Pseudo-Clementine Writings as Evidence of Friendship, Christian Community, and Polemics in the Early Church

Abstract

This study focuses on the Pseudo-Clementine writings as examples of Jewish-Christian literature between the second and fourth centuries CE. In view of their mutual antagonism and friendship, it interprets them as an attempt at orthodoxy, an instance of the line which led from Paul’s mission to the Nicaean Council. On the one hand, the Pseudo-Clementines introduce peculiar rationalist Christology, while at the same time opposing both Gnosticism and paganism, as well as coming to terms with other early Christian schools. They also use the image of family to represent the Christian community connected by love, in which relationships acquire a new quality as compared to friendship.

Keywords

• pseudo-clementines
• friendship
• love
• church
• opponents
• jewish christianity
• christology