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Clement Ce Alexandria's Logos Pr0trept1k0s: the Protreptics Oe Love

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Clement Ce Alexandria's Logos Pr0trept1k0s: the Protreptics Oe Love CLEMENT CE ALEXANDRIA'S LOGOS PR0TREPT1K0S: THE PROTREPTICS OE LOVE Andrew H©£er, O.P. Indeed, the heavenly and truly divine ems comes to people in this urge you to he saved ؟ way What am 1 exhorting you to do1 Christ wants this, in one word, he freely grants you h£e 1 Thts selection from Clement of Alexandria'sProtreptikos indicates the intent of this greatest protreptic work of second-century Christianity, a work still relevant for evangelization as witnessed by the first paragraph of the 2013 papal encyclical Lumen Fidei} Clement exhorts the nations to accept salva- Andrew Hofer,o p, Dominican House ofStudies,487 Michigan Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20017. E-mail. andrew.hofer@opeast org 1 Prot 11117 2-3 I have used Clementis Alexandrim Protrepticus, ed M ^rcovich. Sup- plements to Vigihae Chrishanae Texts and Studies of Early Christian Elfe and Eanguage, vol 34 (Eeiden EJ Brill, 1995) See Marcovieh's prefaee for the brief description of die principles of his edition (vil) 1 have also benefited from the text of Claude Mondesert, s j , Le Protreptique, Sources Chrétiennes vol 2, 2nd ed (Paris Cerf, 1949), available in print and through the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae For translations, 1 have consulted that French transía- tion as well as Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol 2, American reprint (Grand Rapids Eerdmans, 1994), 171-206 and G w Butterworth, Clement of Alexandria, Eoeb Classical Elbrary (Cambridge, MA Fiarvard EJmversity Press, 1939), 2-263, but with their assistance 1 have rendered my own translations of quoted materials from Clement 2 Scholars debate much about Clement, but most prefer a date still in the late second Clark summarizes the opinions "Bardenhewer held ٨ century for the Prétraitas Elizabeth that the Protrepticus was written between 195-99, Zahn, before 199, Harnack, m the 180's, t^erweg, after 195 André Mehat , about 195 " See her Clement's Use of Aristotle The Aristotelian Contribution to Clement of Alexandria's Refutation of Gnosticism, Texts and Studies in Religion (New York Edwin Mellen Press, 1977), 93-94 Subsequent scholarship has not moved the date later Although Clement's protreptic has some similarities with the extant fragments of Aristotle's Protreptikos, Clark has a more particular interest, as her book's subtitle indicates 498 Pro Ecclesia Vol. XXIV, N o . 4 Pro Ecclesia Vol.XXIV, No. 4 499 tion, the freely given life of Christ, offered out of divine love, while scholars have had an increasing interest in Clement, especially in identifying his philosophical sources and his engagement with Gnosticism, his protreptic key of persuasion in love through Christ has not been sufficiently appreci- ated.^ The Protreptikos sings of true love in a world of false loves.4 Love is its nearly constant subject matter, as it uses the termphilia at least sevenfy-nine times in various grammatical forms,erös at least thirty-four times in various grammatical forms, andagapë at least seventeen times in various grammati- cal forms.5 Yet, Clement's understanding of love has been obscured, such as by a polemic against foe use oferös as authentically Christian.^ The following study exposes the protreptic aspect of love in foePro- treptikos. It first considers foeProtreptikos within foe scholarly controversy of identifying apologetics and ^otreptics in ancient literature, and next situates Clement's song of persuasion against the backdrop in the Roman Empire of foe false desires and disordered loves which conform people to be like their immoral gods. From this more general attention, it focuses 3 On the Protreptikos, Eric Osbern ebserves, "Clement IS s© remarkable for his philosoph- ical accounts of God that his devotion to the kerygma IS commonly overlooked Yet, like Irenaeus, he had only one gospel to proclaim the goodness of God from the beginning to the end, God's saving concern for humankind and the centrality of his act in lesus Christ " See Osborn, Clement ofAlexandria (Cambridge Cambridge University Press, 2005), 32-33 Gener- ally, scholars seem to prefer subsequent works by Clement for their philosophical and Gnos- tic research Interests on Clement Works omitting any mention of the Protreptikos, where one might expect it, include Eric Osborn, "Arguments for Faith in Clement of Alexandria," John G Cook, "The Protreptic Power of Early Christian , وو Vigiliae Christianae 48 (124-1 (4 Language From Jh n to Augustine," Vigiliae Christianae 48 (1994) 105-34, and the 799-page study of Robin Lane Fox, Pagans and Christians (New York Alfred A Knopf, Inc, 1987) Only five references to the Protreptikos are given in Denise Kimber Buell, Making Christians Clem- ent ofAlexandria and the Rhetoric ofhegitimacy (Princeton Princeton University Press, 1999) A classic, broad survey that gives the Protreptikos some prominence