Original scientific paper
Clement of Alexandria and the acceptance of Greek philosophy in the Alexandrian Church at the end of the 2nd century
Ivan Bodrožić
orcid.org/0000-0001-9399-9420
; University of Split - Catholic Faculty of Theology
Abstract
From its beginnings, spreading among the pagans, Christianity was in contact
with Hellenistic culture, and especially with Hellenistic philosophy. As a result of this,
Christianity began, albeit reluctantly, a process of close engagement with Hellenistic
culture based on mutual respect and highlighting those elements of the culture that
Christians regarded as being sound. Far from being painless this process was in fact
very painful and it was characterized by tension and by fundamental disagreements.
Disagreements arose first of all within the Christian community, which did not have
a common stand about accepting or rejecting philosophy; it was therefore necessary
to establish internal clarity. At the same time, the relationship with philosophy as
an external collocutor was problematic because it was necessary to avoid extreme
solutions – from one side a radical rejection and from the other non-critical acceptance.
The process reached its conclusion in a positive way with mutual respect, thanks to
those Christian writers who understood as well trained philosophers that there was no
fundamental contradiction between Christianity and philosophy – a truth which these
writers learned from their own rich life experience.
In the article, which is divided into three parts, the author shows that Clement
of Alexandria was one of the most meritorious of the early Christian fathers, the first
to explain and defend wholehearted acceptance of Greek philosophy, contrary to some
Christian circles which preferred a radical rejection of philosophy. The first section
describes how in the early Christian era the “question of philosophy” was complex
and delicate and how acceptance was accompanied by resistance, for example in the
writings of Tatian and Tertullian. Resistance can also be seen in some circles of the
Alexandrian Church who criticized Clement’s position. The author seeks to reconstruct
central arguments of “enemies of philosophy”. In the second and third sections of the
article the author describes Clement’s method of addressing these arguments and his
demonstration that philosophy serves as a helpful propaedeutics of Christianity.
Keywords
Clement of Alexandria; Christianity; philosophy; propaedeutics; gnosis
Hrčak ID:
272020
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2012.
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