How is the apostle Peter’s wife portrayed in early Christian writings? Within the first century CE, texts like 1 Corinthians and the Synoptic Gospels seemingly take for granted that Peter was married, but do not explicitly mention his wife. In the second to fourth centuries, however, we see a variety of depictions, from Clement of Alexandria’s anecdote concerning her martyrdom to Jerome’s suggestion that Peter forsook the office of marriage after following Jesus. I demonstrate that these views are often shaped by theological controversies such as Encratism or Jovinianism, with the idealisation of celibacy significantly influencing the portrayal of Peter’s wife by the late fourth century.

This journal examines the influence of Instagram on the worship attire style of Christian youth, with a particular focus on motivation, identity formation, and the spiritual implications that accompany it. The research was conducted through a field survey involving 50 respondents and supported by several theoretical foundations, including Erving Goffman’s dramaturgy, Nancy Baym’s theory of digital relationships, as well as theological studies from Bradshaw, Martin Luther, Clement of Alexandria, and HKBP Hymn BE No. 31:2. The findings reveal that Instagram has a significant role in shaping perceptions of the “ideal appearance in worship,” including the tendency among youth to appear attractive, neat, and fashionable as a form of impression management within the digital sphere. Moreover, the study indicates a shift in awareness among young people that appearance is not the primary value in praising God. Simplicity, sincerity, neatness, and genuine spirituality are increasingly recognized as the essential core of true worship. Therefore, the tension between digital culture and liturgical ethics presents an opportunity for the church to provide pastoral guidance, theological education, and character formation to help young people express themselves in healthy ways without losing the values of the Christian faith.

Christian authors actively campaigned against different types of spectacles, including athletic spectacles, on the basis of arguments found in Greek and Roman authors as early as Hippocrates. Christianity added to this criticism the condemnation of idolatry, which manifested itself in theatre, circus and athletic games. From Tacian to Augustine, passing through Tertullian, Novatian, Clement of Alexandria, Gregory of Nazianzus, John Chrysostom, etc., a unanimous doctrine is maintained on the demonic origin of most of the spectacles, as a rite of pagan religion, although, in some cases, their positive values for health and education are highlighted.

This article aims to demonstrate that the concept of God’s infinity, as developed by Gregory of Nyssa in many of his works, may have been influenced by earlier Christian theology, rather than solely by Plotinus’ philosophy, as many contemporary scholars believe. One of the theologians who introduced this concept before Plotinus was Clement of Alexandria, who not only defined God as the infinite One, but also, like Gregory, drew important anthropological conclusions from the notion of infinity. After an introduction describing the history of research on the presence of a positively understood concept of the infinity of God in Christian theology before Plotinus, the article compares the doctrine of Clement of Alexandria with that of Gregory of Nyssa in the following three thematic sections: (1) the infinity of the incorporeal being; (2) the infinity of the Good; and (3) the infinity of the process of human assimilation to God. The method adopted in the article is a comparative analysis of ancient texts. The research carried out leads to the conclusion that both Clement and Gregory understand the nature of the infinite God similarly, use similar metaphors and argumentation, and believe that the process of human assimilation to God extends into infinity.

Abstract This article revisits a long-abandoned position that, contrary to the developmentalist view, Aristotle’s lost dialogue, the Eudemus, argued for the immortality of intellect, not for the Platonic view of the immortality of the soul as a whole. It does so by providing evidence for the presence of Aristotle’s lost writings in the Church Fathers, a period often overlooked in the study of the reception of Aristotle’s lost writings. After discussing the debates in the secondary literature on Aristotle’s view of immortality in the Eudemus, it shows that Tertullian’s De anima 12 should be considered a fragment of the central argument for the immortality of intellect in Aristotle’s Eudemus. The conclusion is based not only on the fact that Tertullian’s summary of Aristotle’s view cannot be derived from any of Aristotle’s extant writings, but also on similar reports regarding the separability of intellect from soul found in Origen and Clement of Alexandria. The article thereby demonstrates the influence of Aristotle’s lost writings in the Patristic period and their importance as reporters of Aristotle’s lost works.

