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Making Christians : Clement of Alexandria and the rhetoric of legitimacy / Denise Kimber Buell.
LIBRA BR65.C66 B84 1999
Available from offsite location
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Buell, Denise Kimber, 1965-
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Clement, of Alexandria, Saint, approximately 150-approximately 215.
- Clement.
- Apologetics--History--Early church, ca. 30-600.
- Apologetics.
- History.
- Human reproduction--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600.
- Human reproduction.
- Kinship--Religious aspects--Christianity--History of doctrines--Early church, ca. 30-600.
- Kinship.
- Kinship--Religious aspects--Christianity.
- Human reproduction--Religious aspects--Christianity.
- Physical Description:
- xiv, 221 pages ; 24 cm
- Place of Publication:
- Princeton, N.J. : Princeton University Press, [1999]
- Summary:
- How did second-century Christians vie with each other in seeking to produce an authoritative discourse of Christian identity? In this innovative book, Denise Buell 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, she examines the intriguing works of the influential theologian Clement of Alexandria (ca. 150-210 c.e.), 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.
- Buell argues that metaphors of procreation and kinship can serve to make power differentials appear natural. She shows that early Christian authors recognized this and often turned to such metaphors to mark their own positions as legitimate and marginalize others as false. Attention to the functions of this language offers a way out of the trap of reconstructing the development of early Christianity along the axes of "heresy" and "orthodoxy," while not denying that early Christians employed this binary. Ultimately, Buell argues, strategic use of kinship language encouraged conformity over diversity and had a long lasting effect both on Christian thought and on the historiography of early Christianity.
- A perceptive and closely argued contribution to early Christian studies, Making Christians also branches out to the areas of kinship studies and the social construction of gender.
- Contents:
- Introduction: Origin Stories as Authorizing Discourse 3
- Ch. 1 Tracing Procreation: The Origins of Origin Stories 21
- Ch. 2 The Social Force of Metaphors for Procreation 32
- Ch. 3 Sowing Knowledge: Procreation and Pedagogy 50
- Ch. 4 Defending Teaching Methods with Procreative Language 69
- Ch. 5 "Few Are Like Their Fathers": The Rhetoric of Genealogy and Intra-Christian Polemic 79
- Ch. 6 Allegiance to the "True Father": Kinship Metaphors as Border Discourse 95
- Ch. 7 A Rhetoric of Christian Unity: Christians as Children of the Father of All 107
- Ch. 8 Paideia and the Paidagogos 119
- Ch. 9 Perfect Children: Drinking the Logos-Milk of Christ 131
- Ch. 10 "The Milk of the Father": "Only Those Who Suckle This Breast Are Truly Blessed" 149
- Conclusion: Reflections on the Future of Origin Stories 180.
- Notes:
- Includes bibliographical references (pages [185]-204) and indexes.
- ISBN:
- 0691059802
- OCLC:
- 39556634
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