Lesser Known Writings of Clement of Alexandria: Trends and Perspectives in Contemporary Research

Abstract

Clement of Alexandria is well known as the author of Stromata I-VII and Paedagogus and also the minor works Protrepticus and Quis dives salvetur?. There are several texts by Clement, however, which are often neglected by scholars concerned with Clement's theology: the so-called Stromata VIII, Excerpta ex Theodoto, Eclogae propheticae and the extant fragments of Hypotyposes. These texts have been evaluated as Clement's masterpiece by certain scholars while others perceive them as strange and dissonant to Clement's "standard" theology represented by Stromata and Paedagogus. There were even opinions in the past claiming that these texts represent heretical ideas of a too young or too old Clement. The aim of this paper is to present these works in the light of contemporary scholarship and encourage a reading of these texts as valuable evidence of early Christian (orthodox and heterodox) biblical hermeneutics.