This article considers anti-adornment rhetoric circulating in Roman antiquity and in two of the earliest and most extensive treatments of dress by early Christian writers, namely, treatises by Tertullian of Carthage and Clement of Alexandria. It treats ancient Roman-period discourses of anti-adornment to reveal how configurations of gender were entangled in Roman-imperial race–making and colonial projects. Tertullian’s and Clement’s treatments of adornment, it argues, likewise rehearse Roman colonial imaginaries. Their declamations against luxurious dress and adornment are read here as registering Roman colonial anxieties about the intermingling of populations, the influx of goods and peoples, and the fluctuating dynamics of social belonging and self-display Roman imperial order demanded. It concludes that these Christian authors’ discourse on gendered adornment indicates their investment in and contributions to ancient Roman ethno-racial and imperial formations. Finally, in conversation with Americanist Anne Anlin Cheng’s concept of “ornamentalism,” it offers a brief consideration of how their rhetoric figures in the longue durée of western imaginaries of Asiatic femininity.

J. M. F. Heath , Clement of Alexandria and the Judgment of Taste: Pedagogical Rhetoric and Christian Formation (Oxford: OUP, 2024), pp. ix + 232. $100.00

The Concept of Autexousios in Clement of Alexandria.

In this paper, I will demonstrate that Gregory of Nyssa provides a compelling and beautiful alternative vision of last things, one that not only remains within the bounds of Christian Orthodoxy, but is sourced from its very roots. Gregory’s theology is centered around his vision of a God who is indeed only good and who has an ultimately good plan for all of humanity. Western evangelicals’ current hellish iteration of Christianity claims that God is good in ways that necessarily contradict human comprehension. In contrast, Gregory elevates the goodness of God beyond human comprehension. His belief in the ultimate restoration of all things allows him to congruently claim that “God in his own nature, is everything that can be conceived of as good; or rather, being beyond any good that can be conceived or comprehended.” This should pique the interest of those experiencing this Great Deconstruction. For those who are on a quest to find an antidote to our current hellish theologies—theologies that would make God evil—Gregory offers a healing salve. For those whose heads and hearts have deemed this current iteration of Christianity untenable but who don’t wish to leave their Christian faith, Gregory offers a path forward. He beckons these seekers to journey deeper into the roots of orthodox Christianity to find a cohesive vision of a good God, with a good plan, and an ultimately good outcome for all. Gregory does not stand alone in this perspective. His thoughts echo in the writings and sermons of some of the most formative voices of Christian theology, both before him and after. We could also look to saints and theologians like Maximus the Confessor, Isaac the Syrian, Clement of Alexandria, Irenaeus, Macrina the Younger, Basil, and Gregory Nazanius, among many others, to receive this antidote to our current malaise. However, in this paper, I will specifically examine the eschatology of one of the most brilliant and celebrated early church Fathers, Saint Gregory of Nyssa. We will see how his view of last things might shape our view of all things.

Abstract: A previously-unknown Christian text published in the 2023 volume of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri series, P.Oxy. 87.5577; LDAB 989107 (hereafter P.Oxy. 5577) preserves a fragmentary dialogue where a woman named Μαρία is apparently instructed by Jesus. Although the fragment is brief and lacunose, it contains emphases on the “good” (ἀγαθός), the “mind” (νοῦς), and intertwined and dissolved elements (πλεκομένων καὶ ἀναλυομένων ἀρχ̣ῶν), themes which are also prevalent in the extant portions of the Gospel of Mary . Due to this shared content, as well as narrative sensibility, this study explores the question of whether P.Oxy. 5577 might preserve a portion of Mary’s vision from the Gospel of Mary . Regardless of whether P.Oxy. 5577 is a portion of the Gospel of Mary , this study underlines several intriguing parallels with second-century Christian beliefs preserved in Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Celsus. Moreover, the description of Mary becoming an “image of eternal incorruptible light” seems to reference Wisdom of Solomon 7, opening up the possibility that this fragment provides instructions for how Mary might become a “holy soul” who receives God’s “intelligent spirit” of wisdom.

Book Review: Clement of Alexandria & the Judgement of Taste

Abstract In Clement of Alexandria’s long section against false beauty in the Paedagogus , he gives his readers two passages that parody scenes of male body waxing. This article argues that the two passages represent different locations of waxing with different connotations about public display. The first, sharing a source with Athenaeus’s Deipnosophistae , represents body waxing as occurring in public shops, and laments the banal and money-grubbing aspects of the practice. The second represents waxing that happens in a gymnasium, contrasting the appropriate gymnastic exercises with the gyrations of the man being waxed. By combining the lesser-known setting of a professional waxing studio with a setting famous for its display of manly excellence and competition—the gymnasium—Clement keeps our focus firmly on the fact that men submitting to this treatment are doing so under the scrutiny of the public gaze. Clement’s rhetoric strives to make such “feminine” debauchery painfully public.

