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34 The Alexandrian School 5 0The two outstanding exponents of the theology of the Alexandrian catechetical school were Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150–ca. 215) and Origen (185–254). Clement is often considered the founder of this school, historically notable for its defense of Christ’s divinity against various adoptionist Christologies that stressed Christ’s humanity at the expense of his co-eternal divinity, one with the Father and the Spirit. Following Clement, Origen, who was theologically more significant , gave the school its greatest influence. Clement was the author of the first book that could possibly be described as an exposition of Christian ethics, The Instructor (Paidagogos). In his biblically grounded approach to Christian faith and life, Clement employs selected portions of the Greek philosophical tradition as a foil for his argument for the superiority of the Christian way of life. In this pursuit Clement exemplifies the perennial temptation facing ethicists, a legalistic concern for formal observance of the law instead of its spirit and intention. For Clement this extends even into manners as well as morals. Elsewhere in The Instructor he writes in detail about proper eating habits; “from all slavish habits and excess we must abstain and touch what is set before us in a decorous way; keeping the hand and couch and chin free from stains. . . . We must guard against speaking anything while eating: for the voice becomes disagreeable and inarticulate when it is confined by full jaws . . .” (Book II, 1, 13) Clement’s discourse on eating is more than manners, however. The context is the vice of gluttony and the concern is part of a long tradition of avoiding offensive and intemperate behavior that can damage the witness to the faith. Similarly he comments on proper clothing and shoes, cosmetic jewelry and hairstyles. “Let the head of men be shaven, unless it has curly hair. But let the chin have hair. But let not twisted locks hang far down from the head, gliding into womanish ringlets. For an ample beard suffices for men” (Book III, 3). Here the concern is over the offense of homosexual and/or bisexual behavior. In addition to his concern with issues of offense, Clement, in this same treatise, also gives practical moral counsel for true and just participation in daily commerce. Despite his greater prominence in the history of Christian thought, Origen did not produce a single work principally devoted to ethics. Nonetheless his reply to Celsus includes social-ethical notions that provide significant insight into the attitude of the Christian church toward political life in the time before Constantine. Chapter 5: Selection 1 # 35 Selection 1: The Instructor, Book I, Chapter XIII For Clement reason and Christian piety, lived in expectation of life everlasting and in conformity with God’s commandments, are not incompatible. One hears echoes of Justin Martyr and an anticipation of a long tradition still to come of revelation and reason combining in engagement with cultural context to form a perduring ethical methodology. Everything that is contrary to right reason is sin. Accordingly, therefore, the philosophers think fit to define the most generic passions thus: lust, as desire disobedient to reason; fear, as weakness disobedient to reason; pleasure, as an elation of the spirit disobedient to reason. If, then, disobedience in reference to reason is the generating cause of sin, how shall we escape the conclusion, that obedience to reason—the Word—which we call faith, will of necessity be the efficacious cause of duty? For virtue itself is a state of the soul rendered harmonious by reason in respect to the whole life. Nay, to crown all, philosophy itself is pronounced to be the cultivation of right reason; so that, necessarily, whatever is done through error of reason is transgression , and is rightly called, (amarthma) sin. Since, then, the first man sinned and disobeyed God, it is said, “And man became like to the beasts:” being rightly regarded as irrational, he is likened to the beasts. Whence Wisdom says: “The horse for covering ; the libidinous and the adulturer is become like to an irrational beast.” Wherefore also it is added: “He neighs, whoever may be sitting on him.” The man, it is meant, no longer speaks; for he who transgresses against reason is no longer rational, but an irrational animal, given up to lusts by which he is ridden (as a horse by his rider). But that which is done right, in obedience to reason, the followers of the Stoics call proshkon and kaqhkon, that is...

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