R.A. Baker
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Chapter Downloads Chapter 1  Introduction Chapter 2  The Origins of Christian theoria Chapter 3  Technical Aspects of theoria Chapter 4  Theoria: Final Stage in the Spiritual Pathway Chapter 5  The Practical Aspects of theoria Chapter 6  Conclusion Addendum  Appendices, Bibliography

(You can now download the PDF of my Ph.D. Thesis, University of St Andrews - March 2001) I will present various sections of my research in summary form with very few citations. PDF files of each chapter can be downloaded above - these represent the "official" work with page numbers and footnotes - these should be used if you plan to cite this work.

Clement of Alexandria
Chapter 3 - Introduction

The survey of theoria helps us to understand the development of the word up until the time of Clement. We acknowledged that Clement's use of the word represents a further development from an intellectual "seeing" to something different, a spiritual "seeing," or contemplation. In this chapter we want to look at several categories which occur in Clement's use of theoria: apophaticism, or the via negativa, apatheia (the absence of all passions), musterion (the concept of mystery), epopteia (the mystic vision of the soul), and a few categories which are associated with the ascent of the gnostic soul into the heavenly realms.

Because the scholarly focus is usually on Clement's theology or philosophy, these categories tend to be examined in that context. There has been very little discussion on how these categories relate to Clement's concept of theoria. We will examine each category first by offering a general discussion of the word/concept, then by looking at its frequency and use with our key term. We will look closely at the most crucial texts where both words/concepts occur; using this method we should be able to detect how important each category is in Clement's overall scheme of theoria.

It must be remembered that some of these categories are represented in Stromateis with very little data. In these instances caution must be used in the discussion in order not to give undue attention or importance to a category which Clement himself has not sufficiently addressed.

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