Aither 2/2009:109-127 | DOI: 10.5507/aither.2009.013

Soul and Intelect in Clement's via eminentiae

Matyáš Havrda

In Stromata V,73,2 Clement of Alexandria outlines an allegorical exegesis of three days of Abraham's journey to the mountain in the land of Moriah (Gen 22,3-4). This exegesis seems to reflect the Platonist epistemological method known as via eminentiae. In the first part of the article, the method is introduced in its original philosophical context as provided by Alcinoos' Didaskalikos and against the background of his main "Platonic" sources, viz. Diotima's speech in Plato's Symposium and the epistemological passage in the Seventh letter. In the second part, Clement's exegesis of Abraham's journey is presented as a Christian interpretation of via eminentiae in which the continuity of Platonic eros is replaced by a model of three stages based on different faculties of the soul, viz. bodily senses, moral desire and intellectual sight, each new stage being marked by the presence of a dynamic principle absent in the preceding one. In the context of Clement's ethic, the transition to the second stage is explained as a moral conversion which involves the awakening of the soul's natural propensity for virtue, whereas the transition to the third stage as a spiritual conversion mediated by the power of the resurrected Logos.

Published: September 30, 2009  Show citation