03-10-2008, 06:10 PM | #1 | |
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Apotheosis and Clement of Alexandria
Apotheosis (humans becoming gods) is an important part of my current research. I stumbled across this yesterday.
ναί φημι, ὁ λόγος ὁ τοῦ θεοῦ ἄνθρωπος γενόμενος, ἵνα δὴ καὶ σὺ παρὰ ἀνθρώπου μάθῃς, πῇ ποτε ἄρα ἄνθρωπος γένηται θεός Quote:
One of my favorite of his tracts is "The Rich Man's Salvation" where he explains (to the relief, I'm sure, of the rich who had begun to accept Christianity in big numbers) that the story of the Rich Young Man (Mark 10.17-25) was symbolic - not literal. Jesus doesn't really want us to sell all our stuff. Instead, he wants us to get rid of our wants and greed and lust. Those are our only "possessions." Everything else belongs to God, so we should hold onto the good stuff (houses, money, etc.) Indeed, if we give too much to the poor, we can't do very much good and we just end up wishing we had more stuff - both sins. So, jet the bad desires and keep the nice possessions. It's as fine of a piece of rationalization as you'll ever read.
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I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. - Epitaph of Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) Last edited by Solon; 03-10-2008 at 06:22 PM. Reason: citation |
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03-10-2008, 06:18 PM | #2 | |
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Quote:
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03-10-2008, 06:23 PM | #3 |
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Sorry - I forgot to put the citation in. I edited the post.
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I hope for nothing. I fear nothing. I am free. - Epitaph of Nikos Kazantzakis (1883-1957) |
03-10-2008, 06:34 PM | #4 |
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That's a wonderful quote. I love the vernacular too. I warn you, however, that Clement is the very essence of what FARMS would call an agent of the Great Apostasy.
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Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster |
03-10-2008, 08:26 PM | #5 | ||
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----------- I don't think FARMS is monothilic about this. For example, in the recently published FARMs book, Early Christians in Disarray, Noel B. Reynolds (a big name in FARMS) writes the following: Quote:
To stay on topic: nice find Solon. Last edited by pelagius; 03-10-2008 at 08:30 PM. |
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03-11-2008, 03:36 AM | #6 |
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you don't know what you're talking about. FARMS always quotes stuff like this to support their contention that deification was taught in the early church.
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03-11-2008, 04:04 AM | #7 | |
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"He united Greek philosophical traditions with Christian doctrine and valued gnosis that with communion for all people could be held by common Christians. He developed a Christian Platonism.[1] Like Origen, he arose from Alexandria's Catechical School and was well versed in pagan literature.[1] Origen succeeded Clement as head of the school.[1] Clement is counted as one of the early Church Fathers." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clement_of_Alexandria
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Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster |
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03-11-2008, 04:11 AM | #8 |
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Chino, you're a dumb ass.
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Interrupt all you like. We're involved in a complicated story here, and not everything is quite what it seems to be. —Paul Auster |
03-11-2008, 05:05 AM | #9 | |
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There is a decent review of the book here: http://www.timesandseasons.org/?p=2783 Last edited by pelagius; 03-11-2008 at 05:09 AM. |
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03-11-2008, 05:10 AM | #10 |
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And to bring the discussion back to Clement, here is a link to an article by Reynolds about Hellenization and Clement. He essentially argues that Greek Philosophy was a tool that Christians used to cope with the effects of the apostasy and he uses Clement as an example.
http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/disp...nsights&id=220 Last edited by pelagius; 03-11-2008 at 05:30 AM. |
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