"Gnostiķis" Aleksandrijas Klementa Darbos - Kristietībasvai Stoicisma Ideāls?: 'The Gnostic' of Clement of Alexandria - exemplar of Christian or Stoic tradition?
'The Gnostic' is one of the most exceptional concepts found in the works of Clement of Alexandria, Father of Christian church (the 2nd-3rd c.). Although Clement's theology in general is not lacking in different philosophical concepts and ideas, offering a combination of early Christia...
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | Latvian |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
LU Akadēmiskais apgāds
2019
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| In: |
Cel̜š
Year: 2019, Issue: 70, Pages: 50-61 |
| Further subjects: | B
Apathy
B SIMILARITY (Psychology) B Fathers of the church B Metaphysics B Perfection B QUESTION (Logic) B Emotions |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | 'The Gnostic' is one of the most exceptional concepts found in the works of Clement of Alexandria, Father of Christian church (the 2nd-3rd c.). Although Clement's theology in general is not lacking in different philosophical concepts and ideas, offering a combination of early Christian, Platonist and Stoic ethics and metaphysics, 'the Gnostic' is particularly uncommon amongst other Christian authors of his time. In this article, it is argued that portrait of the Gnostic, as it appears on two of the three Clement's main works Paedagogus and Stromateis, is strongly influenced by Stoic ethics and their concept of sage. Both Clement's Gnostic and Stoic sage shares a striking amount of similarities, such as denouncing human emotions, emphasising the role of the logos in the process of moral perfection, picking self-control as the pivotal human virtue and making a case for the conviction that the morally perfect individual can in no way be effected by external circumstance. However, this article is in no way intended to show Clement's work in a negative light or to suggest that his certitudes are not really Christian - the intention is just to compare the moral ideals of Stoics and Clement, and to analyse some of the most extraordinary theological thoughts on the verge of the second century. The questions of what it means to be truly virtuous and what is the way to moral perfection do remain current even in the twenty-first century, when the ideas of impassivity and abandonment of any emotions may seem distant to most of the population. Examining the Stoic and Christian beliefs and logic that pertains to the topic can provide a new perspective to anyone concerned with the fundamental questions of life. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Cel̜š
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.22364/cl.70.03 |