Clement of Alexandria and the beginnings of Christian apophaticism /
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Oxford ; New York :
Oxford University Press,
2006.
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| Series: | Oxford early Christian studies.
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Publisher description Table of contents |
Table of Contents:
- Introduction
- Clement : Christian writer in second century Alexandria
- Alexandria : the social, cultural and religious world
- The origins of Alexandrian Christianity
- Clement in Alexandria : life, works and audience
- The concept of God in middle platonism
- The middle platonists, who were they?
- Main topics of middle platonic philosophy
- Theocentricity and the platonic background
- Alcinous, Numenius, and Atticus as sources for the middle platonic doctrine of the divine
- Hierarchy or levels of being
- Ineffability, divine attributes and the knowledge of God
- The question of transcendence
- Clement's method of concealment
- Esotericism and the 'secret Gospel of Mark'
- Esotericism and concealment
- Theory of symbolism : the inadequacy of language
- Esoteric knowledge and gnosis
- Clement's concept of God (i) : the apophatic essence of the Father
- The dilemma of transcendence : the ineffability of God
- The essence of God
- Clement's concept of God (ii) : the son as logos
- The doctrine of the logos
- The generation and incarnation of the logos
- Unity and distinction
- The knowledge of God
- The concept of knowledge
- The one and the one-many
- The Via Negativa
- The son as the revealer of the father : the kataphatic way
- The son as the dynamis of God
- Apophaticism and the distinction between essence and power
- Historical sketch
- The distinction between essence and dynamis
- Concluding remarks
- The reception of Clement
- Clement's contribution to apophatic theology.