Laura Rizzerio: Some examples of the interaction of biblical tradition and Greek philosophy in Clement of Alexandria’s anti-gnostic polemic

Taking up an important idea of Martin Grabmann who saw Clement as one of the precursors of Anselme de Canterbury and also as one of the founders of the method scholastic by her capacity to operate an interaction between philosophy and theology (cf History of the method scholastic), my communication wants to show the use of Greek philosophy by Clement and to prove that its manner of using philosophy and theology and/or biblical tradition constitutes for him one privileged tool to fight the Gnostic ones. To clarify this thesis, some examples will privilege. One of those is the concept of phronèsis, quite present in the greek philosophy and in the biblical tradition. Other examples will be proposed, like the use that Clement made of the logos term, of the concept of creation or of the virtue. By recovering the biblical tradition and by interaction with the philosophical tradition, Clement finds a frightening tool to affirm the “true gnosis” against the gnosis heretic.