Clement of Alexandria on Trial

A specialist in early Christianity and neplatonism, Ashwin-Seijkowski (U. of Chichester, England) has expanded the final chapter of his 2008 Clement of Alexandria into a separate independent study. In order to illuminate otherwise unknown aspects of the second century theologian, he explores concepts from his lost work Hypotyposeis as summarized in the 109th codex of Photios' (c.820-893 CE) Bibliotheca. In particular, he looks for evidence in Clement's extant work of the eight controversial heretical opinions that Photo outlined briefly without extensive quotation. Arranged in sections on metaphysics, logos-theology, and anthropology, they are the existence of eternal matter and the eternity of ideas, belief in many worlds before Adam was created, two logoi of the father, the assumption that the Son of God is a creature, the docetic view of Christ, the transmigration of souls, the creation of Eve from Adam in a blasphemous and shameful way, and sexual encounters of angels with human women and the children conceived. Annotation c2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Piotr Ashwin-Siejkowski, PhD in Ancient Philosophy, University of Warsaw, is an Associate Lecturer at the University of Chichester (UK). He has published on Clement of Alexandria (Clement of Alexandria. A Project of Christian Perfection, Continuum 2008), early Christianity and Neoplatonism.