Enculturating Christian Spirituality

Clement of Alexandria represents Christianity at the end of the second and early in the third century. He reminds us of the pervasiveness of Greek culture at the time of Jesus that accompanied Roman imperium in the East. The New Testament was written in Greek even though its content was Jewish and appealed back to Jewish history. As Christianity spread north and westward it was received by Jews and Gentiles who were familiar with Greek culture which strongly affected Latin culture and Roman law and order. As one would expect, corporate Christian faith slowly took on the cultural forms of the places where it was accepted and internalized. Theologians can argue whether or in what respects Hellenization saved or distorted evangelical Christianity, but the early appropriation of Christian beliefs into a form of Greek wisdom that made sense in a critical and speculative culture ultimately provided the medium for central and still authoritative doctrines. Greek Christian wisdom in turn assigned values and influenced practices of Christian spirituality that spanned both the Eastern and the Western churches. Clement of Alexandria was one of the earliest and most thorough interpreters of Christian faith in the terms of Greek reflective thought. We still live by suppositions that were formulated in a way that made Christian faith in God something that Greeks and Romans and Mediterranean culture could understand, spiritually appropriate, and live out. We have to consider whether and in what measure these ancient spiritual ideas still communicate to us, for they have left their mark on Christian language and life in our own day.