Introduction. Antioch occupies a significant part of Hellenistic history. Located in the Middle East, it became the cradle of one of the oldest Christian churches Antioch. This article analyzes the history of Antioch in the period from 40 to 46 AD, when Barnabas and Paul actively conducted their apostolic activities in the country according to the Christian religion and the church in Antioch. Materials and Methods. The main historical source for this period is the Christian Bible, as well as canonical texts that reveal the life and work of the apostles Barnabas and Paul. First of all, the Gospel of Barnabas and the Epistle of Barnabas should be noted. The last work is non-canonical, as it freely and allegorically interprets biblical texts. However, Clement of Alexandria and Origen addressed this treatise (Epistle), and Eusebius of Caesarea, despite doubts about authenticity, left it among the readers. It is important to note that the historicity of biblical events in terms of coverage of church construction and the spread of Christianity is beyond doubt. The article uses the historical and genetic method, the biographical method, as well as the methodology of the history of religions. Analysis. Based on the sources and historiography of the issue, the article analyzes the activities of Barnabas and Paul in the organization of the Church of Antioch, as well as the role of this church and its traditions in the general history of Christianity. Against the background of a weakening trend towards Christianization in Jerusalem, Antioch, through the efforts of the apostles Barnabas and Paul, became one of the main centers of Christianity. Moreover, sources first report Christianity in Antioch as a separate movement. Results. I t was Barnabas who was sent to Antioch in order to take care of the community of believers created there and actively growing. It was the activities of Barnabas and Paul who joined him that became key in the formation of the basic principles of the Christian community in Antioch. The article also notes the significant role of Barnabas in the history of the Church of Antioch, which remains underestimated.

Clement of Alexandria twice refers to Philo as a ‘Pythagorean.’ Obviously, this is how the early Christian writer imagined the Jewish exegete, famous for his allegorical interpretations of the Old Testament, characterized by numerical symbolism. However, the fascination with allegories is more likely to remind the reader of Stoicism, while the love of numerical speculation alone does not make a person a Pythagorean, for by the time of Clement all this had long since become commonplace in Greco-Roman literature. It seems to me that Clement, who was well acquainted with the school philosophy of his time, does not throw words to the wind, and when he calls Philo a Pythagorean, he means something more concrete. Moreover, numerical symbolism and allegories are not the most important parts of the story. The most striking similarity between Philo and the Pythagoreans is seen in his interpretation of the nature of the first principles. Of course, Philo is a strict monist and his first principles has a pronounced transcendental character, so not every version of Pythagoreanism is suitable for him. Nevertheless, since the transcendent deity must somehow manifest itself in the world, his metaphysical scheme cannot do without the principle of plurality, however subordinate its role. Thus, in the treatise De ebrietate 30, commenting on a place in Prov. 8.22, he writes that the demiurge who created the world is to be regarded as its ‘father,’ while the ‘mother’ may rightly be the creator's ‘knowledge.’ The reference is obviously to the biblical figure of Wisdom, who as a result, is quite similar to an indeterminate dyad of the Pythagorean Anonymus Alexandri. In De opificio mundi 8-9 Philo also cannot dispense with the secondary principle of creation, which must exist before the world, being at the beginning of time molded by measure and number into an ordered cosmos.

Abstract Initially a valedictory lecture, this essay discusses the question for which motives people joined the Christians in the second and third centuries. It analyzes the conversion accounts of Justin Martyr, Tatian the Assyrian, Clement of Alexandria, Gregory the Wonderworker, Cyprian of Carthage, and the story about Thecla of Iconium. Next, it pays attention to the role of simple preachers, the Roman persecutions, and especially the love and care that Christians displayed to both fellow-believers and non-Christian friends and neighbors during plagues. With reference to Cyprian of Carthage and Dionysius of Alexandria and in agreement with Rodney Stark it is argued that someone who was supported was more likely to survive the pandemic than those who were abandoned by their relatives and friends. It is likely that therefore such non-Christians have converted thanks to their experiences with Christians.

