to sketch Cle a me nome oe Bastes
PISTIS, GNOSIS, C few persons, the mvevparc also to face the dangero III jected any attempt to g 'and to develop their fis E ' q These are the reasons w PISTIS, GNOSIS, COSMOLOGY, Al doctrine ofpistis and to g THEOLOGY of its relations with gnosi As we shall see presen The Doctri Pistis result, resorted again to I. he Doctrine of *Pisti as to some ideas characte HE most important aspect of Clement's philosophy is reprefollowing meanings to pis sented by the idea ofgnosis. In order to be able to grasp
1, pistis is the attitude its full meaning, we shall have to analyse it in all its various lievesin the first prin implications. But since the idea of gnosis is, in Clement's thought, terms, it also design closely connected with nie of pistis, it is . a! to aemS
2. pistis is the firm conv first to sketch Cle a me nome oe Bastes << 3 me ps Bis after reaching the liminary a Wl - be possible to pass to the study " §nosis. scientific demonstrat ilement's theory of pestis represents a serious attempt to give
P 8} 3. pistis may also mean a scientific explanation of the words pistis and morevew which :
: i ; f the truths containe occur so frequently in the Gospels, Clement was perfectly aware : f , ae : attempting to reach of the danger represented by a twofold opposition against the } rangelice J aith'
: that of some Greek philosophers, who oo, . evangelical idea of 'faith': the spree paces Ww) See, for instance, Strom, ii, strongly criticized the readiness of the Christians to believe in piv nlorw rois dmdois droveluavr the sayings ofJesus without trying to give a rational explanation
Kara tH» Tod diapépovros wAco Siem at OF ice —esceeiallvotthose Kelonbin Kexeoprauevay mlarews, § 76 mevp of them! and that of the gnostics espe cially of aaa longing 2 See Strom. i. 43. 1 (ii. 28. 18 to the school of Valentine—who shar ply distinguished the pistis
They are obviously the same C q of the common believers from the higher gnosis which, according philosophy (see chapter I, foot meer . a :
3 On this question see also H. yas a natural gift bestowed as a privilege only on ver Sl edie to them, was a natural g: wed a P § y Bf
The Cambridge History of later Gr nn ; ee .
{ _.* Several scholars have inqu 1 Some evidence for the criticism which | the Christian pistis had met in the Clement and into the problem Greek world can be found in two Greek philosophers of the second century A.D.,
Redepenning, Erste Abt., 152namely Galen and Celsus. R, Walzer has collected some statements of Galen on 7-19; Knittel, TQ 55 (1873), 1 Jews and Christians: in two of these Galen openly criticizes the inclinations of the in his book Clément d' Alexandrie, 2 Christians and of the Jews to believe in some undemonstrated laws andto accept
1919), 11-14; M, Daskalakis, everything on faith (the first of these statements occurs in De Pulsuum Differentiis ii.
{a detailed analysis of the seco 4, vol. viii, p. 57915 Kuhn, the second in the treatise against Aristotle's theology Gnose , - +, 28-42 and 43-50; W.
Els 16 mparov xwody dxivyrov which has survived only in an Arabic version: see Sophy of the Church Fathers, 112 Walzer, Galen on Jews and Christians (Oxford, 1949), 14-15). Celsus also did not askalakis, and Wolfson are aw miss the opportunity of criticizing the Christian idea of pistis: see, for instance, i. 9
Meanings of the word pistis ( | and vi.
7b. The close kinship between the criticism of Celsus and that of Galen { Particularly on the second and ! has been pointed out by Walzer, op. cit. 53.A hint at the polemic of the Greek
: te in Clement may mean di i philosophers against pistis can also be found in Strom. ii. 8. 4 (ii. 117. 8-9), mlorw Mi ai h exactly its meanings are 3¢, fv StaBdAdovow Keviy al BdpBapov vopivovres
« tese three different meanings h | d { |