Clement of Alexandria

Clement of Alexandria (150–215) lived and taught in the most lively intellectual centre of his day. This book offers a comprehensive account of how he joined the ideas of the New Testament to those of Plato and other classical thinkers. Clement taught that God was active from the beginning to the end of human history and that a Christian life should move on from simple faith to knowledge and love. He argued that a sequence of three elliptical relations governed the universe: Father and Son, God and humanity, humans and their neighbours. Faith as a fixed conviction which is also a growing mustard seed was joined to Plato’s unwavering search for the best reason. The open heaven of prophecy became intelligible through Plato’s ascending dialectic. This book will be invaluable in making this outstanding thinker of the early church accessible to the students of today.

• Osborn charts Clement of Alexandria’s fusion of New Testament ideas with Plato’s classical thought • An unmissable account of this crucial stage in the development of New Testament theology • A thorough examination of Clement of Alexandria’s development of Platonism

Preface; 1. Life and works; Part I. Economy and Mobility: 2. Divine plan/economy and mobility; 3. Scripture; 4. Philo and Clement: from divine oracle to true philosophy; Part II. Divine Reciprocity: 5. God beyond God and God within God: the known centre of the unknown God; 6. God beside God: the ellipse; Part III. Faith and Salvation: 7. The spark and ferment of faith (exc 1.1.3); 8. Arguments for faith; 9. Knowledge, sciences and philosophy; 10. Church and heresy; 11. Twofold hope; 12. Love and reciprocity; Conclusion; Appendix.