The Pseudo-Clementine Tradition: The Hermeneutics of Late-Ancient Sophistic Christianity

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Benjamin M. J. De Vos (Ghent University)

The Pseudo-Clementine Tradition

The Hermeneutics of Late-Ancient Sophistic Christianity

Benjamin M. J. De Vos (Ghent University)

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English

Cambridge University Press
16 October 2025

Literature: history & criticism; History of religion; New Testaments

Series: Elements in Early Christian Literature

This Element, through detailed example, scrutinizes the exact nature of Christian storytelling in the case of the Greek Pseudo-Clementines, or Klementia, and examines what exactly is involved in the correct interpretation of this Christian prose fiction as a redefined pepaideumenos. In the act of such reconsideration of paideia, Greek cultural capital, and the accompanying reflections on prose literature and fiction, it becomes clear that the Klementinist exploits certain cases of intertextual and meta-literary reflections on the Greek novelistic fiction, such as Chariton's Chaereas and Callirhoe and Achilles Tatius' Leucippe and Cleitophon, in order to evoke these reconsiderations of storytelling, interpretive hermeneutics, and one's role as a culturally Greek reader pepaideumenos. This Element argues that the Klementia bears witness to a rich, dynamic, and Sophistic context in which reflections on paideia, dynamics regarding Greek identity, and literary production were neatly intertwined with reflections on reading and interpreting truth and fiction.

By: Benjamin M. J. De Vos (Ghent University)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Weight: 161g
ISBN: 9781009506687
ISBN 10: 1009506684
Series: Elements in Early Christian Literature
Pages: 102
Publication Date: 16 October 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active

From Clement's Distress …; … to Scholarly Distress: Our Sincere Apologies!; Objectives of This Element; Klementia: Editions, Translations, Concordances; Earlier Attitudes Towards the Klementia as Work of Narrative Prose; The Fourth-Century Klementinist; The Klementia as Original Greek Novelistic Prose?; The Process of Ἀφελληνισθῆναι; Meta-Literary Tensions Regarding ἀφελληνισθῆναι: How (Not) to Read as a Greek; The Hermeneutics of the Reader's Identity: Ἀφελληνισθῆναι as 'Re-Hellenisation'; Ἀφελληνισθῆναι and the Dynamics of Sophistic Christianity; Some Concluding Reflections on Future Scholarship; Bibliography.