Clement Of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria, considered Father of the Church , was born in Athens around 150 and died in Asia Minor to 220.
Summary |
His life is little known. Pagan by birth, he became familiar with all systems of philosophy of his time. He converted to Christianity and began a series of trips (Greece, Italy). He met in Egypt , to Alexandria , where there was the intellectual movement of the busiest times, the cult of eclectic , who became his master, Pantene , then director of the Theological School of Alexandria. Appointed by Pope Demetrius I. (12th Pope of Alexandria) to lead a Christian mission in India, Pantene must abandon the leadership of the Theological School of Alexandria. It then chooses the most brilliant of his pupils, Clement, to succeed him. Clement of Alexandria is well before Origen the direction of the School of Alexandria.
In 202 , persecution of Septimius Severus forced him to seek refuge in Cappadocia , to the bishop Alexander.
Clement of Alexandria is one of the first theoreticians of the Church to have introduced Christianity as a philosophy, seeking to reconcile the biblical prophets and Greek philosophers.
In his Protrepticus while polemic against the pagan gods, he tries to show the great unity of the divine revelation in the work of philosophers, poets and their masters in all the prophets of the Old Testament. The Logos of God, appeared in the form of Christ , unites all those messages.
In his Teacher, he says that every Christian is a "spiritual" able to perceive God. About the book is to take charge of Christian education: it has an ethics adapted to the needs of Christians of the middle class. Divided into three books, the first part develops the training that God gives his children the educational activities of his Son. The second part (Books II and III) provides the rule of Christian life which must be permeated by the Gospel example.
The Stromata is a more complicated structure. The work is essentially a refutation of heresies and a discussion of the "true gnosis," which leads to mystical union with God. Its very allegorical exegesis demonstrations were afraid to Christian scholars of later centuries.
In his letter of Mar Saba (named after the Monastery of Mar Saba ), Clement of Alexandria refers to the secret Gospel of Mark , a gospel apocryphal. It is the only reference to this gospel that has survived. It condemns the use that is made by Carpocratians , a Gnostic sect of Alexandria.
He was honored by the Catholic Church on December 4. However, his orthodoxy and holiness were challenged: from Benedict XIV , he no longer appears in the Roman martyrology.
Doctrine
It is acquiescing to the essential goodness of creation that Clement of Alexandria came into the Christian faith. Like Justin , he granted his philosophical preference for Plato who, he said, came closest to the Christian truth.
It is a dual-perspective that Clement of Alexandria perceived Christianity: first as "philosophy", but also as a reality which, by its mysterious force, is able to transform and sublimate man to the depths of his being. Moreover, it is not so for the thrill of mystery by finding the truth that Clement adhered to Christianity. In Christian doctrine, he discovered the full truth and severe, complete and final, by which any philosophical quest was successful. This truth has the knowledge of God, moral and reason.
While reading Plato had given him the intuition of truth, he is satisfied by the knowledge of the divine epiphany, that is to say of Christ. He read his spiritual experiences as the translation into action of the Truth of Platonism still obscure, granted by God as a gift to both rational (the word of Christ) and experimental (Christian life).
His vision of Christianity is very modern in his view, Christianity is not in the "external signs", but in the heart of man, by which his life in it complied in full.
Bibliography
Old Editions
It remains one of his exhortation to the Gentiles, a collection of Christian and philosophical thoughts, the educator, Treaty of Christian morality.
In the nineteenth century , the dictionary Bouillet indicates that the best edition of his works is that of John Potter , Greek and Latin, Oxford , 1715 , 2 volumes in-8. They have been translated into French by Antoine Eugene Genoud , in 1837 - one thousand eight hundred and forty-three , 3 volumes in-8.
Scientific Publishing
GIC (Clavis Patrum Graecorum) .1375 to 1399.
Translations Modern French
- Theodotus extracts, trans. F. Sagnard, Cerf, coll. "Christian sources", 2nd ed. 1970, 280 p.
- The teacher, trans. Montdsert Claude Henri Marrou Irenaeus, Chantal Matray, Cerf, coll. "Christian sources", 1970, 256 p.
- Protreptic, trans. Montdsert and Claude A. Plassart, 4th ed. 1976, 216 p.
- Stromata, trans. Cerf, coll. "Christian sources". Stromata I. Stromata II. Stromata III. Stromata IV. Stromata V: trad. Pierre Voulet, 1981, 272 p.
Classics
- Victor Hebert-Duperron , Essay on the controversy and philosophy of Clement of Alexandria, thesis submitted to the Faculty of Arts of Caen. Caen : A. Hardel, 1855.
- Cognat Joseph , Clement of Alexandria, its doctrine and controversy. Paris: E. Dentu, 1859.
Modern Studies
- Der wahre nach Clemens Alexandrinus Gnostiker, W. Vlker Berlin 1952
- The Teacher, translated by B. and P. Troo Gauriat and comments, al. "Fathers in the Faith," JP.Migne Edition 1991, ISBN 2-908587-06-8
- The Stromata ditions du Cerf
Schedule
Related articles
External Links
- The teacher and the speech "How rich will be saved" in French translation to download (in a volume of "Defense of Christianity by the early Fathers")
- (En) Patristique.org, texts of the Fathers of the Church
Source partial
Marie-Nicolas Bouillet and Alexis Chassang (ed.), "Clement of Alexandria" in Universal Dictionary of History and Geography, 1878 [ detail editions ] ( Wikisource )
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