This volume comprises 16 studies focused on the last extant part of Clement's 'Stromateis'. Written by specialists from seven countries, it is a compendium of contemporary scholarship dealing with major aspects of Clement's thought in general.

The seventh book of the Stromateis is the culmination of Clement of Alexandria's ethic. Introduced as an apology of the piety of the perfect Christian (the 'gnostic'), it broaches such topics as divine pedagogy, angelology, superstition, prayer, assimilation to God, martyrdom, eschatology, and the criteria of orthodoxy. This volume contains sixteen studies dealing with all major themes of the seventh book and the method of their presentation. It includes a Clementine bibliography of the last fifteen years and two appendices concerned with Clement's 'Hymn to Christ the Saviour.' The publication may serve as a companion to the reader of Stromateis VII and as a compendium of contemporary scholarship dealing with major aspects of Clement's thought in general.

The so-called eighth Stromateus (‘liber logicus’) by Clement of Alexandria (d. before 221 C.E.) is an understudied source for ancient philosophy, particularly the tradition of the Aristotelian methodology of science, scepticism, and the theories of causation. A series of capitula dealing with inquiry and demonstration, it bears but few traces of Christian interests. In this volume, Matyáš Havrda provides a new edition, translation, and lemmatic commentary of the text. The vexing question of the origin of this material and its place within Clement’s oeuvre is also addressed. Defending the view of ‘liber logicus’ as a collection of excerpts made or adopted by Clement for his own (apologetic and exegetical) use, Havrda argues that its source could be Galen’s lost treatise On Demonstration.

Deification in the Greek patristic tradition was the fulfilment of the destiny for which humanity was created - not merely salvation from sin but entry into the fullness of the divine life of the Trinity. This book, the first on the subject for over sixty years, traces the history of deification from its birth as a second-century metaphor with biblical roots to its maturity as a doctrine central to the spiritual life of the Byzantine Church. Drawing attention to the richness and diversity of the patristic approaches from Irenaeus to Maximus the Confessor, Norman Russell offers a full discussion of the background and context of the doctrine, at the same time highlighting its distinctively Christian character.

The Protrepticus of Clement of Alexandria is preserved virtually in a single manuscript, the famous Codex Arethae, copied in the tenth century for Arethas, the Archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia. The text was copied from an exemplar in poor shape, to the extent that the codex is full of textual corruptions. The only critical edition of the Protrepticus was prepared in 1905 by Otto Stahlin, who published a revised edition in 1936. The problem with this edition is that the editor was not sensitive enough to meaning and textual problems. As a result, scholars are still lacking a reliable critical text of the treatise. The present edition aims to fill this gap. It is based on an in-depth study of all the relevant sources, including the entire collected works of Clement, since he frequently employs the same locus communis in different works.

Examining a wide array of ancient writings, Brent Nongbri dispels the commonly held idea that there is such a thing as ancient religion. Nongbri shows how misleading it is to speak as though religion was a concept native to pre-modern cultures.

A common accusation made against Origen is that he dissolves history into intellectual abstraction and that his eschatology (if this is recognized at all) is notoriously obscure. In this new work, the author draws on an impressive range of bibliography to consider Origen’s Philosophy of History and Eschatology in the widest context of facts, documents and streams of thought, including Classical and Late Antiquity Greek Philosophy, Gnosticism, Hebraism and Patristic Thought, both before Origen and well after his death. Against claims that he causes history to evaporate into barren idealism, his thought is shown to be firmly grounded on his particular vision of historical occurences. Confronting assertions that Origen has no eschatological ideas, his eschatology is shown rather to have made a distinctive mark throughout his works, both explicitly and tacitly. In Origen’s view, history was the foundation of scriptural interpretation, a teleological process determined by factors and functions such as providence – prophecy – promise – expectation – realization – anticipation – faith – anticipation – hope – awaiting for – fulfilment – end. Since 1986, the author has argued for the unpopular thesis that Origen is, in many respects, an anti-Platonist. Nevertheless, the author casts light upon the Aristotelian rationale of Origen’s doctrine of apokatastasis, arguing that its validity is bolstered by ontological rather than historical premises. The extent of Origen’s influence upon what is currently regarded as ‘orthodoxy’ turns out to be far wider and more profound than has hitherto been acknowledged.