A construção do cristianismo em Clemente de Alexandria: um estudo a partir da Exortação aos Gregos

Abstract

The aim of the present research is to analyze how Clement of Alexandria perceives Christianity in his work Exhortation to the Greeks (Protrepticus), written in the final years of the 2nd century AD. It is an apologetic text, a literary genre widely spread in the Roman Empire, which was used by the Fathers of the Church to explain and defend the precepts of the faith that became popular and added more and more adherents. Due to the persecutions against the first Christians, Clement's apology comes with the proposal to take the word of God to the Alexandrian Greeks, exhorting them to abandon their old beliefs and accept conversion. Divided into twelve chapters, the author is dedicated to unraveling and deconstructing the mysteries of Greek religiosity and then proclaiming the “truth” contained in the Holy Scriptures transmitted by the prophets. With great erudition and sophistication, Clement of Alexandria's text also appears as one of the fundamental works for the understanding of Greco-Roman beliefs and cults, their relationship with philosophy, and their idea of Christianity, in a historical context of which we have little information.