Research Catalog

Title

Making Christians : Clement of Alexandria and the rhetoric of legitimacy / Denise Kimber Buell.

Author

Buell, Denise Kimber, 1965-

Publication

Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, ©1999.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xiv, 221 pages; 24 cm

Summary

How did second-century Christians vie with each other in seeking to produce an authoritative discourse of Christian identity? This book argues that many early Christians deployed the metaphors of procreation and kinship in the struggle over claims to represent the truth of Christian interpretation, practice and doctrine. In particular, the author examines the intriguing works of the influential theologian Clement of Alexandria for whom cultural assumptions about procreation and kinship played an important role in defining which Christians have the proper authority to teach and which kinds of knowledge are authentic.

Subject

• Clement, of Alexandria, Saint, approximately 150-approximately 215
• Clement, of Alexandria, Saint, approximately 150-approximately 215
• Clemens, Alexandrinus, ca150-ca215
• 30-600
• Apologetics > History > Early church, ca. 30-600
• Human reproduction > Religious aspects > Christianity > History of doctrines > Early church, ca. 30-600
• Kinship > Religious aspects > Christianity > History of doctrines > Early church, ca. 30-600
• 11.51 early Christianity
• Apologetics > Early church
• Identiteit
• Alexandrian school, Christian
• Fathers of the church, Greek

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [185]-204) and indexes.

Contents

Introduction: Origin Stories as Authorizing Discourse -- Tracing Procreation: The Origins of Origin Stories -- The Social Force of Metaphors for Procreation -- Sowing Knowledge: Procreation and Pedagogy -- Defending Teaching Methods with Procreative Language -- "Few Are Like Their Fathers": The Rhetoric of Genealogy and Intra-Christian Polemic -- Allegiance to the "True Father": Kinship Metaphors as Border Discourse -- A Rhetoric of Christian Unity: Christians as Children of the Father of All -- Paideia and the Paidagogos -- Perfect Children: Drinking the Logos-Milk of Christ -- "The Milk of the Father": "Only Those Who Suckle This Breast Are Truly Blessed" -- Conclusion: Reflections on the Future of Origin Stories.

ISBN

• 0691059802
• 9780691059808

LCCN

98034873

OCLC

• ocm39556634
• 39556634
• SCSB-570390

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library