Ritter nor Merk has worked out these true remarks. Even the parallels produced
INTRODUCTION I two exceptions being represented by the doctrines of the tranmodern scholars have scendent God and of the Logos.! In other words: nobody has sharp polemic of Cleme so far tried to explain the presence in Clement of elements cannot be denied that coming from different schools of Greek philosophy by taking as ; drawing a line between a starting-point in his research the nature of the cultural synof the second century A. thesis as it appears in Philo,* in Middle Platonism, and in Neonot prevent us from noti platonism. Had this been done, the researches on Clement's
Clement's gnosis and tha philosophical sources would have taken a quite different direcA comprehensive inqui tion. cannot afford to underes Another aspect of Clement's cultural background to which The exact determinat very little attention seems to have been paid so far is the subMiddle Platonism, Neopl stantial agreement between him and the contemporary gnostic sophy, and Gnosticism systems on some fundamental points of the idea of gnosis. Some
Its solution depends on "
A. CG. Outler seems to have of the whole problem of the relations between Philo i <i , and Clement when he says (pp. 239-40): 'We must resist the temptation...
1. Does Clement's fir to conclude that Philo is a direct source for Clement. Clement is conscious of no exclude any influe such indebtedness... in a writer like Clement... this seems strongly to suggest to believe? that he is indirectly rather than directly related to Philo and that the similarities
; OD . between them are due rather to a common tradition than to a conscious borrowing 2, Ifit can be demonst on, Clements part premisses which a t See chapter III, footnote 6, p. 199 below. apenas
2 Whereas Philo's influence on Clementin the most important points of theology | of Neoplatonism, has generally been acknowledged (see chapter III, footnote 6, p. 199 below) the sophy, is there a po same cannot be said about Clement's dependence upon Philo in his ethical a Middle-Platonist, doctrines, in which Stoic elements are particularly relevant. Only Ritter and ee Merk seem to have realized Philo's influence on Clement even in the adoption of and becomes a Chr Stoic doctrines and terminology : see Ritter, 423, and Merk, 67 and go. But neither
3. Admitting that th Ritter nor Merk has worked out these true remarks. Even the parallels produced ee Cl SAR A by Heinisch in the definitions of some virtues (pp. 343-5!) are incomplete and do mateeee ement a not touch the more general problem of Clement's dependence upon Philo in his
Christian', as G. ethical doctrines.
F : a / 'Christian' necessar 3 C. Andresen, art. cit., has clearly shown that Justin received the Stoic doctrines . othe which play such animportant role in his philosophy not directly from Stoicism but a More concrete c *h through the intermediate source represented by the school-tradition of Middle helpful in this resp Platonism (see particularly pp. 168-81). It may also be worth while to remember
Waszink's remarks on Clement, art. cit., 153-4: 'Eine Analyse seiner [sc. Clement's] Our research on Clem Angaben zeigt, dass (genau wie Andresen das far Justin festgesetat hat) die von sar ily start from his vie ihm angefiihrten stoischen 8éa: durchgehend nicht aus stoischer Quelle stammen, onthe individual philos sondern lingst in das System des mittleren Platonismus inkorporiert waren.' The individual philoso same could be said about the Platonic elements (this has been observed also by Arnou, 2274-5) as well as about some ethical and logical doctrines of Aristotelian
|. dee; for instance, J. Kaye origin (see pp. 64-5, 100, and 121-2 below). The results of our inquiry on Clement's Beiheft 18 zur ZNW (1937), 8 cultural background will show, 1 hope, how wrong is J. Munck's statement 'Das
- See, on this point, H. Chad Verhiiltnis des Klemens zur zeitgendssischen platonischen Philosophie, zum soBritannica (1964), 899 and Earl genannten "mittleren Platonismus"' ist noch nicht untersucht worden. Es muss
* p, 48: 'e perd la sua posi aber vorderhand als unwahrscheinlich angesehen werden ,dass der Eklektizismus Platonic a, la soluzione ad essi des Klemens selbst innerhalb des eklektischen mittleren Platonismus eingeordnet
'rovato la risposta soddisfacen werden kann' (p. 210), 'estati nell'animo,'
INTRODUCTION not only do they give us a first idea of the sphere in which Clement's thought moves, but also enable us to understand both
E d é the reason why in Strom. i. 37. 6 he seems to speak as an eclectic'! and the way in which he interprets Scripture.? Next, we shall have to examine Clement's ethical doctrines (chapter II); our
CLEMENT'S V inquiry will then bei d ies sis of his OF a | AN ie6 isas wel < $v! on cosmology a of pistis and of gnosis as well as of his views sy GREE theology (chapter III). d j At the same time, a solution will also be found for the secon
: voblem. During our inquiry it will become clear, I hope, that HE interest which a the study of Clement's thought it is not possible to neglect scholars who have his cultural background, as Volker and several scholars before : writings lies princi him have done; and our examination of Clement's conceptions sophy. Ina period in wh of the Logos and of gnosis will enable us to discover the line hostility towards Greek which separates the Platonist and the disciple of Philo from the direct product of the de Christian and to determine the nature of the Christianity which particularly of Gnostic rovides his 'Platonic' problems with a satisfactory solution.3 undertook the task of P thought against the at 1, See s1-6 below 2 See pp. 56-9 below. i.
5 below. ie Wu ieirn ethers: (ab evauiie Felt community to which h eats eae a oe bien comprendre Saint Clément et Origéne il faut penser ciliation and synthesis toujours A la Gnose, Philon et au Platonisme; car ce sont 1a les trois sources felt by no other Christ auxquelles ils puisent généralement. deeply as by Clement.
| the religion in which he a science, or assumed th taking into account th important considerati Clement's work in the thought and theology— scholars! and therefore " for a solution.
' On Clement's defence of De yvdoee..., 45, Kling, 8 Bigg, 78-9, J. Lebreton, RHE RSR 21 (1931), 555, Je Cham Der wahre Gnostiker . . ., 333, 3 Thought .
. ., 33-4 and 43, a picture of Clement's attitude mitting themselves to philos Sufficient for salvation has be and 150-60. It would also be (il. 13. 5-14), i. 20. 1-2 (ii. 13
3 (ii. 23. 10-11), i. 43.
\4. 33. 3-14), vi. 80. 5 (ii. 472.