Tian Before Him—More, in Fact, Than Anyone Before John Chrysostom

CHAPTER FIVE

CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA ON FOUL LANGUAGE

Clement of Alexandria1 wrote more about foul language than any Chris- tian before him—more, in fact, than anyone before John Chrysostom. Like Christians before and after him, Clement opposes foul language, grounding his ethic in a dozen biblical references and a variety of moral arguments. The well-read2 Alexandrian is the ﬁrst Christian to reveal an awareness of the claim made by some philosophers that there was nothing wrong with “obscene” words. In fact—and this is what makes Clement so interesting—Clement is not only aware of this position, but at one point actually presents it as his own view, and claims to have shown that “in a deeper sense” there is nothing obscene in the terms for sexual organs or their functions.3 Yet Clement makes this bold statement at the end of his treatment of αἰσχρολογία, after he has forbidden foul language, railed against its multifarious dangers, and cited with admiration the way the Apostle Paul “lashed out” against it in his Epistle to the Ephesians.

I. The Divine Paedagogue and Christian Manners

The bulk of Clement’s discussion of foul language is found in the Paedagogue, and a few words about the nature of that work will help to situate his comments. At the outset of the Paedagogue Clement says that when the divine Word calls people to salvation and addresses their habits and customs, he acts as a προτρεπτικὸς λόγος.4 The same Word

1 For ancient comments on Clement’s life, cf. Eusebius Hist. eccl. 5.11; 6.11.6; 6.14.8; 6.19.6; Jerome Vir. ill. 38; for birth in Athens or Alexandria, Epiphanius, Pan. 32.6; on his conversion, Paed. 1.1.1, 2.8.62; Eusebius, Dem. ev. 2.2.64. For a modern account of his life, see John Ferguson, Clement of Alexandria (New York: Twayne Publishers, 1974). 2 For positive evaluations of the breadth of Clement’s learning (i.e. that he was not simply posing as intellectual), cf. Robert P. Casey, “Clement of Alexandria and the Beginnings of Christian Platonism,” HTR 18 (1925): 47, and Henry Chadwick, Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition (Oxford: Clarendon, 1966), 35–36. 3 Paed. 2.52.2. 4 Hence Προτρεπτικὸς πρὸς Ἕλληνας, usually taken to be Clement’s ﬁrst work (so Patrick, Clement of Alexandria, 11).

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who ﬁrst persuades then “heals and counsels” and offers a cure for the passions, and in this capacity is called παιδαγωγός. In another work, Clement says that the Word will act as “teacher” (ὁ διδασκαλικός).5 As the Paedagogue, the Word addresses deeds and is πρακτικός, giving advice that should heal the passions. Only after the soul has been cured of passion will it be healthy enough to receive the knowledge revealed by the Teacher.6 Clement apparently never wrote this third piece of the proposed trilogy,7 but his comments clarify the role he imagined for the second work, the Paedagogue. It was to lay down the rules that would prepare Christians for a deeper instruction. That the Paedogogus is πρακτικός no one can doubt. Even to the casual reader of the Paedagogue it is immediately apparent that the profundities of the Christian faith are not herein disclosed. The would-be gnostic longing for learned lectures on the contemplation of God ﬁnds little in these pages to satisfy her hunger. No, here the divine Word speaks not as teacher but as tutor (practically as nanny), concerned with actions of the most mundane kind. His advice pertains to how to eat and drink, how to set the table, how to behave at banquets, how to laugh and how to dress, how to walk, how and when to have sex. No detail is too small to merit attention. Clearing the throat and wiping the nose? The divine Paedagogue has advice. Which designs are appropriate for a signet ring? See Book 3. The Paedagogue even offers instructions on the best way to belch discreetly. Extended parts of the work read like an etiquette guide for aristocratic Christians,8 an Emily Post guided by the Holy Ghost.9

5 Clement concludes his introduction: “Therefore, the all-loving Word . . . makes effec- tive use of an order well adapted to our development; at ﬁrst, He persuades [προτρέπων], then He educates [παιδαγωγῶν], and after all this He teaches [ἐκδιδάσκων]” (Paed. 1.3.1). 6 Strom. 1.9.1; cf. Harry O. Maier, “Clement of Alexandria and the Care of the Self,” JAAR 62 (1994): 729. 7 The Stromateis is probably not this third work (Max Pohlenz, “Klemens von Alex- andreia und sein hellenisches Christentum,” Nachrichten von der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Göttingen. Philologisch-Historische Klasse 3 [1943]: 45–46; John Ferguson, Stromateis 1–3 [FC; Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America Press, 1991], 11–12; contra Casey, “Clement,” 45–46). 8 Cf. Blake Leyerle, “Clement of Alexandria on the Importance of Table Etiquette,” JECS 3 (1995): 123–41. Henri-Irénée Marrou notes, “Tous ces conseils s’inspirent moins de l’idéal chrétien que d’une morale esthétique, aristocratique” (Henri-Irénée Marrou et al., Clément d’Alexandrie: Le Pédagogue [3 vols.; Paris: Cerf, 1960–70], 2:121n7). 9 Apparently Post is less interested in foul language than was Clement. The 16th Edition of Emily Post’s Etiquette has only one comment about obscene speech in almost

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