Alexandrian Christianity - Clement of Alexandria

Ken McGuire
Ken McGuire Member Posts: 2,074 ✭✭✭
edited November 20 in English Forum

As the church grew, it had to deal with pagan culture.  While Church History is filled with heretical examples where people brought in pagan ideas uncritically, it is hard to say that the World that God created and called very good, where the heavens declare the glory of God is completely unaware of ANYTHING, even if Jesus came to this world and the world did not know him.  And so the "culture wars" go back as long as the church has. 

Alexandria was one of the biggest melting pots of ideas in the Roman Empire.  And Alexandria had quite the tradition of learning - this is where the famous "great library" was.  There was also a significant Jewish population, which had already been trying to figure out how the tradition of Israel fit with Hellenistic culture in figures like Philo.

And the Church joined in this process too, setting up a catechetical school to teach Christianity to the world there.  Two early leaders of this school are featured in the collection Alexandrian Christianity, available in the Universal Digital Library at http://archive.org/details/alexandrianchris012826mbp .  Since PBB's do not work so well with multiple author datatypes, I have extracted the section of Clement of Alexandria from the larger work. and have created a PB.

This contains books 3 and 7 from Clement's Stromateis, or Miscellanies.  As the title suggests, they kind of wander around a bit, but the general topics are Christian Marriage for #3 and the goal for the Spiritual life in #7.  Clement spends more than a bit of time arguing against alternative (Gnostic) views, using his considerable knowledge of the Bible as well as Greek Classics.

Back when the ECF set was collected, they tended to hide talk about sex in the fathers by putting it in Latin instead of English, and so book 3 is Latin in the ECF set, but English here. So even if you have ECF, this is useful, if your English is better than your Latin.

As I said above, the text is from Universal Digital Library.  I have added tagging with the Clement of Alexandria datatype, as well as links to Plato, Philo, and many others.  There is room for more links to be added to this to other works of Clement as well as Origen, but I figure it is good enough to go.

SDG,

Ken McGuire

The Gospel is not ... a "new law," on the contrary, ... a "new life." - William Julius Mann

L8 Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox Silver, Reformed Starter, Academic Essentials

L7 Lutheran Gold, Anglican Bronze

Tagged:

Comments

  • Milford Charles Murray
    Milford Charles Murray Member Posts: 5,004 ✭✭✭


    As the church grew, it had to deal with pagan culture.  While Church History is filled with heretical examples where people brought in pagan ideas uncritically, it is hard to say that the World that God created and called very good, where the heavens declare the glory of God is completely unaware of ANYTHING, even if Jesus came to this world and the world did not know him.  And so the "culture wars" go back as long as the church has. 

    Alexandria was one of the biggest melting pots of ideas in the Roman Empire.  And Alexandria had quite the tradition of learning - this is where the famous "great library" was.  There was also a significant Jewish population, which had already been trying to figure out how the tradition of Israel fit with Hellenistic culture in figures like Philo.

    And the Church joined in this process too, setting up a catechetical school to teach Christianity to the world there.  Two early leaders of this school are featured in the collection Alexandrian Christianity, available in the Universal Digital Library at http://archive.org/details/alexandrianchris012826mbp .  Since PBB's do not work so well with multiple author datatypes, I have extracted the section of Clement of Alexandria from the larger work. and have created a PB.

    Peace to you, Ken!                         I thank you and I thank our Gracious God for you!                For your "sharings" with us, especially, for your scholarship and for you as an historian.  You are indeed much appreciated; and, frankly, now and again I talk to our Heavenly Father in Jesus' Holy Name in prayer for you and your loved ones and your welfare.

                In behalf of your brothers and sisters on these Logos Forums, thank you again!          *smile*    

                                        I look forward to studying this PB!

    Philippians 4:  4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand..........

  • Anthony H
    Anthony H Member Posts: 1,155 ✭✭

    Wow Ken McGuire.

     

    What a blessing. Thank you.

  • Robert M. Warren
    Robert M. Warren Member Posts: 2,452 ✭✭✭

    macOS (Logos Pro - Beta) | Android 13 (Logos Stable)

    Smile

  • HansK
    HansK Member Posts: 570 ✭✭

    Great addition! Thank you very much.

    How would you suggest us to name it in Logos when compiling the file?

    And, do you have a picture?

    Hans

    MacOS Sierra / Logos 7 Collector's Edition & All Base Packages / Logos Now

  • HansK
    HansK Member Posts: 570 ✭✭

    MacOS Sierra / Logos 7 Collector's Edition & All Base Packages / Logos Now

  • fgh
    fgh Member Posts: 8,948 ✭✭✭

    Thanks.

    Mac Pro (late 2013) OS 12.6.2

  • BillS
    BillS Member Posts: 3,805 ✭✭✭

    Thank you!

    Grace & Peace,
    Bill


    MSI GF63 8RD, I-7 8850H, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 2TB HDD, NVIDIA GTX 1050Max
    iPhone 12 Pro Max 512Gb
    iPad 9th Gen iOS 15.6, 256GB

  • Ken McGuire
    Ken McGuire Member Posts: 2,074 ✭✭✭

    After seeing the IVP Dictionary update with all the added tagging, I found out how to link to Tatian.  In looking at this file, I found a typo, one chapter of paragraphs with the wrong chapter number, and lots of potential new links - a couple Tatian, lots of other Clement, some Hippolytus, a couple more Tertullian, and a few Origen.  Anyway, it was more than enough for an update.

    SDG

    Ken McGuire

    The Gospel is not ... a "new law," on the contrary, ... a "new life." - William Julius Mann

    L8 Anglican, Lutheran and Orthodox Silver, Reformed Starter, Academic Essentials

    L7 Lutheran Gold, Anglican Bronze

  • Milford Charles Murray
    Milford Charles Murray Member Posts: 5,004 ✭✭✭

    Peace, Ken!           *smile*                     Got it!                   and ...    Thank you very kindly!                 Couldn't sleep so thought I'd do something useful with my time, so this is "good timing" for me!

                                                                                                                    Blessings to you in your life!

    Philippians 4:  4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand..........

  • Bruce Dunning
    Bruce Dunning MVP Posts: 11,143

    Using adventure and community to challenge young people to continually say "yes" to God

  • L.A.
    L.A. Member Posts: 584 ✭✭

    Thanks again and again, Ken! 

    Your tagging helps me to compile the German versions from the BKV (Bibliothek der Kirchenväter). I hope I'll get enough time as I wish ;-)