Article,
Apologetic or protreptic? Audiences and strategies in Clement of Alexandria's Stromateis and Protrepticus
Sacris erudiri, (2005)
Abstract
The primarily didactic-apologetic and protreptic purposes of, respectively, the Stromateis and the Protrepticus of Clement of Alexandria are evident in his employment of biblical and pagan writings in each. In the Stromateis Clement employs the New Testament more often than the Old and Plato more than Homer as he writes for a Christian audience familiar with the nuances of emerging Christian thought, with particular attention being given to the similarities between a New Testament and a Platonist ethic. In the Protrepticus, on the other hand, he generally employs the Old Testament in preference to the New and Homer to Plato as he seeks to encourage a perhaps less sophisticated pagan audience, partly through an identification with its own cultural and intellectual heritage, to convert to the Christian faith, with particular attention being given to a shared belief (as Clement chooses to articulate this) in the one God.