IS Hugo Rahner, s j , Greek (Oates L td , 1963 ظ Myths and Christian Mystery, trans Brian Battershaw (London Burns 4 While the content of the song will be discussed, Clement's musical style can be 1m- mediately noted Werner Jaeger advises the reader "read, for example, the first sentences of Clement's Protrepticus they have to be chanted, as was done by the New Sophists of this age, who used certain patterns of rhythmic prose" (132, n 27) For Jaeger, this musical quality of Clement's writing seems to be a fault today "his prose IS often close to poetry, and its rhythm, which imitates musical measures, IS not always pleasant to the modem ear" (60) See his Early Christianity and Greek Paideia (Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1961) For a detailed rhetorical study of Clement's style, which serves his protreptic purpose well, see H Steneker, ΠΕΙΘΟΤΣ ΔΗΜΙΟΥΡΓΙΑ Observations sur la Fonction du Style dans le Protreptique de Clement d'Alexandrie, Graecitas christianorum Primaeva (Nijmegen Dekker ,Van de Vegt N V , 1967) For an analysis of Clement and music, see Charles H Cosgrove ظ "Clement of Alexandria and Early Christian Music," Journal of Early Christian Studies 14 82-255 ر6 ﻣﻪ(2 5 Searches done through the Thesaurus Linguae Graecae 6 For an example of this, consider Osborn's statement "Love IS not erôs, or desire " See Osborn, Clement ofAlexandria, 254 He refers m that paragraph to Strömateis 6 9 73 3 How- ever, Clement IS not discussing erôs there, but orexis Most famously concerning an extended argument against erôs, see Anders Nygren, Agape and Eros, trans Philip s Watson (New (Row, 1969 ظ York Harper 500 Andrew Hofer, O.P. on Christ as the New Song, the Bridegroom who pours out God's love on the whole world, deifying people in that love. Following this, it offers an analysis of the text's final chapter and then a consideration of the key term of philanthröpia, a term too little appreciated in Anders Nygren's classic Agape and Eros, before drawing its conclusion. By studying foe protreptics of love, we find that Clement sets Chris- tian salvation as foe surpassingly beautiful goal given by God who through foeLogos shows his love for creation/Philanthröpia moves foe audience to choose between what is least desirable and what is most desirable, judgment and grace—a form of foe ancient decision between two ways. Clement offers himself as foe exemplar: "As for me, 1 do not consider it a matter to doubt which of these is better. No, it is not permit- ted to compare life with destruction."8 This model can still teach about foe ^rsuasiveness of love for salvation today. PROTREPTIKOS WITHIN PROTREPTIC LITERATURE- RE-CONTEXTUALIZING CLEMENT'S SGNG OF LOVE Claude Mondésert, S.J., introduces his edition of foeProtreptikos with this description of its author: "Among foe 'Greek Fathers,' Clement is without contest one of foe most alluring [séduisants]."9 This descrip- tion is quite appropriate for foe author of a work whose genre,logos foe protreptikos, offers an exhortation in persuasion to attract an audience. Before looking in detail at Clement's work, it would be beneficial te situ- ate Clement in the second-century context and assess how he continues and transforms an intellectual engagement of Christians with the other peoples of foe Roman Empire. It is customary to group foe Christian writers after foe "apostolic fa- term, some historians neatly group وﻟﻪthers" as foe "apologists." With together a collection of quite different authors and their texts. By doing so, they identify the second half of foe second century as a time for accused Christians to defend their actions before imperial officials. A Eusebian interpretation of martyrdom can then accompany apologetics as foe other side of foe same coin.™ Marfyrdom and apology both show that Chris­ 7 Henry Chadw^k perceptively writes, "The cnntent of his [Clement's] doctrine of Cod IS in fact the divine love and goodness manifest m Christ and going back to the Creation " See his Early Christian Thought and the Classical Tradition Studies in Justin, Clement, and Origen (Oxford Clarendon Press, 1966), 57 8 Prot 12 123 2 9 Mondésert, Le Protreptique, 5 He goes on to bemoan that Clement IS not well known 10 By Eusebian interpretation, 1 mean that martyrdom serves the Interest of political theology-the Christian faith's confrontation of a non-Christian Empire Note especially foe Pro Ecclesia Vol.XXIV, No. 4 501 tians are on the defensive. Although this interpretation of history still has great currency, Christians in the second century used the distinctive protreptikos with more frequency (and perhaps more success) than has been appreciated. Recent scholarship has reopened the questions of what apologetic and protreptic discourses preserved from early Christianity were meant to do.11 The following argues, in conversation with opposing and complementary scholarship, that Clement should be situated within the protreptic context. Annewies van den Hoek studies both the apologetic and the protrep- tic in an essay devoted to Clement.
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