Redemptive Almsgiving and Economic Stratification in 2 Clement

It has been suggested that 2 Clem., like other nascent Christian texts that promote the redemptive significance of almsgiving, reflects a social situation in which "wealthy" Christians are challenged to donate money to "poor" believers. In light of recent research on poverty in antiquity, however, this essay contends that 2 Clem. does not simply exhort prosperous Christians to display active, charitable concern for passive, impoverished believers. Instead, the exhortation for readers to participate in ἐλεημοσύνη in 2 Clem. 16.1-4 functions as an invitation for all believers to practice mutual assistance within the "church of life"

(2 Clem. 14.2).

With its assertion that "almsgiving lightens the burden of sin" (2 Clem. 16.4 [LCL 24:190]), the anonymous homily known as 2 Clement is an important witness to the developing tradition of redemptive almsgiving in early Christianity.¹ The term "redemptive almsgiving" refers to the notion that providing material assistance to the needy redeems (or cancels, or cleanses) sin, a conception that demonstrates the close connection between economics and theology in many early Christian texts. Aside from the writer of 2 Clem., advocates of redemptive almsgiving include such documents and authors as the Didache (4.5-8), the Epistle of Barnabas (19.9-12), Clement of Alexandria (Quis div. 31-32), Cyprian (Eleem.), Ambrose (Hel. 20, 76), and Augustine (Enchir. 69-70), among others.²

It has been suggested that 2 Clem., like other nascent Christian texts that promote the soteriological significance of almsgiving, reflects a social situation in which "wealthy" Christians are challenged to "forsake their love of money and show compassion for their poor brethren."³ Indeed, according to Roman Garrison's reconstruction of the context of 2 Clem. , the document is a homily written by a Corinthian elder and addressed specifically to a "wealthy faction" of the congregation in Corinth in the wake of discord between "rich Christians" and "their poorer brethren," a socio-economic division between rich and poor Corinthian believers that goes back to the original Pauline community. The author of 2 Clem., in Garrison's view, "was quite disturbed that this [wealthy faction] had grown materialistic and worldly; they loved money and pleasure. They were guilty of sexual misconduct." Therefore, according to Garrison, the appeal to redemptive almsgiving found in 2 Clem. 16 serves two related functions:

First, it provides a means to redeem post-baptismal sin. As an act of repentance it merits forgiveness; as an act of love it covers a multitude of sins. And secondly, the love which inspires almsgiving will promote reconciliation between the rich and poor factions of the Corinthian church. Through the giving of alms the wealthy will show their love for their brothers and will begin to free themselves from the love of money and a desire for the things of the world.⁴

Thus, a top-down model of financial redistribution channels resources from wealthy members of the congregation to poor (or poorer) believers with the aim of producing social harmony among these two fractious groups.

It is the contention of this essay, however, that such a perspective tends to rely on and reinforce the binary stratification of "rich/poor" typically found among (elite) ancient authors. Recent research on poverty in the Roman Empire has emphasized the need to move beyond binary categories by attempting to develop more nuanced models of economic stratification in antiquity. In light of this work, I aim to challenge the understanding that the discussion of alms in 2 Clem. 16.1-4 is directed specifically at "wealthy" Christians. I shall argue that, in a move paralleled among several other early Christian texts, 2 Clem. does not simply exhort prosperous Christians to display active, charitable concern for passive, impoverished believers. The exhortation for readers to participate in ἐλεημοσύνη in 2 Clem. 16.1-4 is not limited to a select group of affluent believers among the audience. Instead, in its rhetorical context the discussion of redemptive almsgiving in 2 Clem. 16 functions as an invitation for all believers, perhaps even those living at or near subsistence level, to practice mutual assistance within the "church...