Clement of Alexandria and His Sermon “Who Is a Rich Man That Is Saved”
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Clement of Alexandria and His Sermon “Who Is a Rich Man That Is Saved”
Annotation
PII
S207987840024678-4-1
Publication type
Article
Status
Published
Authors
Aleksey Panteleev 
Affiliation: Saint Petersburg State University
Address: Russian Federation, Saint Petersburg
Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the sermon of Clement of Alexandria “Who Is a Rich Man That Is Saved”. It was written at the end of the 2nd century in Alexandria and addressed to educated and wealthy young people who feared that they would not be able to save if they did not give up their earthly riches. Clement argued that Jesus did not exclude the rich from the Heavenly Kingdom, but gave instructions on how the rich should act in order to achieve salvation. Poverty in itself is not a virtue, and money can serve good purposes. The rich should practice detachment from wealth and simplicity of life, and in addition, give alms; the poor have special spiritual gifts, and their prayers protect a rich person from temptation in this world. Clement actively used Stoic and Middle Platonic concepts and terms, but attempts to combine the ancient philosophical tradition and the Old Testament doctrine of redemptive alms led to contradictions in his teaching.

Keywords
Clement of Alexandria, “Who Is a Rich Man That Is Saved”, poverty, wealth, alms, ethics
Источник финансирования
The study was supported by a grant of Russian Science Foundation (22-28-01357).
Received
18.01.2023
Publication date
15.03.2023
Number of characters
32511
Number of purchasers
15
Views
226
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0.0 (0 votes)
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