| 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. |
