Kamala Parel-Nuttall - Clement of Alexandria's Ideal Christian Wife

This paper explores Clement of Alexandria’s rhetorical representation of the ideal Christian wife in his Paidagogos and Stromateis. Weaving together strands drawn from the Biblical and Greek moralist traditions, Clement presents Christian wifely virtue and behaviour as tangible and legitimate antidotes to the depravity of wealthy Alexandrian society. While Clement’s literary construction offers little evidence of the historical lives of the wives in his community, nevertheless it allows us to glimpse the social context to which he is responding. Clement’s ideal wife is central to his claim of Christian moral superiority. Christian moral rectitude is publically displayed in the behaviour and comportment of Christian wives. Clement’s representation of the ideal wife can therefore be seen as part of his larger endeavour to construct a distinct identity for his Christian community – one which consciously set itself apart from the cosmopolitan, commercial culture of late second and early third century Alexandria.