers. Clement taught that God was active from the beginning to the end of human history and that a Christian life should move on from simple faith to knowledge and love. He argued that a sequence of three elliptical relations governed the universe: Father and Son, God and humanity, humans and their neighbours. Faith as a fixed conviction which is also a growing mustard seed was joined to Plato's unwavering search for the best reason. The open heaven of prophecy became intelligible through Plato's ascending dialectic. This book will be invaluable in making this outstanding thinker of the early church accessible to the students of today.

The writings of Clement,and particularly the work here translated,are largely the literary account of the instruction and investigation conducted at the catechetical school.For a long while,Alexandria had been the center of a vigorous intellectual and literary achievement.Its famous libraries,the Serapeion and the Museum,were both the witness and sustainer of that spirit.The famous Neo-Platonic Alexandrian,Philo the Jew,a century and a half before,had left a deep Hellenistic imprint upon the culture of the city.He had sought particularly to enrich Scriptural studies by reference to Greek thought and by the use of allegory,a method which handled intelligently, demanded quickness of mind and a welldisciplined imagination.It ws only natural,then,that the Christian community in Alexandria should turn to a deeper study of the faith than prevailed in ruder missionary regions.Such was the origin of the origin of the catechetical school which Clement found under the leadership of Pantaenus.Its liberal culture and humanism must have been completely congenial to Clement's temperament and convictions,for he never sought any other instructor.

In the second and third centuries A.D. Alexandria was the meeting point of three distinct cultural streams,namely the Jewish-Alexandrine philosophy,Platonism,and Gnosticism,all of which had an influence on Alexandrine orthodox Christianity.Starting from the assumtion that the thought of a Christian Father like Clement of Alexandria cannot be fully understood without taking this influence into account,the author examines in detail Clement's close dependence on the Jewish-Alexandrine philosophy,Middle Platonism,Neoplatonism,and Gnosticism in such matters as his attitude towards Greek philosophy,ethics,his views on pistis and gnosis,cosmology and theology.Particular attention has been paid to the Gnostic texts from Nag-Hammadi so far published.

Provides an examination of the patristic idea of 'perfection' in relation to Clement's project on the ethical, intellectual and spiritual development of a Christian. This book deals with elements of Clement's theology not dealt with by Lilla such as the role of Christian community in progress towards Christian perfection.

How did second-century Christians vie with each other in seeking to produce an authoritative discourse of Christian identity? This book argues that many early Christians deployed the metaphors of procreation and kinship in the struggle over claims to represent the truth of Christian interpretation, practice and doctrine. In particular, the author examines the intriguing works of the influential theologian Clement of Alexandria for whom cultural assumptions about procreation and kinship played an important role in defining which Christians have the proper authority to teach and which kinds of knowledge are authentic.

Contents: Clement of Alexandria : the most learned of all -- Clement and the New Testament -- Introduction to the text and critical apparatus -- The Gospel text in Clement : text and apparatus -- Quantitative analysis -- Group profile analysis -- The typology of Clement's readings -- The transmission of the Gospels in Alexandria -- Appendix 1: Indeterminable gospel references -- Appendix 2: Catena fragments and Latin references -- Appendix 3: The Gospel text of Clement's opponents -- Appendix 4: Clement in the apparatus of NA27 and UBS4

Christian Controversy in Alexandria is an in-depth study of Clement of Alexandria's polemic against Basilides, Valentinus, and their followers. The book contains a fresh translation and interpretation of Clement's citations from the Basilideans and Valentinians and his criticism of their teachings on topics ranging from the creation of the world to the life of the Savior and the church. The author also shows how Clement borrows the ideas of his opponents in order to redefine them in the interests of Catholic orthodoxy.