Abstract Clement of Alexandria provides extensive material on Greek philosophy in his Paedagogos and his Stromata. As it was part of contemporary philosophical debate, both works include so called doxographies listing the opinions (doxai) of philosophers about certain topics. In this article, I will show how Clement takes up ethical doxographies concerning the Stoic definition of the καθῆκον (“duty”) in Paedagogos 1,13,101 and the τέλος (the “highest end”) in Stromata 2,19,100–101 and 2,21,129. Comparing them to other doxographical sources (Diogenes Laertius, Arius Didymus), it becomes obvious, that Clement gradually transforms and restructures these philosophical doxai to lead his readers to a Christian understanding of ethics.

Mk 7, 17-23 and its context is a two-level narrative. On the first level, the text is a prophetic critique initially directed against the Pharisaic tradition of handwashing or, more generally, against the Pharisaic understanding of purity. On this level, Jesus opened the way for a departure from Judaism in no way. In other words, Jesus did not teach against the Torah's dietary laws. The second level of the text is Mark's interpretation. For him, Jesus' saying about the food being eliminated into the sewer no longer meant (or primarily did not mean) only that morality is prior to purity questions but also that everything is pure (i.e. for Gentile Christians). Mark, therefore, found in Jesus' saying the basis for the Gentile Christians' exemption from kosher laws. However, it is important to emphasise that one can discover the problem of identity behind the Marcan interpretation. By eating what the Jews did not, Christians clearly signal that they were now outside Judaism. Eating non-kosher food was an identity marker for (Gentile) Christians, emphasising their separation from Judaism. The drawing of boundaries between Judaism and Christianity was and remained an important issue in early Christianity. Whether they interpreted the kosher laws allegorically (Barnabas, Clement of Alexandria) or accepted their literal meaning (Justin), the common theological position was that the kosher laws (Lev 11), as interpreted by Judaism, were not valid for Christians. However, the practice was sometimes quite different from theological thinking: the extent to which the dietary laws applied to Gentile Christian communities was and remains a serious problem.

Abstract: The current terminus ante quem for the Epistle of James is the third century, with the first clear quotations of the epistle located in Origen. Aside from a few contentious correspondences with the Apostolic Fathers, no earlier allusions to James have received any serious consideration. I argue that an earlier reference should in fact be detected in Origen’s predecessor, Clement of Alexandria. In book 4 of his Stromata , the Alexandrian quotes from 1 Clement 17, a text that presents the figure of Job as an exemplum of humility. Clement significantly alters his source text in such a way that seems to betray knowledge of James, producing a synthesis of Joban tradition in early Christianity. If this claim is substantiated, it would effectively push the terminus ante quem for James back by one generation, to the late second century c.e.

The article discusses the evolution of the concept of religion from Cicero, who first defined this term, to the era of modern times. The concept of religion by Clement of Alexandria, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Francisco Suarez is analyzed. The Greek term “θρησκεία” found in the New Testament and the validity of its translation by the Latin word “religio” (in Jerome’s Vulgate) are discussed. The history of the gradual rooting of the term “religion” in the Russian language is also touched upon (it is shown that the word “religion” begins to be actively used in Russia only from the era of Peter the Great). The appendix contains a translation from Latin of the first two books of the work of the Austrian Jesuit Conrad Vogler (1665–1742) “A Brief Exposition of the Summa on the Religion of Francisco Suarez”, in connection with which a shift towards a legalistic understanding of religion in the theology of the Jesuits is revealed.

The article examines the impact of Plato’s views on atheism and impiety, relayed in the Laws, on Clement of Alexandria. Clement employed the adjectives godless (atheos) and impious (asebēs) often in his writings as accusations against pagan philosophers and/or heretics, but also in his defence of Christians against the very charge of atheism on account of their rejection of pagan gods (Stromata 7.1; cf. Tertullian’s Apologia 10). I argue that Clement, perceptive of Plato’s defence of philosophical contemplation (theōria) and its civic benefits in the Laws, reworked the latter’s association of disbelief with excessive confidence in fleshly pleasures (Leges 888A) in tandem with his stipulation of virtue as the civic goal of his ideal colonists of Magnesia who ought to attune to the divine principles of the cosmos. Thus, Clement promoted the concept of citizenship in the Heavenly kingdom, secured through contemplation and its ensuing impassibility. For Plato and Clement, atheism was the opposite of genuine engagement with divine truth and had no place in the ideal state. Although Clement associated the Church with peace, his views were adapted by Firmicus Maternus to sanction violent rhetoric against the pagans in the fourth century when Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire.