Clement of Alexandria and the Beginnings of Christian Apophaticism [Hardcover]

Can humans know God? Can created beings approach the Uncreated? The concept of God and questions about our ability to know him are central to this book. Eastern Orthodox theology distinguishes between knowing God as he is (his divine essence) and as he presents himself (through his energies), and thus it both negates and affirms the basic question: man cannot know God in his essence, but may know him through his energies. Henny Fiska Hagg investigates this earliest stage of Christian negative (apophatic) theology, as well as the beginnings of the distinction between essence and energies, focusing on Clement of Alexandria in the late second century. Clement's theological, social, religious, and philosophical milieu is also considered, as is his indebtedness to Middle Platonism and its concept of God.

1. Introduction
2. Clement: Christian Writer in Second-Century Alexandria
3. The Concept of God in Middle Platonism
4. Clement's Method of Concealment
5. Clement's Concept of God. 1. The Apophatic Essence of the Father
6. Clement's Concept of God. 2. The Son as Logos
7. The Knowledge of God
8. Apophaticism and the Distinction between Essence and Power
9. Concluding Remarks

Henny Fiska H?gg is Senior Lecturer, Department of Theology and Philosophy, Agder University College, Norway.